Soegito was a boyscout before World War II, survived the Japanese occupation of the East Indies (1942-1945), fought in the "Red Bridge" battle against the British in November, 1945, and served as a Lt1 in the Army in Riouw against the Dutch - who granted Indonesia independence on December 27, 1949 - before his selection to be sent for training to the Royal Netherlands Naval Academy (KIM) in 1950.
Commissioned to the Indonesian Navy, under Sukarno's regime, he traveled to Poland and across Siberia to "collect" submarines. The Russians arranged for him to travel by train from Moscow to Vladivostok, an 11-day journey interspersed with receptions at every station.
This was followed by a few hours of instruction, after which he and the Indonesian crew spent another 11-days taking the submarine to Indonesia guided and trained by a hardy Russian skeleton crew.
He also took part in the two simultaneous 'armed conflicts' against Malaysia in the west and Netherlands New Guinea (which was only transferred to Indonesia in 1963)
in the east. He judged this to have been an interesting "divide and rule" Sovjet plot,
and commented on the ensuing bloody murder of thousands of communists in and around Surabaya and other parts of Indonesia (especially Bali) in 1965/6.
Most of his Navy career he spent in Surabaya, where he also helped establish and served for 12 years as Rector of a University for Veteran's children.
He retired from the Navy in 1980, and since served as chair of the committee for Navy suppliers. On our way back to the hotel, we drove past the above-mentioned spectacular University, which indubitably is one of his main achievements.
We said goodbyes, but not for too long, since we hope to meet again in Holland at the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the KIM-1950 class.
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