On the 18th July, 1979, Major Gur Iqbal Singh Dhodi was detailed to evacuate a dangerously ill comatose member of the Japanese Nun Kun mountaineering expedition from an inhospitable snow covered terrain prone to storm weather. Undaunted by adverse conditions and the flying hazards involved, he took off in his helicopter and located the patient lying on boulder strewn glacier with deep crevasses. Maneouvring the aircraft, flying at a height of about 6,750 meters in extremely bad weather and landing at such a hazardous place required high professional competence.

When Major Dhodi made the first attempt to land, it was thwarted as his view was obscured by rapidly drifting low cloud. He, however, observed that it would have been disastrous to land at that spot as it was located amidst huge boulders where maneouvring the aircraft was not possible. He then made a second pass and, after air dropping vital life preserving oxygen and food, he decided to lighten his aircraft by disembarking the team leader at the Base Camp. The considerable time, fuel and oxygen spent in making preparatory efforts for landing and the growing low visibility due to approaching night, were causing concern to Major Dhodi. He, therefore, made a determined bid, landed the helicopter in a small area amongst crevasses and enormous boulders and evacuated the casualty before the night came on.

In this action, Major Gur Iqbal Singh Dhodi displayed courage, determination and devotion to duty of a high order.

On the 1st August, 1979, Wing Commander Ranbir Singh Chauhan (8136) Flying (Pilot), who had successfully finished most of underslung load trials of various types of Army equipment on Mi-8 helicopter, was engaged in lifting and transporting bridging equipment weighing about two tons. In the course of this trial, one of the four load suspending cables snapped and caused the aircraft to oscillate and gyrate in an uncontrollable manner. When no other alternative to control the aircraft, Wing Commander Chauhan decided to jettison the load, he noticed that he was flying over populated area where the heavy load could cause a human disaster. He, therefore, manoeuvred the aircraft away from the inhabited area but could not jettison the load as the electric control cable got snapped due to heavy strain. The aircraft by that time had gone out of control. However, Wing Commander Chauhan did not lose his presence of mind and, as soon as the load touched the ground, he managed to land the aircraft without any further damage to it and with its crew unharmed.

In this action, Wing Commander Ranbir Singh Chauhan displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 4th December, 1979, Flying Officer Pramod Kumar Jain was flying an air combat training mission. He had gone about 80 km from base when generator in his aircraft went dead. The subsequent electrical failure deprived him of the use of compass and the radio telephone. The situation was further aggravated when noxious fumes and dense smoke, caused by battery-cum-electrical fire, filled the cockpit. This not only obscured his view but also added to his discomfiture. It was a serious situation for a young trainee pilot. But Flying Officer Jain did not lose his composure and working on procedures laid down for such emergencies, he proceeded towards his base. It was, however, a feat of his professional skill that although deprived of all mechanical aids including the tail parachute and automatic braking system, he made a flapless landing without any further damage to the aircraft.

In this action, Flying Officer Pramod Kumar Jain displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 10th January, 1980, Flying Officer Rahul Dhar experienced a flame out while flying a Gnat aircraft. His three attempts to relight the aircraft failed and the aircraft continued to lose height. Even in this critical situation without abandoning the aircraft, he decided to force land. By this time he was able to lower the undercarriage through the time consuming emergency system because the hydraulic control had suddenly failed, he found himself to approaching the runway from too high an altitude and at a speed 70 knots more than permitted for normal landing. Fully aware of the disastrous consequences of landing in such circumstances, he remained cool, controlled the 'float' of the aircraft and touched half-way up the runway at that high speed. Facing again an equally hazardous situation, resulting from fast running out of landing space and risk of excessive braking to stop the aircraft, he made full use of his professional skill and brought the aircraft to a safe halt at the very end of the runway.

In this action, Flying Officer Rahul Dhar displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 11th February, 1980, at about 7.45 p.m. a fire broke out in Tower A of a Signal Unit where extremely sophisticated and expensive equipment had been stored. Within minutes, the entire deck of the tower was engulfed in thick smoke with toxic fumes. While the intense heat made it almost impossible to enter the deck, the thick smoke made it difficult to locate the source of fire.

