Maj Lobo was com. into the Corps of Artillery. He was with the Air Observation Post as a pilot. Maj Lobo was the first to start the 12-gun battery at Bikaner. Hardly had he done that when, within a few days, the 1971 hostilities began. The vehicle he and his men were travelling in, in a desert area on the western front, blew up. Several died but Maj Lobo and a few survived and were rescued after about eight days of being reported missing. Maj Lobo's troubles, in fact, had begun while he was a cadet at the IMA. One of his close relatives back home in Goa was held for anti-colonial activity. A confidential note flew from the Portuguese in Panjim to the British in New Delhi. The future Maj Lobo was dismissed from the IMA.
His cousin, Maj Gerson R A de Souza, was ADC to Gen K M Capiappa, OBE. At Gen Cariappa's personal intervention, Maj Lobo was reinstated into the IMA. He settled in Goa on retirement and was in good health at age 70 in 2008, when he suddenly passed on. His wife, Maria Mascarenhas, is youngest in the brood of the famous Aldona family, sister of late Urminda Lima Leitao, Goa's first-ever woman MLA elected in 1963 and of Julio Sales Mascarenhas, India's Ambassador to several countries including Cuba and Venezuela. From Aldona.
Source: Pages 101-102
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