Jets and Growth 1948-64

Squadron Leader JF Josephs

March 28, 2015
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 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

    
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 theirwings 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.

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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