AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 83 of 332 6 Jaisalmer Diary - The Story of 14 C&MU Air Mshl Minhi S Bawa PVSM AVSM VM Genre: War Diary his is an account of the operations at 14 C&MU Jaisalmer. The IAF's victory at Longewala was achieved from Jaisalmer Air Force Base during the 1971 War under the leadership of then Wg Cdr M S Bawa (4494) F (P). This article provides a "War Diary" style narration of the day-by-day events as they unfolded. WAR DIARY 14 CARE & MAINTENANCE UNIT, JAISALMER 10 Sep 71 Wg Cdr MS BAWA, VM, assumed the charge of Base Commander 14 Care & Maintenance Unit, vice Flt Lt NK SHARMA. The unit still had many Installations under construction and its offices and sections deployed on peace tame basis. This C&MU was called upon to play the role of a MINI WING. The Base Commander was fully aware of the short—comings of the system. Therefore, he started streamlining the new emerging Wing. The task was none too easy as the sections had no Section Commanders. The first and the main objective was to gear up the Wing to the maximum required degree of operational preparedness. The most vital of all these were (a) Ground Defence (b) Air Defence (c) Communication, (d) Radio Aids and (e) the MT. The dynamic lead given by the Base Commander compelled the officers and men to forge ahead with vigorous enthusiasm. Soon the base was humming with activity. The original strength of personnel which was totally inadequate to accomplish the required task was slowly being inflated with officers and men of various branches and trades. The men were to be replaced fortnightly to recover from the fatigue of this drab and dry town, which had little to offer other than abundance of sand and hot burning air. Faster than men were the stores to arrive. The wagons arrived in large numbers, but there were very few vehicles and personnel to unload them. It was a challenge which had to be met irrespective of the time involved. These essential stores added additional risk, as such had to be dispersed in a planned manner. The vital and vulnerable technical equipment had to be moved to underground complexes. Base Operations Room, which had never functioned at this base had to be started from the scratch. The administrative set up and its allied sections had to be moved under tentage. The concealment of these posed a major problem as the terrain offered scanty shrubbery. Regular plan of camouflaging the stores, equipment and tentage was initiated and every morning one T