RIP Arjan Singh, The Man Who Turned the Tide of 1965 War
Arjan Singh was the only 5 star rank officer in Indian Air Force.
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Arjan Singh, Marshal of the Indian Air Force, passed away on Saturday at the age of 98 following a cardiac arrest. Famous for his role in the 1965 India-Pakistan war, he was hospitalised in the Army R&R hospital in New Delhi in a critical condition on Saturday morning.
Singh was born on 15 April 1919 in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad in Pakistan). After completing his education in Montgomery (now Sahiwal in Pakistan) and then at the Government College in Lahore, Arjan Singh joined the newly-formed Indian Air Force in 1938 at the mere age of 19. Singh was also a notable alumnus of the RAF college.
Arjan Singh, at the age of 45, had taken over as the IAF’s third Indian Chief of Air Staff on 1 August 1964.
In 1965, when Pakistan had launched its Operation Grand Slam with an armoured thrust targeted at the vital town of Akhnoor, Singh had led the Indian Air Force through the war with courage, determination and professional skill. His team members remember him as the man who never led from the headquarters, but from the field.
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