GHAZIABAD, March 8: President Droupadi Murmu on Friday presented the President’s Standard and Colours to four Indian Air Force units which she termed a “historic occasion”.
Two squadrons — 45 Squadron and the 221 Squadron — received the President’s Standard while the 11 Base Repair Depot and 509 signal unit received the President’s Colours at a ceremony held at the Hindan Air Force Station here.
This is the first time that four units of the IAF have received the President’s Standard and Colours together, an official statement said.
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The President’s Standard and Colours is the highest military honour for any armed forces unit. The four units selected for the coveted awards have stellar contributions to the IAF’s history, it said.
Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation, Gen (retd) V K Singh, among other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Before the arrival of Murmu, a group of IAF contingents regaled the spectators with a band display followed by a ceremonial parade.
Four personnel, two of them carrying an encased Standard each, and the rest an encased Colour each, then placed them over a stack of drums in a nod to military traditions.
Murmu arrived at Hindan Air Force Station in a special IAF aircraft, a spokesperson of the Indian Air Force said.
The President is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The occasion coincided with the International Women’s Day.
After receiving the guard of honour, Murmu presented the President’s Standard to the 45 Squadron and the 221 Squadron and the President’s Colours to the 11 Base Repair Depot and the 509 Signal Unit.
In her address, she termed the awarding of the honours to the four units of the IAF a “historic occasion” and hailed the contribution of the force and its air warriors in the service of the nation.
The 45 Squadron, also called the ‘Flying Daggers’, was raised in 1959. The squadron took part in ‘Operation Vijay’ for the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule in 1960, the statement said.
In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the unit was responsible for the air defence in the Punjab and Rajasthan sectors, flying 258 missions that were instrumental in safeguarding the forward air bases against enemy air attacks, it said.
The 221 squadron is known as the ‘Valiants’. It was raised on February 14, 1963, in Barrackpore equipped with Vampire aircraft.
Barely two years after its formation, the squadron was pressed into action in the Eastern theatre during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, where it made commendable contributions, it said.
In August 1968, the squadron was one of the first to be re-equipped with the Su-7 supersonic attack fighter.
During the 1971 India-Pakistan War, operating in the eastern theatre, the squadron undertook extensive counter-air, close air support and photo reconnaissance missions.
The 11 Base Repair Depot is a premier and only fighter aircraft base repair depot of the IAF that was established under Maintenance Command in April 1974 at Ojhar, Nashik.
Su-7 was the first aircraft to be overhauled by the depot. In the subsequent years, variants of MiG-21, MiG-23 and MiG-29 aircraft have been overhauled.
The 509 signal unit was established on March 1, 1965, and is presently functioning as an Air Defence Direction Centre in Meghalaya.
The watershed moments in the unit’s history date back to the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 wherein it emerged as the epicentre of all air defence activities over East Pakistan.
A defining moment came with the precision strike on the Governor’s House in Dhaka, orchestrated from the operations room of the unit. (PTI)
