IAF » DATABASE » UNITS

No.109 Helicopter Unit

Motto : Apatsu Mitram (A friend in time of need)
Date Raised : 1961-08-26
The Units came into being on August 26, 1961.One Zero Nine was awarded a crest, with a motto 'APATSU MITRAM'. The motto means 'a friend to those in distress'. The Units insignia signifies the embodiment of service on land, sea and in air, with the rotors trisecting the crest depicting the prominence of helicopter in all three areas. The mountains in the background signify the area where helicopters are the only aircraft which can been used in a variety of roles. On 1 April 1967, the Units moved from Chandigarh to Jammu and The Units moved to Sulur on 4 June 1987. It was later re-christened as 'The Knights'.
Aircraft Types operated over the years:

Commanding Officers

View in Grid

DatesRank & NameNumberRemarksLocationPhoto
28 Sep 61 to 09 Jun 63Squadron Leader William Joseph Liddle3400 GD(P)COChandigarh
10 Jun 63 to 24 Jan 64Squadron Leader Arvind Dalaya4025 F(P)COChandigarh
25 Jan 64 to 10 Jan 67Squadron Leader Parm Jit Singh4603 F(P)COChandigarh
11 Jan 67 to 13 Mar 70Squadron Leader Kevin Martin5074 F(P)COChandigarh/ Jammu
14 Mar 70 to 01 Apr 73Squadron Leader Nilkanth Keshav Barvey5864 F(P)COJammu
02 Apr 73 to 02 Dec 73Squadron Leader Harpal Singh Bedi5595 F(P)COJammu
03 Dec 73 to 26 Feb 76Wing Commander Rajendra Dev Pant4737 F(P)COJammu
27 Feb 76 to 12 Jun 77Wing Commander Mohan Chandra4889 F(P)COJammu
13 Jun 77 to 11 Dec 79Wing Commander Jawahar Lal Kochhar5796 F(P)COJammu
12 Dec 79 to 25 Oct 81Wing Commander Lalit Kumar Dutta6506 F(P)COJammu
26 Oct 81 to 25 Dec 84Wing Commander Krishan Kumar Sangar7017 F(P)COJammu
25 Dec 84 to 10 May 87Wing Commander Vishwanathan Natarajan10462 F(P)COJammu
11 May 87 to 20 Jun 89Wing Commander Vijay Kumar Narayan Sapre11285 F(P)COSulur
21 Jun 89 to 27 Sep 92Wing Commander Mahadeva Ramakrishna12027 F(P)COSulur
19 Oct 92 to 25 Apr 95Wing Commander Kottukonam Gopakumaran Neelakanthan Nair14295 F(P)COSulur
03 Jul 95 to 21 Sep 97Wing Commander Thankachan John15422 F(P)COSulur
22 Sep 97 to 19 Sep 99Wing Commander Rajan Kapur16054 F(P)COSulur
20 Sep 99 to 02 Sep 01Wing Commander Atanu Guru16794 F(P)COSulur
03 Sep 01 to 10 Aug 03Wing Commander Sanjay Kumar Mittal17472 F(P)COSulur
11 Aug 03 to 12 Jun 05Wing Commander Umesh Kumar Sharma17323 F(P)COSulur
13 Jun 05 to 25 Feb 07Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
26 Feb 07 to 18 Mar 09Wing Commander Manish Girdhar20163 F(P)COSulur
19 Mar 09 to 13 Mar 11Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
14 Mar 11 to 14 Apr 13Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
15 Apr 13 to 29 Mar 15Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
30 Mar 15 to 30 Jul 17Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
31 Jul 17 to 08 Sep 20Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
09 Sep 20 to 08 Dec 21Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan26982 F(P)COSulur
12 Jan 22 to Wing Commander ----------------99999 COSulur
The URL for this page is http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Units/109 HU
Note: All the data available here is publicly available in the Gazette of India, published by the Indian Government, or from public domain sources, press releases about Awards and Right-To-Information (RTI) Requests. Additionally data shared by veterans is added to the page with permission. No data with respect to serving officers below the rank of AVM is displayed. Information in Gazette of India and Award citations and photographs as released by the Indian Air Force are the only details displayed.