Squadron Leader Satinder Singh Dhillon (7980) AE (M) was posted to one of the Base Repair Depot in December, 1978. He has been employed as Officer-in-Charge Hunter Repair Section (HRS) since 01 April, 1980. This Section is responsible for overhaul of Hunter aircraft. Although, Hunter task for the year 1980-81 was 8 major overhaul and 8 Cat 'B' repairs, yet it was formidable task because of ageing of Hunter aircraft, shortage of spares, inadequate skilled manpower and ever increasing number of snags on the aircraft during its servicing and in flying stages.

Sqn Ldr Dhillon undertook this task as a challenge and bent all his energies towards achieving this task well before time. He set personal example by working very long hours from morning till late night round the year to cover up slippages caused due to non availability of spares and inadequate manpower. His men followed him unquestionably with great enthusiasm and complete dedication. The task was achieved in full without resorting to cannibalization from post production aircraft and these aircraft are either ferried out to operational units or are in the process of ferry.

This officer made excellent use of modern management techniques like monthly/weekly production planning, production scheduling and material management. It is due to his remarkable degree of professional knowledge, sound judgments and modern techniques of management, that the average man-hours required to overhaul an aircraft were kept at about 10,000 and turn around time of the aircraft decreased from 250 days to 160 days resulting reduction of about 90 days inspite of enumerable difficulties.

Sqn Ldr Dhillon visualized the need to undertake maximum number of Cat 'B' aircraft at operational units so as to maintain optimum operational efficiency of the units irrespective of the task allotted to this Depot. Sqn Ldr Dhillon routed various repair parties to different operational units to expedite the repairs. As many as 26 Hunter aircraft in different units were made serviceable. Two more Cat 'B' repairs were completed thereafter in the year 1980-81. Thus against the task of 8 aircraft a total of 28 Cat 'B' repairs were completed.

Sqn Ldr Dhillon is a very competent technical officer. He is professionally very sound and above all totally dedicated to the service. He is admired by his men for his qualities of leadership, personal example and professional knowledge. For displaying these qualities in abundance and complete dedication to the service, the President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Squadron Leader Satinder Singh Dhillon.

Air Vice Marshal Satinder Singh Dhillon, VSM (7980) AE (M), was commissioned on 17 AVSM 1999 Oct. 63 in the Engineering branch of the IAF. He completed the Flying course in 1971 and has the rare distinction of being an engineer as well as a fighter pilot. He has held prestigious appointments of Chief Engineering Officer at Ambala, Command Engineering Officer at Western Air Command and Air Officer Commanding of a Base Repair Depot. For the distinguished service rendered by him in the past, he was commended by the Chief of Air Staff in 1977 and awarded Vishisht Seva Medal in 1981.

AVM SS Dhilion was appointed Senior Maintenance Staff Officer, Western Air Command on 30 Jun 97. With his foresight, indepth professional, knowledge, accurate planning and perseverance, he was able to provide a now thrust and direction to the personnel at field units. He built them into a cohesive team to work dedicatedly towards the operational preparedness of Western Air Command and hence the Indian Air Force. The officer worked zealously towards 'Self­Help' approach to maintain optimum serviceability of Air force equipment and encouraged units to undertake repairs on indigenous substitution of modules otherwise considered beyond their purview. This not only improved their operational status but also resulted in a substantial saving to the tune of about 40 lakhs during the year 1997-98.

The officer formed “Think Tank" concept and initiated “Quality Audit" programme to improve work culture and maintenance hygiene of field units. Due to his dedicated and selfless professional approach, Western Air Command was able to maintain very high serviceability of aircraft fleet, AD Radars and other maintenance support services throughout the year. During Exercise 'Trishul-98', the Command maintained a very high serviceability of 98% for all aircraft and near 100% for radars.

Air Vice Marshal Satinder Singh Dhillon was commissioned on 17 Oct 63 in Engineering branch of the IAF. For his distinguished service, he was awarded Vishisht Seva Medal in 1981 and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 1999.

AVM SS Dhillon has been working as Senior Maintenance Staff Officer, Western Air Command since 30 Jun 97. With his foresight, astute planning and perseverance, he was able to provide anew purpose and direction to the maintenance personnel at the field units.

During Kargil conflict, the officer toured the units extensively to have first-hand information on maintenance activities. He, thereafter, interacted with the repair agencies to maximize serviceability of aircraft and ground support systems. All vital systems of the aircraft, radar and Nav Aids were thoroughly checked during the preparatory phase to ensure optimal performance. The most significant results of his endeavors was the remarkable feat of maintaining an average serviceability of deployed fighter aircraft above 95% and Radars near 100% throughout the operations.

The officer had a daunting task of making up deficiencies of either Air Armament Weapons or their matching fusing com-ponents at the forward bases. Due to his dedicated, diligent and selfless professional approach, Western Air Command was able to affect movement of more than 2500 tons of Armament stores to our forward bases by Air/ Road.

Air Vice Marshal, SS Dhillon thus ren-dered distinguished service of an exceptional order.