Meet Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, The Only Indian Air Force Officer To Win The Param Vir Chakra
Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon was born in the village of Isewal Dakha in Ludhiana District of Punjab. Sekhon hailed from an army background as his father Tarlochan Singh Sekhon was a flight lieutenant. He was commissioned as a Flying Officer in the Indian Air Force in 1967. Pakistan Air Force, during the war of 1971, had decided on the strategy to neutralize Amritsar, Pathankot and Srinagar airfields as they were crucial to their plans at the time. No. 26 squadron, based at Peshawar, was assigned with the task to carry strikes on Srinagar Airfield. Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon was on readiness duty with “The Flying Bullets” of IAF, flying the Folland Gnat fighter aircraft based at Srinagar. When his airfield was attacked by PAF’s Force F-86 Sabre jets, Sekhon rolled for take-off as the No. 2 behind his leader Flt. Lt. Ghumman in a two-Gnat formation. The daily attacks by Sabres had caused damage to the runway but the repair gangs always ensured that the runway was never out of