Air Force Academy, Graduation Parade, Best in Flying, Sword of Honour, Indian express news

It was another great outing for cadets from the region as three of them bagged special honours at Combined Graduation Parade (CGP) of the Air Force Academy, in Hyderabad on Saturday. The day was especially good for the Sainik School, Kapurthala as two of its former students won trophies — Jasnoor Singh was awarded with the Chief of Air Staff Trophy and declared the ‘Best in Flying’ and his batchmate Jagdeep Singh declared the ‘Best in Aerobatics’.

Last week Lt Akashdeep Singh Dhillon, also an alumnus of the Sainik School, Kapurthala, and a resident of Punjab was awarded the Sword of Honour during the passing out ceremony of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

Incidentally, Flying Officer Anurag Nain, who hails from Haryana and stood first in the order of merit in his batch, was awarded the Sword of Honour during the passing out ceremony at the Air Force Academy.

Due to restrictions in place owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, parents and relatives of the cadets were not able to attend the ceremony. “We attended it virtually as it was telecast on Doordarshan,” said Jasnoor’s mother Narinder Kaur, an English teacher at the Sainik School, Kapurthala, since the past 25 years.

A proud mother recalled that Jasnoor had won ‘Commandant’s Medal’ for best public speaking during his NDA training at Pune.

He is the first in his family to opt for the defence forces.

“He was born and brought up in the Sainik School campus. He gradually developed an interest for the defence forces and aspired to become a fighter pilot,” she said.

Jasnoor’s father Paramaiit Singh has been working as programme executive at All India Radio (AIR).

Jasnoor got selected in NDA in 2016, the year he completed his 10+2 with 93 per cent marks from Sainik School. Following his three year course at NDA Khadakwasla, he completed his one-year training at Air Force Academy.

Sainik School PRO said that another former student, Rishabh Chandel, too got commissioned as flying officer Saturday. He said eight other former students of the school got commissioned in Army and Navy in the past one week.

Principal Col Vikas Mohan said, “This year our students have won the best cadet award at the IMA and the Air Force Acedemy passing out parades, which is rarest of the rare instance”.

The parade at Hyderabad marked the successful completion of 205th course of the Indian Air Force Academy of pre-commissioning training of Flight Cadets of various IAF branches.