Defence diary: Pushpak expedition flagged off

The Pushpak expedition of the Army Aviation Corps was flagged off at the Combat Aviation Training School on November 17 by Lt Gen Gurdeep Singh,Commandant,School of Arty and an Army Aviator.

Pushpak expedition flagged off

The Pushpak expedition of the Army Aviation Corps (AAC) was flagged off at the Combat Aviation Training School on November 17 by Lt Gen Gurdeep Singh,Commandant,School of Arty and an Army Aviator. As part of the silver jubilee celebration of AAC,the Pushpak expedition witnessed the Pushpak aircraft cover 10,024 km over a period of days. Flown by Brig AS Sidhu,Maj Arvind Saini and the support team of four officers and six others ranks,the Pushpak expedition was flagged off at the Aero India in Bangalore in February. The aircraft,which has contributed significantly in the 1965 Indo- Pak war and the 1971 war of Liberation of Bangladesh touched upon 39 bases including Pune,Baroda,Nagtalao,Jaisalmer,Longewala,Bathinda,Amritsar,Jammu,Luknow,Gorakhpur,Bagdogra,Tezpur before landing at Nasik- the Alma mater of Army Aviation Corps. Pushpak was a fixed wing aircraft on the inventory of Air OP (present day Army aviation Corps) in 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars and had palyed vital roles in both the wars. gradually it was phased out and was never flown after 1980.

OFD awarded excellence award

Ordnance Factory Dehu Road (OFD),a unit of Ordnance Factory Board (OFB),has been awarded the Best Performing Factory award under the Raksha Mantris Award of Excellence for the year 2009-10. This award was received by Vinay Bhalla,IOFS,General Manager of the factory from Defence Minister A K Antony in an award ceremony held on November 14 at Ministry of Defence,New Delhi. Shekhar Agarwal,Secretary/ DP,B B Kaura,joint secretary (Cord) and S D Dimri,DGOF and chairman,OFB,Kolkata were also present during the ceremony. OFD has got the prestigious Raksha Mantris Award of Excellence twice earlier for design efforts and innovation during the year 2007-08 and Best Performing Factory of OFB during the year 2008-09.

Cadets shine at Vayu Sainik Camp

Maharashtra directorate of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) ranked first at the All India Vayu Sainik Camp which concluded at Bangalore recently. The 33 cadets who participated in the camp were trained in Pune at the National Defence academy. Gp Cpt S N Sharma was the chief training officer for the cadets while Wg Cdr B Roy,commanding officer of Nagpur- based air squadron and Wg Cdr A B Gavandi,Commanding officer of Mumbai- based Air Squadron were the overall in-charge. At the camp,the cadets were tested in various events including flying,firing,drill,tent pitching and line area and health and hygiene. Among seven individual medals – two gold,four silver and one bronze were bagged by the Maharashtra directorate. Three medals were bagged by Pune cadets. While Cadet Komal bagged silver in flying,Cadet Aditya and Cadet George bagged silver in rifle and health and hygiene respectively.

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