Wing Commander Inder Puri was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in May, 1962. Right from his initiation in service, his immaculate performance as a transport pilot became evident and it was recognised by the award of Vayu Sena Medal during the Kutch operation in 1965. Upto 1966, he had logged over a thousand operational hours to his credit.

He successfully completed the flying Instructor's course in 1967 and did valuable instructional tenures at Elementary Flying School, Air Force Flying College and Transport Training Wing, logging over a thousand instructional hours till 1971. For his outstanding contribution in training, he was awarded the commendation by the Air Officer Commanding­in­Chief, Training Com mand, in August, 1971.

As Officer Commanding of the Air Delivery Flight during Indo-Pak conflict, 1971, he maintained a continuous life line for logistic and maintenance support to the front line Squadrons in the Eastern and the Western Sectors. For this act of outstanding devotion to duty, the officer was mentioned in 'Despatches'. In 1972, he was specially selected as a Captain and deputed to Air Wing of the Border Security Force. He was instrumental in organising the Air Wing of the Para-Military force and carried out difficult and, at times, onerous assignments satisfactorily. In recognition of his meritorious services, the Border security Force granted him an unpaid rank of Commandant during his tenure.

In 1975 Wing Commander Puri graduated from Staff College. In January, 1977, while at Headquarters Central Air Command, he was awarded n commendation by Air Officer Commanding­in­Chief for his outstanding performance and professional ability for over 1800 hours of accident free flying since 1970. During the unprecedented floods in river Indus in August, 1978, by meticulous planning and, by inspiring his men in-spite of the vagaries of nature, difficult terrain and bad weather, he organised 270 relief sorties in one fortnight. He not only won the platitude of over 100 people evacuated from the jaws of death but of service. This performance proved that Leh was no longer a dreaded Station.

Wing Commander Inder Puri's contribution towards sports has also been outstanding. He captained the National Defence Academy Team (1960), represented Air Force for nearly a decade and represented service in the Ranji Trophy.

Wing Commander Inder Puri has thus displayed exceptional professional skill and ability, undaunted determination and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Wing Commander Anil Tipnis took over the command of an Air Force Squadron in July, 1977, when it was decided to phase out the Gnat and re­equip the Squadron with MiG-BIS aircraft. He was also required to move his Squadron to its new location. At the new location, while sorting out the numerous administrative problems relating to re-settlement he, simultaneously, undertook the task of equipping his unit with new aircraft. He formulated every detail concerning the collection of aircraft and the ground and test equipment, and organised his Squadron into an efficient unit for training of aircrew and technicians. It was due to his dedication and inspiring leadership that his fledgling Squadron accomplished the significant achievement of accident-free flying in the first year of its re-equipment and turned out five pilots fully operational and seven other pilots operational by day. Within a short period of nine months of its change over to MiG BIS aircraft, it was required to take part in the Western Air Command Armament Meet 'Arjuna 78'. Despite the limited experience of its personnel on the new aircraft, the Squadron displayed commendable performance at the Armament meet. The planning, organisational and man­management capabilities of Wing Commander Tipnis have been above average. The commendable contribution of his professional competence is that he has maintained an accident free record right from the beginning. His unit has also achieved 100 % serviceability twice during this year.

Wing Commander Anil Tipnis has thus displayed high professional skill and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Squadron Leader Michael McMohan was posted to tactics and Combat Development Training Establishment again in September, 1977. He had served in this establishment earlier during February 1973 to June, J975. In the later tenure, he was initially appointed as the Officer-in-charge Training where he implemented modifications in the Fighter Combat Leader training pattern with commendable results. In addition to the above charge, he took over as Officer-in-charge Development from January, 1978. The Establishment finalised Air Combat Tactics during that period and ensured completion of other development tasks allotted to the Establishment. Squadron Leader Michael McMohan was appointed as the Signal Unit Flight Commander in July 1978. During this tenure, he has ensured that despite the high risk exercises in the Establishment, the Flight Safety is maintained at its peak level.

