Group Captain David Eugene Bouche assumed command of the Air Force Station, Ambala at the end of January 1965. His Station was responsible for forming and training Gnat Squadrons. All the Gnat units which participated in the recent operations belonged to this station.

Within a very short time of the assumption of command, he brought the Squadrons based at his Station to a high pitch of combat effectiveness despite shortages of trained personnel and equipment. An outstanding pilot himself, he imbued his pilots with and offensive spirit.

During the recent Indo-Pakistan conflict, when our forward airfields were subjected enemy air attack, Group Captain Bouche organized both day and night air defense properly and used the Gnat aircraft offensively, obtaining good results. He flew many sorties, both during day and night, and himself led a quite a few formations on offensive operations.

Group Captain Bouche's outstanding skill as pilot and his leadership in flying, administration and technical preparations produced a very high level of operational effectiveness of the Squadrons based on his station. He has thereby rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order during the recent operations.

Group Captain Bouche's outstanding skill as a pilot and his leadership in flying, administration and technical preparations produced a very high level of operational effectiveness of the Squadrons based on his station. He has thereby rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order during the recent operations.

Air Commodore Lalit Kumar Malhotra VSM (13373) Flying (Pilot) was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force on 02 June 1973. In his 32 years of distinguished service, he has held various prestigious command and staff appointments that include command of a fighter squadron, Chief Operations Officer of a major fighter base, Command of a Tactical Air Centre and Director Personnel (Officers) at Air HQ. The officer is a qualified flying instructor, graduate of Defence Services Staff College and alumni of Higher Command Course, MHOW.

The officer has approximately 4000 hours of accident free flying on a variety of fighter aircraft. As CO of a fighter Sqn, and later as COO of a major fighter base the officer had performed creditably in all aspects. As Director Personnel (Officers) at Air Headquarters, the officer had brought about many changes in promotion policies of officers resulting in faster promotions, and reduced adversity in promotion ratios.

As AOC, the officer has harmoniously amalgamated all facets of operations, maintenance and administration, and has created an environment conducive for safe flying operations leading to extensive amount of productive flying. Under his leadership, the station and its lodger units had put up a sterling performance during DASI and AEB. Having earned the enviable reputation of always delivering the goods, the Air Officer was chosen for being assigned the sole responsibility of preparation and deployment of 200 personnel strong contingent for Ex-Co-op Thunder 04-01 at Alaska during Jun-August 2004. The Air Officer operationalised the contingent it all its requisite disciplines in the shortest possible time with extremely high standards. Concu rrently, his station was also chosen as a pilot site for the IMMOLS project. Under his able leadership and guidance, the project has taken off rather successfully, thereby improving the functioning of op logistics in the IAF.

With emphasis on enhancing quality of life of all personnel and families, the Air Officer employed ingenuity and innovative ideas to bring about

phenomenal

improvements

by optimisation of resources and expeditious translation of concepts into actionable ideas. His clarity of thought and direction, and adept handling of the emergent situation created by unprecedented floods in August 2004 enabled the station to recover within 72 hours without any loss to its assets. All this has resulted in large savings to the exchequer. Other notable contributions made by the officer have been organising of an Op Seminar on Jaguar ops, dedication of a newly conceptualised Museum to the station, and creation of a work environment which has enabled his subordinates to work, towards clearly defined objectives thus maximising output. Total involvement at macro and micro levels in large number of work services and maintenance related innovations/modifi cations has again resulted in substantial savings and ease of ops. The officer has clearly led by example and has displayed exceptional op capabilities, administrative acumen and management skills in all facets of discharging his duties as the AOC of a major operational base.

Air Commodore Lalit Kumar Malhotra VSM has, thus, rendered distinguished services of exceptional order.

Flt. Lt. (now Wg. Cdr.) Leslie Richard Dickenson Blunt (1994) was one of the first ‘SPITFIRE’ Pilots to land at Srinagar when it was surrounded by enemy and about to fall. He operated with zeal and vigour and thus helped to throw back the enemy from the gates of Srinagar. In every short space of time, this officer carried out 23 operational sorties against the enemy and achieved remarkable results.

He stood out amongst his pilots for his keen enthusiasm and dash. His bombing and gunnery helped to break up many enemy advances at crucial moments.

For the excellent results achieved by him during the Air Operations over the outskirts of Srinagar, he has been awarded the Vir Chakra.