Squadron Leader Thiruvengadam Ramanujam (10695) AE (L) has been on the posted strength of 33 Signals Unit, Air Force since Aug 79 with a brief spell of absence of five months while undergoing Inter Branch Conversion course at Air Force Technical College.

Inspite of this being the first posting to an Air Defence Ground Radar Station and that too without any formal training on any of the complex modern systems he was required to maintain, he by virtue of extreme devotion, sustained hard work and rare professional skills has mastered the systems. He has engineered and incorporated eight important modifications in the Data Handling System of which four modifications are of major nature. Some of the modifications have now made it possible to display Pre-determined Routes, Air Field runway orientation, additional beacons, flashing symbols for aircraft in emergency, display range in Kilometers and Nautical miles etc. These improvements have resulted in better and effective exploitation of the system for operational use.

By his devotion and rare professional proficiency he has streamlined and improved the preventive and corrective maintenance techniques in addition to providing certain additional monitoring facilities for quick location and rectification of faults, thereby reducing the down time of the system in the event of failure.

As an officer, he has made his mark amongst the entire cross-section of the Unit. Several sections have come to depend on his skills and professional advice with regard to complex technical problems. His qualities of leadership, exceptional professional knowl edge and skills, his untiring efforts, his will to work at all times and excellent interpersonal relationship have contributed in a big way to the overall efficiency of various technical sections.

For his rare professional competence and extreme devotion to duty, the President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Squadron Leader Thiruvengadam Ramanujam.

Air Vice Marshal Thiruvengadam Ramanujam VSM (10695) AE (L) was commissioned on 02 Mar 1967 in the Engineering Branch of IAF. In his 34 years of his distinguished service, he has held several important maintenance, staff and Command appointments including command of a Station, a Base Repair Depot (BRD), EDP manager of a larger depot and Chief Systems Engineer, RCPO. He is a postgraduate in Computer science from IIT Kanpur and a graduate of Defence Services Staff College. For his innovative modification in Data Processing equipment of THD radar, he was awarded VSM in 1982 as a Flight Lieutenant/Squadron Leader.

As Air Officer Commanding of a BRD, he ensured a sustained level of production around 30% more than the allotted task for two years and received the best System BRD trophy in 2000. He also contributed significantly in trend analysis of failures, especially in respect of VUC 201 (an airborne R/T equipment), and by adopting various remedial measures, he was able to improve the life of this equipment, which till then had a history of premature withdrawals. As Global co-coordinator (GC) IMMOLS project, he was able to sort out contentious problems between IAF and the vendor (M/S TCS) and the software development was completed well in time during his tenure.

AS GC IMMOLS and presently as ACAS (Systems), he has been a key member of Air Officer Maintenance's core team streamlining various procurement procedures and in preparation of canons/directives in the Maintenance Branch. As ACAS (Systems), he is now handling the daunting tasks preparation of Armament Compendium, Life extension of air launched Missiles and Pechora missiles, execution of work services for armament storage on a turn key basis, and procurement of vegetation-clearance and material-handling equipment for all bomb dumps, which are basically inter-disciplinary in nature. In addition to all these time consuming tasks, he has also been actively involved in ling range communication plans and Revised ADGES Plan for the IAF in coordination with Ops Branch.

AVM Ramanujam has the desirable combination of a workaholic and a planner with a vision, a rare quality that is immensely beneficial to the service.

Air Vice Marshal Thiruvengadam Ramanujam VSM has, thus rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.