S. K. Kaul

Air Chief Marshal
Swaroop Krishna Kaul
PVSM, MVC, ADC
Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Krishna Kaul PVSM, MVC, ADC
16th Chief of Air Staff
	In office; 1 August 1993 – 31 December 1995
President	Shankar Dayal Sharma
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Nirmal Chandra Suri
Succeeded by	Satish Sareen
Personal details
Born	20 December 1935 (age 89); Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Alma mater	Besant College, Varanasi.; Government College, Allahabad
Awards	Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM); Maha Vir Chakra (MVC);
Military service
Allegiance	India
Branch/service	Indian Air Force
Years of service	1954–1995
Rank	Air Chief Marshal
Commands	Western Air Command; Central Air Command; 37 Squadron
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Krishna Kaul, PVSM, MVC, ADC (born 20 December 1935)^[1]^[2] is a former Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force. Kaul served as the Air Chief from 1993 to 1995.^[3]

Personal life

Swaroop Krishna Kaul was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, into a Kashmiri Pandit family, to K K Kaul. He did his schooling from Besant college in Varanasi and his graduation from Government College, Allahabad in 1951.^[3]

Career

Kaul joined the National Defence Academy in 1951^[4] and was commissioned in the IAF on 17 July 1954^[3]

During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, as a Wing Commander Kaul led several missions into the Pakistani held areas of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to photograph strategically vital areas.^[5]

As Commanding Officer of 37 Squadron, he was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, the second highest war-time military decoration in India.

After Commanding the Central Air Command and the Western Air Command, Kaul took over as the 16th Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.

In November 1994, Kaul was appointed as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. He retired from the Air Force in December 1995.^[4] He had over 3,700 hours of accident free flying to his credit.^[6]

Awards

Kaul was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra^[2] for a show of conspicuous gallantry during the 1971 war and the Param Vishisht Seva Medal in 1992.^[4]

CITATION
WING COMMANDER SWAROOP KRISHNA KAUL

(Effective date of award – 4 December 1971)

At the outbreak of hostilities, Wing Commander Swaroop Krishna Kaul, the Commanding Officer of a fighter bomber squadron volunteered for an urgent task to photograph certain areas which were badly needed in order to finalise our Army’s assault plans. The officer carried out four missions deep into enemy territories to cover the heavily defended sectors of Comilla, Sylhet and Saidpur. At times, Wing Commander Kaul had to fly as low as 200 feet over the most heavily defended enemy locations. Undaunted, he flew through these barrages, making repeated runs in each of his missions, and successfully completed the task. On 4th December, 1971, Wing Commander Kaul again volunteered for another task, to photograph the Tezgaon and Kurmitola airfields. His reconnaissance flights over these two airfields, in the face of the most sustained and heavy enemy ground fire stand out as acts of heroism, extreme gallantry and devotion to duty. In addition to his reconnaissance exploits, Wing Commander Kaul led the very first eight aircraft strike mission over Dacca. In this raid, his formation encountered four enemy aircraft near the target area. With exemplary leadership, Wing Commander Kaul maneuvered his force in such a manner that two of the enemy aircraft were shot down and the other two fled. The target thus became clear for attack. Throughout the period of operations Wing Commander Swaroop Krishna Kaul displayed conspicuous gallantry, determination and professional skill.

References

^ B. Chakravorty (1995). Stories of Heroism: PVC & MVC Winners. Allied Publishers. pp. 219–. ISBN 978-81-7023-516-3. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
^ ^a ^b India, The War decorated. "ACM Swaroop Krishna Kaul, MVC, AVSM, ADC (retd)". Retrieved 24 June 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bharat Rakshak, Chief of Air Staffs. "Indian Air Force: Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Retrieved 24 June 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c hindustantimes.com, online (17 March 2006). "Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.
^ online, indiavision.com. "Experienced soldier wing commander Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
^ "on Indian Air Force Govt Website". 24 June 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

External links

"Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Kishna Kaul", by B.N. Sharga, Kashmir Sentinel, March 2003 (retrieved 11 September 2006).

Military offices
Preceded by Bipin Chandra Joshi	Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee 20 November 1994 – 31 December 1995	Succeeded by Shankar Roychowdhury
Preceded by Nirmal Chandra Suri	Chief of the Air Staff (India) 1993–1995	Succeeded by Satish Sareen

[Chakravorty1995-1] B. Chakravorty (1995). Stories of Heroism: PVC & MVC Winners. Allied Publishers. pp. 219–. ISBN 978-81-7023-516-3. Retrieved 25 June 2012.

[MVC-2] India, The War decorated. "ACM Swaroop Krishna Kaul, MVC, AVSM, ADC (retd)". Retrieved 24 June 2012.

[BR-3] Bharat Rakshak, Chief of Air Staffs. "Indian Air Force: Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Retrieved 24 June 2012.

[HT-4] ustantimes.com, online (17 March 2006). "Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.

[5] , indiavision.com. "Experienced soldier wing commander Swaroop Krishna Kaul". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2012.

[6] "on Indian Air Force Govt Website". 24 June 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

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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)