Corporal Shailabh Gaur, a member of the Indian Air Force's elite commando unit, Garud, is raring to join his team again. Corporal Gaur is still recovering after taking four bullets in the abdomen during the fierce gun battle that took place at the Pathankot Air Base on the 2nd of January.

On January 1st, his unit was flown from Adampur to Pathankot. Speaking to NDTV, Gaur recounts, "It was around 3.30 am when we were asked to look around the vehicle maintenance area and clear the area." "We spotted a trail which led us inside the area, terrorists hiding there began firing as the platoon took positions," Corporal Gursewak Singh was shot and eventually lost his life in this battle. "Gursewak was a close friend, we had joined the Air Force together and we were buddies," he said.

Recalling the attack Gaur said, "They used lob grenades while reloading. Mortars were also fired at us. Thankfully, they didn't explode." Fearing collateral damage, the commandos refrained from using heavy weapons. Their brief was to secure the technical area which had the fighter jets and the radars.

He fought the terrorists for over an hour before attending to his injuries. At the military hospital, four bullets and splinter pieces were removed from his body. His survival was nothing short of a miracle because there were three litres of blood in his abdominal cavity due to internal bleeding. Six weeks later, Gaur has almost recovered and is raring to get back in action after a fitness test next week.

Corporal Gaur was enrolled in the elite unit after emerging as the best all-rounder during training with the Air Force back in 2010. Gaur says Hollywood action movies like Commando and Rambo would inspire him during school days. With three generations of his family in the defense forces, it wasn't really a difficult choice to make.