Sher Singh Kadian, who was off duty, reached the tower within minutes of hearing the fire alarm. Undaunted by heat and smoke, he picked up a fire hose, entered the deck and located the source of fire within a cabinet with panels secured by screws. Realising that the water jet could not be effectively directed at the source of fire, he ran down and brought a screw driver. Although he was almost overcome by thick swirling smoke and toxic fumes on opening the cabinet, he ultimately succeeded in bringing the fire under control.

In this action, Sher Singh Kadian displayed courage, determination and devotion to duty of a high order.

On the 8th May, 1980, Flight Lieutenant Sumit Mukerji was flying an instructional Instrument Flying sorties. At a height of 4900 metres, he experienced a front bearing failure and shortly engine seizure took place. Till then, no reliable statistics were available on the rate of descent of aircraft experienced with seized engine and different configuration of aircraft using undercarriage and flaps. With a totally professional approach, unmindful of great danger to his own life, Flight Lieutenant Mukerji passed on to the flying control the various rates of descent he experienced with and without undercarriage. Despite a very high rate of descent, he through his fine airmanship managed to land the aircraft and thereby saved a valuable aircraft from certain destruction. He also helped in collecting valuable data on the situations that follow an engine seizure.

In this action, Flight Lieutenant Sumit Mukerji displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 18th June, 1980, Flight Lieutenant Jayaraman Lakshmi Narayanan was flying a MiG aircraft on a routine night training mission, where flying is done by resorting to instrument only. This was his third sortie under such conditions. At a height of 5000 metres over Talwara town he experienced engine surge during a 60° banked turn.

He tried to roll out of the turn; when he found that the controls of the aircraft had jammed. The aircraft continued to roll and went into a steep dive over the town. At this stage, Flight Lieutenant Jayaraman Lakshmi Narayanan realized that a crash was imminent. He would have been fully justified in ejecting to ensure his personal safety. However, he decided to stay with the aircraft and made a determined effort to deviate the aircraft to save the township from disaster at the cost of his life. He reacted with exceptional presence of mind and professional skill and recovered the aircraft barely 600 metres above the sleeping township. The aircraft had lost too much height during recovery it was few seconds away from destruction. Flight Lieutenant Jayaraman Lakshmi Narayanan continued to display extremely high degree of airmanship and inspite of the controls malfunctioning he returned to base carrying out left turns only and landed safely. This young pilot unmindful of certain fatal consequences to himself, in his effort to save the inhabitants of township, displayed cool professional competence of an exceptional order.

In this action, Flight Lieutenant Jayaraman Lakshmi Narayanan displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 14th August, 1980, Flight Lieutenant Rajdeep Singh Mann was carrying out an air test on S-22 aircraft. While he was carrying out checks on the control system at a height of 6 kilometers, the aircraft suddenly pitched up with an unexpected suddenness. In this process, the pilot blacked out completely as the 'g' loading on his body went up to an incredible figure. By the time he regained his senses, the aircraft had come down to 2.8 KM above ground and was in a steep dive with speed well beyond 1000 KMPH. Flight Lieutenant Rajdeep Singh Mann immediately initiated recovery action using all his force and pulled the aircraft out of its screaming dive. The controls responded very slowly and once again his body experienced severe strain. His vision was fading and the possibility of blacking out at this extremely low altitude could not be ruled out. Eventually, his will to survive prevailed over the impossible situation. Despite intense discomfort, severe headache and pain in the spine, this young pilot remained calm and unruffled and regained full control of the aircraft which he brought back for a safe landing. This has enabled the technicians to determine the cause of malfunction an in the process many a life have been saved.

In this action, Flight Lieutenant Rajdeep Singh Mann displayed courage, strong determination, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.

On the 12th October, 1979, Flight Lieutenant Chanrashekhar Jayawant was ferrying as Ajeet aircraft from Hindon to Srinagar. While he was at some distance from the airfield at an altitude of 1400 meters, he experienced a sudden loss of power which soon resulted in a flame out. Despite this emergency, he maintained his composure and took stock of the situation in a professional manner. When his two attempts to relight the engine failed and he realized that the usual low key entry on to the runway was not possible because of the inadequate height of his dead engine aircraft, he decided to land against traffic. He informed the Air Traffic Control to keep the run way clear for his proposed landing and successfully accomplished the first deadstick landing on a Ajeet, without any damage to the Aircraft.

In this action, Flight Lieutenant Chandrashekhar Jayawant displayed courage, presence of mind and professional skill of a high order.