AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 307 of 332 "A brigadier was assigned to head each of the ten training camps which they did admirably. We were churning out quite a handful of motivated fighting 'soldiers' every three months and the numbers kept growing as the influx of refugees increased," the IAF veteran remembers. Led by and conceptualised by Wing Commander Khondker, the force that was thus formed was called the Kilo Force. I was told about an instance when Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal, the then chief of the air staff, solved a teething problem of command and control in quick time. "A huge number of demands was placed on the IAF by the army for tackling tasks related to the Kilo Force as well as looking after army requirements," the IAF veteran recalls. "General Jacob was unhappy with the dual command and control of assets in his area; the Central and the Eastern Air Commands provided the air assets at that time in support of all operations in the Eastern theatre." This was causing unnecessary confusion and delays and affecting the smooth running of operations, General Jacob felt. At a meeting with the three chiefs who came to Fort William in Calcutta to see how things were progressing, General Jacob and Wing Commander Khondker took Air Chief Marshal P C Lal aside and briefed him on the same. General Jacob then requested the chief of air staff, 'Can you make my life simpler sir?' Pronto, orders were issued by the air chief and the Advanced Headquarters at Fort William came into being under Air Commodore Solomon Purushottam. Air Chief Marshal Lal actually 'neutered' the Command HQs who were to now only give administrative support in terms of provisioning of rations, military hardware and men as and when required. Similarly, during actual operations starting December 3, then Group Captain Chandan Singh was handed over operational control of the helicopter and transport operations. "It became as simple as that. The army asked for support to the IAF who were placed within the same HQ and it was approved there and then!" exclaims the IAF veteran. During the meeting with Air Chief Marshal Lal, Wing Commander Khondker also requested the IAF to part with the Mystere aircraft which were being phased out of