Squadron Leader Michel McMohan has thus displayed professional skill and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Squadron Leader Sivaramakrishnan Kalyanaraman was posted to Helicopter Training School in April, 1971. Within a period of ten months, he has flown 310 hours and has conducted two conversion courses and two ad-hoc conversion courses, without any suspensions. His excellent leadership has enabled the Helicopter Training School to complete a total of 3844:50 hours of accident/ incident free flying during 1977 as a result of which the school won the Headquarters Training Command Flight Safety Trophy. In November, 1978, the unit was called upon to send a detachment of two helicopters for Cyclone relief operation to Sri Lanka. The detachment, which was led by Squadron Leader Kalyanaraman, flew 163 missions and dropped over 1,00,000 pounds of food and medicine packets to the cyclone affected people. He himself flew 85 missions. During the relief operation, he had to put in nearly 18 hours every day for over a period of thirteen days.

Squadron Leader Sivaramakrishnan Kalayanaraman has thus displayed professional skill, high qualifies of leadership and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Squadron Leader Surjit Singh has flown over 2500 hours during his 15 year of service. He has been a Flight Commander and Fighter Combat Leader for over four years and during that period he trained a large number of pilots to operational status. Since January, 1970, he has flown over 1600 hours in 2325 sorties on MiG aircraft. Throughout this period, he had an accident free record.

Squadron Leader Surjit Singh has thus displayed professional skill and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Squadron Leader Kenneth Oswell John, who was on the posted strength of an Air Force Squadron from February, 1976, to November, 1978, was employed on operational flying duties in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland areas. He was a keen flier and undertook arduous flying commitments at odd hours even at the cost of his personal comforts. He had flown 1,060 hours during such a short tenure in the unit. This is an achievement of this competence as a Flying (Pilot). He has to his credit a total of 3917 hours of flying, out of which 1340 hours were flown in operational areas. His zeal, hard work and high sense of devotion to duty, which had attained for him an above average professional standard, had been a source of inspiration for others.

He was assigned the responsibilities of Flight Commander, Squadron Detachment Com mander and Training Officer with a view to utilising his high flying abilities and experience. As Flight Commander, he introduced systematic working in the Flight Office which increased the efficiency of the aircrew and reduced their fatigue. As detachment Commander, he ably tackled all administrative and welfare problems of his men and prompted them by his personal example, to achieve high competence in flying. As Training officer, he raised the professional status of his pilots by his able guidance and intensive training schedule which improved the overall operational status of the unit.

Besides his contribution towards raising the flying standard, Squadron Leader Oswell John was also closely associated with the extra curricular activities of his Squadron. A keen sportsman himself, he always took active part in the sports activities and, consequently, his Squadron earned good name on the Station. His strong attachment to sports is evident from the fact that the officer collapsed on the field during the annual sports events from which he could not recover.

Squadron Lender Kenneth Oswell John thus displayed high professional still, leadership and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.

Sergeant Raj Narain Choubey was enrolled in the Indian Air Force in April. 1965. He has been serving at an Air Force Wing since October, 1977.

A Ten Ton Coles Crane had been lying at the Air Force Station for the last five years for want of repairs. With its rotten wiring and its unserviceable electrical components, it was not possible to put it back on load without proper know-how and wiring diagram. Local market is of no help. Realising that M/s Tractor India Ltd., the only firm dealing with this type of crane, had quoted Rs. 360/- per day, over and above the air fare from Calcutta and back as charge for their Engineer to survey the crane, it was decided to back-load the crane as beyond economical repairs.

It was at this stage that Sergeant Choubey volunteered to repair the machine. It was a remarkable achievement of his ingenuity that, single handedly, he completed all the wiring and repaired all the unserviceable electrical components of the crane. He, thereby, not only made available a reliable crane, an essential equipment for an Air Force Station, but also effected considerable saving in Government expenditure.

There was a high rate of unserviceability of MT Vehicles on the Station and most of the vehicles suffered from frequent breakdowns because of short circuiting and other electrical snags. In August, 1978, Sgt. Choubey undertook this uphill task. He set up an electrical bay in the Mechanical Transport Repair and Servicing and rigged up facilities, within local resources, for testing, fault finding and repair of almost all ranges of assorted type of Generator, Dynamos, Starters and Voltage Regulators. During his tenure not a single Voltage Regulator, Starter and Generator was sent for local repairs except for rewinding. Apart from saving considerable sum of public money, the delays normally caused due to repairs in the local market were avoided. Prompt and quick rectification helped in sustaining cent per cent serviceability of the electrical systems in the vehicles.

Sergeant Raj Narain Choubey has thus displayed very high professional skill, determination and devotion to duty of an exceptional order.