Forty-two years after Indian soldiers were airlifted onto the world's highest battlefield, the Indian Air Force and Army Northern Command paused on April 13 to honour the men who secured — and continue to hold — the Siachen Glacier in Ladakh. Siachen Day, observed annually on this date, commemorates a military operation that reshaped the strategic geography of the subcontinent and set a precedent for high-altitude warfare that no other military has since matched in scale or duration.