Air Commodore Shallindra Singh Kaushik was commissioned in November, 1962 in the Flying (Pilot) Branch in fighter stream. In 1975, he joined the transport stream and up till now has to his credit nearly 1500 hours of air transport missions involving supply drop in the Eastern Sector. While he was the Flight Commander in a Transport Squadron, the Squadron was the recipient of the Flight Safety Trophy for two consecutive years. From 1979 to 1982, he was in command of a SAM III Squadron. The Squadron was non operational when he assumed command and was nursed to operational status by him.

During his tenure as Joint Director of Guided Weapons in the Directorate of Air Staff Inspection, the officer single-handedly introduced and formalized On-the-Job Training (OJT) and Continuity Training syllabi for the use by the crew of Pechora Squadron. He suggested the revamping of flying branch officers in Guided Weapon force to have practical distribution of selected and non­select officers in the stream. His paper titled “Protection for Pechora Combat Flights" dealt with blast protection for Pechora Squadrons which has been accepted as a norm. To include the competitive spirit amongst Pechora Combat Crew, he mooted the idea of “Missile Proficiency badge" for GW operational crew. This suggestion has been accepted. On promotion, the officer was posted as Air Officer Commanding of an Air Force Station. In his short stay of 14 months, he ensured that the performance of non­operational SAM III Squadron was brought up to the level of the operational standards demanded from it. With a single­minded dedication and devotion to duty, the officer has made value contributions in improving and streamlining the operational training of Pechora Squadrons. His indepth knowledge of the systems involved coupled with his capacity to mould the varied experience into practical and viable alternative has been instrumental in laying the foundations of organized tainting in enhancement of operational potential of the SAGW stream.

Air Commodore Shallindra Singh Kaushik has, thus, rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.