Air Marshal Minoo Merwan Engineer,

PVSM Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) (IAST: ) is a military award of India. It was constituted in 1960 and since then it is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order and may be awarded posthumously. All ranks of the ...

, MVC, DFC (1 December 1921 – 31 December 1997) was a former

Air Officer An air officer is an air force officer of the rank of air commodore or higher. Such officers may be termed "officers of air rank". While the term originated in the Royal Air Force, air officers are also to be found in many Commonwealth nations ...

in the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

. He is one of the most decorated officers in the Indian Air Force, with the second-highest civil decoration - the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished servi ...

, two gallantry awards - the

Maha Vir Chakra The Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) () is the second highest military decoration in India, after the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It replaced the ...

and the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the highest peace-time distinguished service award - the

Param Vishisht Seva Medal Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) ( IAST: ) is a military award of India. It was constituted in 1960 and since then it is awarded in recognition to peace-time service of the most exceptional order and may be awarded posthumously. All ranks of the ...

. His elder brother, Air Marshal

Aspy Engineer Air Marshal Aspy Merwan Engineer DFC (15 December 1912 – 1 May 2002) was an officer in the Indian Air Force who rose through the ranks to become independent India's second Chief of the Air Staff, succeeding Subroto Mukerjee in 1960 and ...

served as the 4th Chief of the Air Staff.

Early life

Engineer was born Aspy Merwan Irani on 1 December 1921 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...

Punjab Province Punjab Province may refer to: * Punjab Province (British India), a former province of British India from 1849 to 1947 In Pakistan * Punjab, Pakistan, a province in Pakistan from 1970 onward * West Punjab, a province of Pakistan from 1947 to 195 ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

to Meherwan Irani and Maneckbai. Meherwan was a Divisional Engineer for the

North Western Railway The North Western Railway (abbreviated NWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Jaipur, Rajasthan with 59,075+ employees, 658+ stations and a route length of more than 5761 km across at least some parts of fo ...

,. His interest in mechanics led his friends to rename him Engineer. He was the sixth amongst eight siblings - two girls and six boys. His brothers, Aspy, Jungoo and

Ronnie Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name *Ronnie (Four Seasons song), "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album ''Load (album), Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijk ...

, also joined the Indian Air Force, while another brother, Homi, joined the Indian Army. Aspy, Minoo and Ronnie were recipients of the DFC, a unique feat where three brothers were decorated with gallantry awards.

Military career

Early career

Engineer joined the

in 1940, being commissioned on 1 August. He was the third Engineer brother to join the Air Force, after his elder brothers Aspy and Jehangir (Jangoo). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

as a part of No. 3 Squadron IAF. He was awarded the DFC for his part in the

Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it access ...

operations. On 30 November 1945, Engineer was promoted to the acting rank of

Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is als ...

and appointed

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latit ...

of No. 8 Squadron IAF. After the war, on 1 November 1946, he was appointed commanding officer of

No. 4 Squadron IAF No. 4 Squadron IAF (Oorials) is a fighter squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) equipped with the MiG-21 Bison, based at Uttarlai Air Force Station in Uttarlai in Barmer, Rajasthan, India. Since its establishment during the South-East Asian th ...

. The squadron relocated to Miko, Japan as part of the occupation forces. Engineer led the squadron in the relocation and operations in Japan.

Post-Independence

In March 1948, Engineer took command of Air Force Station Srinagar. As Station Commander at Srinagar, he was responsible for all air force operations in Jammu and Kashmir. For this operation, he was awarded the

, the second-highest war-time gallantry award. The citation for the

reads as follows: After the war, in 1949, he was selected to attend the

RAF Staff College, Andover The RAF Staff College at RAF Andover was the first Royal Air Force staff college to be established. Its role was the training of officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters. History Foundation Following the fo ...

. After completing the staff course, he returned to India and was appointed Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of the Training Command in Bangalore. On 1 Oct 1954, he was appointed Station Commander of

Lohegaon Air Force Station Pune Airport is a customs airport located approximately northeast of the historic centre of Pune in the state of Maharashtra, India. The airport is a civil enclave operated by the Airports Authority of India at the western side of Lohaga ...

in Pune. He then commanded the newly formed 2 Tactical Air Support Group and 2 Tactical Air Centre at Mumbai and Pune. On 15 April 1959, he was appointed SASO of the Eastern Air Command. During the

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

in 1962, he was appointed Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the No. 1 Operational Group based at

Tezpur Tezpur () is a city and urban agglomeration in Sonitpur district, Assam state, India. Tezpur is located on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, northeast of Guwahati, and is the largest of the north bank cities with a population exceeding 100, ...

. For his services in the Eastern sector, he was awarded the

. On 5 August 1963, Engineer was promoted to the rank of

Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

and appointed

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

Eastern Air Command. After a little over an year, he moved to Air HQ in October 1964 as

Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) may refer to: * Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Australia) * Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (India) * Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Pakistan) * Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (United Kingdom) {{disambigu ...

(DCAS). On 1 March 1968, the appointment of DCAS was upgraded to the rank of Air Marshal and Engineer was promoted to the rank.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

At the time of

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Dec ...

, he was

Western Air Command , colors= , colors_label= , battles= 1962 Sino-Indian War, 1971 India-Pakistan War, Operation Meghdoot , anniversaries= , commander1= Air Marshal Sreekumar Prabhakaran, AVSM, VM , commander1_label= Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief(AOC-in-C) , no ...

. For his part in the war, Engineer was awarded the

for his leadership and services.News Article in Depth

References