Vinaya Patil, among many others, cracked the Selection Board Board (SSB) examination to gain entry into the Indian Air Force (IAF). However, the inspiration for the former journalist to become a pilot is touching – her late husband Flight Lieutenant Shashikant Damgude.
Damgude was serving as a pilot in the IAF when he was killed in a road accident in 2015, reports DNA. After the recently declared results, the 26-year-old widow will train at the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad for 11 months.
Patil was working at the web desk of DNA, a Mumbai-based daily newspaper, when he husband was killed, a few days into their marriage.
Shashikant loved challenges and he always encouraged me to challenge myself, and that is what I am doing by joining the IAF.Vinaya Patil
Patil’s determination and its result has made her family proud. A graduate of Journalism and Sociology, her father and her mother-in-law are assured of her success during her term in the Air Force.
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