Military Nursing Service embarks on mountain expedition to mark centenary year

New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) The Military Nursing Service (MNS), a specialised all-women officer cadre within the Indian Army, has embarked on a journey to mark its centenary year with a mountain expedition flagged off on Monday, the Defence Ministry said in a post on X.

An MNS team to mark the approaching 100 years of its dedicated service is taking on a "formidable 6,120 m peak" in Ladakh, officials said, adding that the expedition was flagged off by Director General Medical Services (Army), Lieutenant General Sadhna Saxena Nair.

Nair had taken charge as the DGMS (Army) on August 1, 2024, becoming the first woman officer to be appointed to the post.

"The all-woman Military Nursing Service (MNS) -- a true embodiment of Nari Shakti in the Armed Forces -- has begun their centenary celebrations with a mountain expedition. Marking 100 years of dedicated service, the team is taking on a formidable 6,120 m peak in the awe-inspiring terrain of Ladakh," the post said.

The ministry also shared a video clip showing a group of members of the MNS interacting with the DGMS (Army), and some of them holding a banner of its centenary year, bearing 'Celebrating 100 Glorious Years of Military Nursing Service' and the expedition name.

The MNS celebrates its Raising Day October 1. It is the only all-woman corps of the armed forces dating back to the year 1888, when the first batch of 10 qualified British nurses arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai) to organise nursing in the military hospitals in India, according to a statement issued by the defence ministry on its 97th Raising Day in 2022.

"It was designated as Indian Army Nursing Services (IANS) in 1893 and Queen Alexandria Military Nursing Service of India (QAMNS {I OZ OZ