‘IAF organisation makes you a wholesome officer’

* Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh, AOC-in-C of Maintenance Command, IAF, feels that the strongest point of the IAF is that it has the well-trained manpower with the highest amount of flying in the world

By Kartik Lokhande 

As one enters the office of Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of Maintenance Command of the Indian Air Force (IAF), one is greeted not by a man sitting in his cosy chair, but a fine officer in uniform coming towards you with open heart and hand extended for a warm shake-hand. And, this represents what the officer has ingrained in himself of the IAF culture – reaching out and winning over. 

Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh

Does one has that quality as a human being or does one acquire it purposely? “I feel the organisation makes one a wholesome officer, a complete man,” says humbly the proud IAF officer, who is into 39^th year of his service. And, what does the organisation do exactly? “It inculcates in us three things – Discipline, Honesty, and Dedication. Along the way, in the course of your career, you automatically evolve as a person, as an officer, and as a leader,” he tells ‘The Hitavada’ during an exclusive interview.

At the outset itself, the Air Marshal greets ‘The Hitavada’ with compliments. “Our officers are all praise for the newspaper. They say, the newspaper thinks in the ‘Hit’ (interest) of the Armed Forces. ‘The Hitavada’ is already a ‘hit’ (popular) among us,” he comments, striking a friendly chord.

Jagjeet Singh’s love affair with the Armed Forces started at the age of slightly less than 21 years in 1976, when he got selected in all the three forces – the IAF, Indian Navy, and Indian Army. “It is as simple as that that I wanted to be a Commissioned Officer. As far as ‘Why the IAF?’ part is concerned, I preferred it as the IAF course was starting a week earlier than that of others. At the age of less than 21 years, a young man is unable to make very well reasoned out choices,” he recalls with a good laugh. In the same vein, when one asks him about his rise to the present stature of Air Marshal, he quips, “I have been lucky.” Of course, one realises that he is being humble, and a lot of hard work, dedication, discipline, and commitment has gone into making of this Air Warrior.

Commissioned in the Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) Branch of the IAF in January 1977, Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh has a rich experience in maintenance management of aircraft and systems. He has held various staff appointments that include Director General (Systems) and Director General (Aircraft) at Air Headquarters. He had instructional tenures at Air Force Technical College, and Technical Type Training School. He has been a witness to evolution of the IAF – in manpower, equipment, and influence. So, how does he view the growth of the IAF?

“Growth is certainly there. One may feel that the growth rate is low compared to a few nations. But, I must tell you that the IAF is way ahead of tens of nations,” the Air Marshal replies. Instead of comparisons and competitive acquisitions, he adds, “We need to ensure that we are well-prepared, well-trained, serviceable, agile with the resources we have got.” Of course, things have changed a lot, and are still changing. The old systems are going out. The IAF has come a long way from technology radars. Today, he points out, the IAF has got better serviceability of aircraft, air-to-air refueling capacity ensuring longer-duration sorties, better and faster communication, and a renewed synergy of Man, Machine, Material.

With new systems, the IAF needs better skilled manpower. For the purpose, ‘systematic and structured training’ is needed. “Till some years ago, the world was saying that the future wars would be of deception. Then there was talk of electronic warfare. Now, it is the era of Cyber Security war. This requires specific skills,” elaborates the Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh, who has been commended by the Chief of Air Staff on two occasions for his distinguished service of a high order. How do the IAF respond to this situation? In his opinion, every member of the IAF must feel pride in acquiring skills and extracting desired results from the design of a machine system.

The officer, who was conferred the Presidential award of ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ on January 26, 2007, has firm belief in the significance of ‘man component’. In fact, he says, this component is one of the strongest points of the IAF. A lot goes into making of an officer – training, thinking, generation of ideas, refinement in due course of time, evolution of a vision, and then preparing of the policies with maturity. He throws some more light on this, “In training, we are very well prepared. We are achieving optimum use in given constraints. I am proud to state that no other country does the amount of flying that we do. And, with all this, we work keeping in mind that India operates in basic principle of co-existence.”

During the course of interaction, while shedding light on high standards of professionalism and team-work in the IAF, Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh also expresses his pain at things being not so in the ‘outside world’. He recalls, a dug-up road has not been repaired by the local authorities for days together, and a couple of personnel from the Armed Forces took it upon themselves finally to level it, going out of the way. “Even if one is not in the Armed Forces, one can serve the motherland. Don’t they realise this?” he asks with a lament audible in his voice.

The affectionate man has a lot to share, but he has an inspection visit lined up. Being a thorough professional, he swiftly goes through a brief prepared ahead of his visit to a Dental unit in Vayusena Nagar. And, this again, displays how keen the IAF and each of its officers is on taking proper care of the ‘man component’. 

(Filed on March 9, 2015)