Those who believe that marriage is war by another name now have the document to prove it, signed and sealed by two naval officers.

It comes in the form of a letter from a navy pilot to his superior officer seeking permission to “bite the bullet”, to which the senior replies “welcome to hell”.

The correspondence has taken social media by storm. Lt Cdr Nishant Singh was merely sending a light-hearted wedding invitation to the Commanding Officer of INAS 300, the naval air squadron at the INS Hansa in Goa.

In the May 9 letter, captioned “Permission to Bite the Bullet”, the MiG pilot reveals he is about to take the plunge.

“I regret to be dropping this bomb on you at such a short notice, but as you would agree, I intend to drop a nuclear one on myself and I realise that just like all the split-second decisions we take up in the air in the heat of combat, I cannot afford to allow myself the luxury of time to re-evaluate my decision,” he writes.

“In view of the above, I officially seek your approval to willingly sacrifice myself in absolute peacetime, completely outside the line of duty, and follow up many other brave men into this graveyard spiral of matrimony.”

He adds: “I promise to never repeat such a performance in air or teach it to my trainee pilots.”

In his reply, handwritten in red ink, the commanding officer says: “I was your instructor in pre-solo phase, cleared your solo-check, saw your landing for first time on MiGs as ACP made me really proud.

“Saw the spark in you and always believed you a different. When you become Qfl cleared you for instruction flying on MiGs.... But all the good things have to finally come to an end.... Welcome to Hell!”

A senior naval official said it was a private communication between two officers. “Finally, the couple have got married,” he added.