param vir chakra

param vir chakra

This one is about Indian Air Force. You must have heard about Param vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration awarded for the highest degree of valour or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy.

So till now, 21 times Param vir Chakra has been awarded for bravery of our soldiers. Out of those, 20 were brave army officers. And only one Param vir Chakra was earned by one brave Indian Air Force officer, Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon.

This is the story of his sacrifice for our motherland.
The year was 1971, the war between India and Pakistan was at its peak. Flying officer of Indian Air Force Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon was employed in Srinagar along with others to save Kashmir valley from pakistan air force attack. Date was 14 December 1971.

Suddenly it was reported that six fighter planes of Pakistan had crossed Indian Border. Flying Officer Sekhon was on a duty at that time. But before Indian planes could get enough time for counter action, Pakistani planes were revolving on their head.

First plane of Indian Air Force was about to take a takeoff when it started raining bombs on airstrip. But still that plane decided to tackle enemies rather than backing off. The pilot of that plane was none other than Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon.

It was really a big deal to rise a plane when constant bombs are falling on airstrip. Airstrip was getting damaged completely. But to everyone's astonishment Sekhon managed to takeoff his plane.

Now just imagine a situation for a second, six sabre planes which are far better in terms of range and attack are taking on a single Gnat plane. As airstrip was completely damaged, the help from other fighter planes was only expected in dreams. Sekhon knew that if he quit at that moment they will do a real damage to our base station and nearby area. And it would be next to impossible to stop them.

So Sekhon did the exact same thing that would have made him an immortal in the history forever. He challenged enemy and started attacking them like a lightning. Within a blink of an eye, one plane of enemy was on fire and falling down. But he had no time to relax as other planes were using all their expertise to take him down. Without wasting much time, he started following another plane and was doing a constant fire. Pakistani planes completely lost their strategy with this sudden and unexpected attack.

Now Sekhon was following one plane and remaining four planes were following him. This whole incident was being watched by so many people from ground. So his further mammoth task was to shatter this plane into pieces before the four others would take him down. Somehow managing to save his plane, he aimed the plane on his front and fired a shot. Before anyone could realise what happened, that plane was falling down towards earth. Now his next task was to save his plane from unified attack of four giant planes. But it was next to impossible task. He couldn't attack them as he was on front. He did manage to fool them for quite a long time hoping some help would turn up. But unfortunately, it didn't.

His plane was finally taken down and that fearless person was rested in peace forever. But he had saved Srinagar Air base from PAF air raid single handedly. Despite many search efforts by army and air force, his corpse was never found due to mountainous terrain, adding further disappointment to his family. In respect of tremendous bravery and amazing war skills, Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon was awarded the only Param vir chakra of Indian Air Force till date. On the occassion of INDIAN AIR FORCE DAY, I salute this legend. You will always be an immortal in history, Sir.