Surinder Mehra

Air Chief Marshal
Surendra Kumar Mehra
PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC
Air Chief Marshal Surendra Kumar Mehra PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC
14th Chief of Air Staff
	In office; 1 August 1988 – 31 July 1991
President	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
Prime Minister	Rajiv Gandhi
Preceded by	Denis La Fontaine
Succeeded by	Nirmal Chandra Suri
Personal details
Born	15 November 1932; Delhi, India
Died	8 December 2003 (aged 74); Gurgaon, India
Alma mater	Modern School; Delhi University
Awards	Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM); Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM); Vayu Sena Medal (VM);
Nickname	Polly
Military service
Allegiance	India
Branch/service	Indian Air Force
Years of service	1951-1991
Rank	Air Chief Marshal; Service Number (4197)
Commands	Chief of the Air Staff (India) (1988–1991); South Western Air Command; No.28 Squadron ; No.106 Squadron
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 ; Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 ; Operation Brasstacks

Air Chief Marshal Surinder Kumar Mehra (15 November 1932 – 8 December 2003), PVSM, AVSM, VM, was the Chief of Air Staff of Indian Air Force from 1 August 1988 until 31 July 1991.^[1] He was born in Delhi.^[2]

Early life

He was born in Delhi on 15 November 1932, educated at the Modern School in New Delhi, and thereafter at the Delhi University.

Career

He was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in December 1951 as a fighter pilot.^[3]

From 1973 to 1976 he went on to command the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment division, followed by posting as Air Attaché in the Indian Ambassador's Office in Russia. He was awarded AVSM in 1976. After being promoted to the rank of Air Commodore, he assumed command of Adampur and later Jamnagar Air Force stations.^[4]

In 1987, he was appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South Western Air Command with the responsibility of all air operations in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. In 1988, he took over as the Chief of Air Staff. He retired in 1991. Air Chief Marshal Polly Mehra died on 8 December 2003.

References

^ "Surinder Kumar Mehra PVSM, AVSM, VM CAS | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
^ Ex-Chief of Indian Air Force
^ "Surinder Kumar Mehra PVSM, AVSM, VM CAS". Indian Air Force. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^ Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment [1][2][3]

Military offices
Preceded by Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni	Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee 1990–1991	Succeeded by Sunith Francis Rodrigues
Preceded by Denis La Fontaine	Chief of the Air Staff (India) 1988–1991	Succeeded by Nirmal Chandra Suri

This Indian military-related biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] "Surinder Kumar Mehra PVSM, AVSM, VM CAS | Indian Air Force | Government of India". indianairforce.nic.in. Retrieved 28 May 2020.

[2] Ex-Chief of Indian Air Force

[3] "Surinder Kumar Mehra PVSM, AVSM, VM CAS". Indian Air Force. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2019.

[4] Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment [1][2][3]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian Armed Forces
Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (1947–2019)	Sir Rob Lockhart Sir Thomas Elmhirst Sir Edward Parry K. M. Cariappa Sir Charles Pizey Subroto Mukerjee Kodandera Subayya Thimayya Ram Dass Katari Aspy Engineer Bhaskar Sadashiv Soman Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri Arjan Singh Adhar Kumar Chatterji Sam Manekshaw Gopal Gurunath Bewoor Om Prakash Mehra Sourendra Nath Kohli Tapishwar Narain Raina Hrushikesh Moolgavkar Jal Cursetji Om Prakash Malhotra Idris Hasan Latif Ronald Lynsdale Pereira K. V. Krishna Rao Dilbagh Singh Oscar Stanley Dawson Arun Shridhar Vaidya Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani Denis La Fontaine Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni Surinder Mehra Sunith Francis Rodrigues Laxminarayan Ramdas Bipin Chandra Joshi S. K. Kaul Vijai Singh Shekhawat Shankar Roychowdhury Satish Sareen Ved Prakash Malik Sushil Kumar Sundararajan Padmanabhan Madhvendra Singh Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy Nirmal Chander Vij Arun Prakash Shashindra Pal Tyagi Joginder Jaswant Singh Sureesh Mehta Deepak Kapoor Pradeep Vasant Naik Nirmal Kumar Verma Norman Anil Kumar Browne Bikram Singh Arup Raha Sunil Lanba Birender Singh Dhanoa Bipin Rawat
Chief of Defence Staff and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (2020–2021)	Bipin Rawat
Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (2021–2022)	M. M. Naravane (acting)
Chief of Defence Staff and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (2022–)	Anil Chauhan
(**Seconded from the British Armed Forces)

v t e Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force
Air Marshal Commanding, Royal Indian Air Force (1947–1948)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst**
Chief of the Air Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Royal Indian Air Force (1948–1950)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst**
Chief of the Air Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Indian Air Force (1950–1955)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman Gerald Gibbs** Subroto Mukerjee
Chief of the Air Staff (1955–present)	Subroto Mukerjee Aspy Engineer Arjan Singh Pratap Chandra Lal Om Prakash Mehra Hrushikesh Moolgavkar Idris Hasan Latif Dilbagh Singh Lakshman Madhav Katre Denis La Fontaine Surinder Mehra Nirmal Chandra Suri Swaroop Kaul Satish Kumar Sareen Anil Tipnis Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy Shashindra Pal Tyagi Fali Homi Major Pradeep Vasant Naik Norman Anil Kumar Browne Arup Raha Birender Singh Dhanoa Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria Vivek Ram Chaudhari (incumbent)
(**Seconded from the Royal Air Force)