| Squadron Leader JF Josephs' Personal Archive
Squadron Leader J F 'Joe' Josephs was commissioned on
16th January, 1954, in the 62nd Pilots Course, with serial number 4668. Joe went on to
serve the IAF for 20 years before retiring and migrating to Australia. An A-2 QFI, he
logged over 2500 hours on Vampires, 500 hours on Mysteres and 300 hours on Ouragans. After
commissioning, Joe served in 2 Squadron and 3 Squadron, before heading off for the Flight
Instructors Course and the Air Force Academy. During the turbulent year of 1965, Joe
returned on detachment to 3 Squadron and saw action in the Western Sector flying Mysteres
out of Pathankot. After the war, Joe was posted to the Fighter Training Wing (FTW) at
Hakimpet and then back to 3 Squadron before heading off to Central Air Command on a staff
posting. In 1971, Joe took over as Chief Flight Instructor at FTW. Many an IAF pilot over
the years learned the ropes with Joe. Some of Joe's other photographs can be seen in the
1965 War pictures gallery. The links are:
Vampire
Ferry
S K Bhattacharya
Visit of the CAS |
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| Squadron Leader JF Josephs started off his
career in the IAF by joining the 62nd Pilots Course in 1952. Commissioned in 1954, the 62
F(P) group photo has the names and 'fates' recorded on the back. Some notable names in the
course include DM Conquest, AJS Sandhu, MM Sinha. When the course passed out, they had
their wings presented by Air Marshal Gibbs. |

Flight Cadets JC Patel, JF Josephs and AS Giri with their
instructor Flight Lieutenant Ken Larkins in front of a T-6 Harvard at No.1 AFA , Begumpet
just before commissioning. AS Giri was killed later after being assigned to 2 Squadron.
His Vampire failed to pull up from a bombing run in December 1954 |

Joe's postings took him to 3 Squadron flying the Mystere. This photo of 3
Squadron was taken at Jamnagar in 1957. 3 Squadron came first amongst Mystere squadrons in
the IAF gunnery meet held that year. Back Row: BD
Bhadkamkar, AK Sapru, Chandra- Shekharan (behind), SK Khot (behind), SK Sahni, KN Vohra,
AD Alley, Raminder Singh (behind), AS Lamba, RS Rodrigues, PL Jayakumar.
Front Row: RS Sahni, SK Tyagi, Prithpal Singh, D Menezes, SR Bose, WM Goodman, MSD
Wollen, JF Josephs, Jimmy Jamdar
|
 3 Squadron was at Kalaikunda in 1959, when Omi Taneja took over as
CO.
Back row: AJ Chaudhary, Raminder Singh, Pratap Rao
, PK Jayakumar, AD Alley, AK Sapru, JM Mistry, SK Khot.
Front Row: C S Chandrashekharan, JF Josephs, OP Taneja (CO), A Sridharan, SK Sahni. |
Flying
Instructors School 1960:
Back Row: MS Chandrashekharan, RN Dogra, Sunder
Matrani, GS Randhawa (?), SK Kaul, NK Pathak, OP Devgun, Syed Amanullah.
Front Row: R Gupta, JF Josephs, AA D'Costa, SK Bhalla (Sword of Honour, 63 F(P),
topped FIS), Major Unidentified, BP Ghotla, RN Singh, PK Roy. |

QFIs, Jodhpur 1960:
Back Row: JF Josephs, AA D'Costa, Malik Balraj, AA Bose, R Gupta, unidentified, RB
Khotwala.
Middle Row: HS Mangat, NK Pathak, RN Dogra, IA Rebello, RN Singh, KD Kanagat, R
Dhananjay, M Banerji, SK Kaul.
Front Row: M Chandrashekharan, BP Gotla, R Mariano, TK Sen, NK Birch, NK Lal (CI),
HN Kaul, Gandharv Sen, SK Sahni,
Amanullah Khan, RK Uppal.
|

Taking a moment off and relaxing on the jeep:
Back Row: RK Jit Dhawan, BS Kewal Remani, IA Rebello, SK
Sundaresan.
Front Row: JF Josephs, KC Khanna.
|
 Joe's students
presented him this photograph on their passing out from 82 F(P). TJ Singh , SK Maini
(Flying Trophy), JF Josephs and RK Malhotra. Tragically TJ Singh was killed in a flying
accident an year later.
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83 F (P) cadets in 1962 L to R Last Row:
Patel, Munjal, SK Singh, SG Inamdar, U Barbara, TS Sethi , Tejwant Singh, SAB Naidu,
Dhongria , Parekh, TJ Master
L to R Middle Row: David Debras, Sidhu, DK Parulkar, GC Singh, JS Brar,
Peter Brown, Barave, JL Bhargava, Dara Chinoy, AR Gandhi
L to R First Row: Ajit Singh, ? (Navy), Patel (Navy), ?, F/L Mani, F/L
Kuldip Rai, F/L Chittaranjan , Chofin (Navy), ? Navy, Gill
|

A rare color photo of 91-92 F(P) cadets with a Vampire
FB.52. |
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