IAF » DATABASE » UNITS

501 Signal Unit Mad Bees

Motto : Satatam Tatparah (Always Alert)
Date Raised : 1964-10-25 Location : Barnala
Raised on 5 Oct 1964 at 9 Wing, AF, the Units shifted to Barnala in May 1965 operating the Star Sapphire radar. Converted to the THD radar in Jan 1981. The Units underwent renaming to 42 Signal Units in Sept 1982, and became to be known as MADBEES - for Master of Air Defence - Barnala. The Units reverted back to 501 SU in Sept 1991.

Commanding Officers


05 Oct 64 - 30 Nov 64
Wing Commander
Satish Chand
3555 SIGS
Stn Cdr
Barnala

01 Dec 64 - 28 Feb 65
Group Captain
John Dunbar Aquino
1777 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

01 Mar 65 - 02 Apr 67
Group Captain
Churukara George Immanuel Phillip
1927 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

03 Apr 67 - 15 Jun 69
Group Captain
Meghashyama Sadanand Dandekar
3201 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

16 Aug 69 - 13 Jun 71
Group Captain
Bharat Singh
3582 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

14 Jun 71 - 06 Jan 74
Group Captain
Kottavathukal Thomas Abraham
3600 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

07 Jan 74 - 31 Aug 74
Group Captain
Kirpal Singh Sufi
3952 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

01 Sep 74 - 25 May 76
Group Captain
Kanwal Krishan Malik
4335 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

25 May 76 - 09 Apr 78
Group Captain
Gandharva Sen
4429 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

10 Apr 78 - 01 Jan 81
Group Captain
Akbar Singh Bains
4882 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

02 Jan 81 - 08 Jan 84
Group Captain
Om Prakash Sharma
5104 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

09 Jan 84 - 30 Sep 86
Group Captain
Ravinder Kumar
5315 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

01 Oct 86 - 14 Mar 88
Group Captain
Sitaramaiah Pingali
7674 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

15 Mar 88 - 28 Apr 91
Group Captain
Subhash Chandra Rastogi
8999 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

29 Apr 91 - 18 Apr 94
Group Captain
Jayachand Joseph Williams
10188 GD(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

18 Apr 94 - 05 Jan 97
Group Captain
P Singh

Stn Cdr
Barnala

06 Jan 97 - 31 Mar 99
Group Captain
Pradeep Sharma
13777 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

03 May 99 - 30 Nov 01
Group Captain
Ranjan Bhattacharya
13139 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

01 Dec 01 - 07 Aug 02
Wing Commander
S S Rana

Stn Cdr
Barnala

08 Aug 02 - 18 May 03
Group Captain
Rohit Verma
16029 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

19 May 03 - 09 Oct 04
Group Captain
P Kumar VSM

Stn Cdr
Barnala

16 Nov 04 - 15 Oct 06
Group Captain
Shirish Baban Deo
15681 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

16 Oct 06 - 02 Dec 07
Group Captain
Sardar Harpal Singh
16071 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

03 Dec 07 - 16 Aug 09
Group Captain
Dilip Kumar Patnaik
17464 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

24 Aug 09 - 19 Sep 11
Group Captain
Kirti Khajuria
19538 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

15 Apr 13 - 17 May 15
Group Captain
Manish Kumar Gupta
20439 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala

22 May 17 - 21 Oct 18
Group Captain
Prasant Sarad Wadodkar
20741 F(P)
Stn Cdr
Barnala
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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.