Squadron Leader Raj Shekhar Mehta was commissioned in Administration branch of IAF on 28 May 1983. He is Deputy Chief Administration Officer at Air Force Station Tezpur.

On 09 September 1993, a herd of wild elephants entered the camp of Air Force Station Tezpur and lodged themselves in dense forest on the Southern Side of the airfield, close to the runway. Attempts to chase them out of the camp by helicopters were futile as the dense forest not only provided them cover but made it nearly impossible to locate their position. The elephants caused an extensive damage to the communication and electric cables, airfield lightening and security fence. Since the elephants were very close to the runway, the flying was adversely affected. On 20th September 1993, it was decided to drive them by organizing a beat. Squadron Leader Mehta, then Station Security officer was assigned the task. A group of 35 men was assigned to him for this job. The group armed with rifles and drums entered the dense forests from Eastern side at around 0930 hours. By 1130 hours, it had combed ¾ of the jungle and chased the herd to one side. Squadron Leader Mehta led his men, encouraging them constantly during the entire operation. At around 1130 hrs, he was suddenly attacked by an elephant and thrown on the ground. Despite the shock, Squadron Leader Mehta retained his cool and dragged himself away from the direction in which the same elephant was attacking him. In the struggle that ensured, his left thigh was stamped and crushed by the elephant before it moved away from him. Even though seriously injured, he crawled to a distance of nearly 20 feet, picked up his portophone and guided the beat party to chase the herd out. Only on completion of the task, he called up the party for his own rescue. Squadron Leader Raj Shekhar Mehta after the first aid was rushed to the local Base hospital and later shifted to the Eastern Command Hospital at Calcutta for major surgery.

Squadron Leader Raj Shekhar Mehta, thus, displayed courage, determination, initiative and leadership qualities of exceptionally high order. Authority: Notification No. 92-Pres/95 dated 26th January, 1995 published in Part 1, Section 1, Gazette of India dated 11th March 1995.

Group Captain AR Ambatkar was commissioned in the Engineering branch in Jul 69. An alumnus of College of Defence Management, he has held many field and Staff appointments. He was specially selected for the post of Chief Engineer at Mauritius, and was appointed Chief Engineering Officer at Air Force Station Tezpur in Sep 92.

With his professional expertise, past experience and personal example of hard work, the base achieved high standards. Serviceability percentage for MiG aircraft has improved from 61% to 85% and for helicopters from 81% to 98%. Since the time he took over, eighteen prolonged unserviceable aircraft have been built up and made serviceable. The mechanical transport (MT) serviceability improved from 85% to 98%. Under his guidance, Station Workshop resources were utilised to maximum for improving service ability of MT, Ground equipment and Airfield systems. Major structural repairs on MT coaches and other vehicles were undertaken in workshop.

Under his guidance data on various aspects like aircraft state, snag analysis, defect report and logistics inventory have been computerised.

For distinguished service of a high order, the President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal to Group Captain AR Ambatkar.

Group Captain Muniyappa Suryanarayan Ravindra (14139) Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) was commissioned in the Engineering Branch of the 1AF on 07 Jul 1975. In 29 years of distinguished service, he has held several important appointments of Chief Engineering Officer of AFA, Deputy Director Operations (EW-T) at Air HQ, Senior Engineer (Electronics) of a fighter base, Chief Software Engineer at Software Development Institute (SDI), Member Core Team DIPAC and Senior Calibration Officer of a Base Repair Depot. He is a graduate of the National Defence College.

During his tenure as Dy Dir Ops (EW-T), he evolved the Qualitative Requirements for Electronic Warfare equipment for all the aircraft on the inventory of IAF. He also evaluated the Self Protection Jammer for MiG-21 Bis upgrade and Jaguar aircraft and the Aerostat in Israel. At SDI, Gp Capt Ravindra was instrumental in successful development of EW mission planning system for Mirage 2000. He contributed in successful commissioning of OP CENTRE at Air HQ, Elta Radar Integration with maritime Jaguar & Nav mission planning system for Jaguar & Mirage -2000.

As Senior Engineer (Electronics) at Air Force Station Tezpur, he maintained excellent serviceability of Navigational Aids, SRE, PAR, AF lighting & Landline communication. He was tasked by HQ EAC to repair the SRE at Baghdogra without assistance from the manufacturer, resulting in tremendous savings to exchequer. In DIPAC he participated in the design and development of several electronic equipment for the Data Acquisition chain of Remote Sensing Earth Stations.

Through professionalism and dedication he has changed the work culture in the entire maintenance organization at AFA and created centers of excellence. He sustained for high serviceability Kiran and HPT-32 fleet which resulted in smooth conduct of annual flying training task for Kiran and for HPT-32. Similarly, serviceability of Radio & Nav aids & Land Line Communication, has been maintained very high. He was responsible for replacement of 902 ATSRU antenna, which was operating at reduced RPM for almost four years. It involved identification of the antenna at HAL (Hyderabad), calibration at BE Ghaziabad and tasking of RCDU, Faridabad and MOD financial sanction that culminated in restoring the Radar to its rated operational capability. He guided the unit technicians in carrying out extensive repairs on the DG sets, shifting of DG set from Radar Display site to Radar Head thereby saving huge financial resources. His innovative quality of finding intelligent solutions, selecting carefully weighed options and providing quality output are evident in every task that is executed including the creation of collages for the parade backdrop.

For his professional competence, dedication and devotion to service and distinguished service of high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Group Captain Muniyappa Suryanarayan Ravindra,

Group Captain Gulshan Rai (15969) Aeronautical Engineering (Mechanical) was commissioned in the Engineering Branch of the IAF on 07 Jan 1980. He is a post graduate from the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and has been specially trained in France on the overhaul of the Mirage-2000 aero engine (M53-P2). He has served as a Senior Engineering Officer of a premier fighter squadron and has held staff appointments at Air HQ in his service career.

Gp Capt Rai has been the Group Commander of the Maintenance Support group of Air Force Station Tezpur since 01 Oct 2003 which arguably has the largest population of fighter aircraft of any base in the IAF. The quantum of fighter flying done at this base is much higher than most other bases of the IAF.

The location of the air base is remote and has limited industrial support. The air base flies the oldest aircraft with the youngest fighter pilots. Most of the aircraft of the base are approaching the end of their technical life and therefore, need extra care to ensure that they are worthy of flight. Additionally, the maintenance effort required to meet the enormous flying effort is substantial, which is a great challenge specially with the ageing aircraft and reducing manpower. Additionally, the airbase receives almost 220 mm of rain fall every year which makes operating conditions for maintenance staff extremely difficult.

Inspite of all the daunting problems, Gp Capt Rai, with his unstinting leadership and dynamism, has been responsible for achieving the highest serviceability of fighters for any fleet in the IAF. Through his proactive approach, he has successfully synergized the efforts of a large technical manpower base to deliver, with precision, the exacting demands of operations of this premier flying base. Inspite of poor industrial support and limited access to base repair facilities, Gp Capt Rai has also ensured a very high serviceability of ground signals and mechanical support facilities. It is pertinent to mention here that during his tenure as the Group Commander Maintenance, aircraft serviceability has peaked and accidents in this ageing aircraft have been reduced to nil.

For his distinguished service of high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Group Captain Gulshan Rai.