Wing Commander Virendra Pradhan was commissioned in Dec 63. Since then, he has held various important assignments with distinction. While on the posted strength of a transport Squadron, he carried out operational flying for four years in Naga Hills, NEFA and in the action against hostilities in Mizoram in 1966. He completed his bomber conversion in 1967 and during 1971 operations, he successfully carried out a number of bombing interdiction sorties in the Eastern and Western sectors. In 1972 he was posted to form the Maritime Strike Force wherein he completed 1000 operational hours on Canberras and gained his "Master Green" rating. Thereafter, he successfully completed the Judge Advocates Course. He is the first and the only "Pilot" to achieve this distinction.

Wg Cdr Pradhan is a highly motivated and extremely hard-working officer, who can be entrusted with any intricate task and can be depended upon to produce results in an unbelievably short time. On being posted as Command Judge Advocate at HQ South Western Air Command in Sep 79, he took prompt action to ensure that all the disciplinary cases in the years 1979 and 80 were finalised during the same years.

Endowed with indomitable energy and with a sense of total commitment to his duties, he analysed the offence pattern in the Command and rendered timely legal advice to Commanders in the field which resulted in bringing down the offence rate considerably.

For displaying high qualities of leadership, organising ability and professional compe tence the President is pleased to award VISHISHT SEVA MEDAL to Wing Commander Virendra Pradhan.