By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Feb 10:
A two day conference of the Commanders of the South Western Air Command (SWAC) began at the Air Force Station of the Indian Air Force at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan to deliberate on various topics on Thursday.
Air Marshal Vikram Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South Western Air Command and Dr.(Mrs) Arathi Singh, President, Air Force Families Welfare Association AFFWA (Regional) were received by Group Captain Prem Anand, Station Commander, Air Force Station Jaisalmer and Mrs Vrinda Prem, President Air Force Families Welfare Association (Local), on arrival at IAF station, Jaisalmer.
Air Marshal Vikram Singh, addressed the officers and interacted with them. The conference served as a forum to Commanders to exchange views on operations, maintenance and administrative matters requiring deliberation. Guest lectures on Air Power and Operational Readiness are also being organised as part of the conference.
On the occasion, Dr. (Mrs) Arathi Singh reviewed the performance of various welfare activities being run by the AFFWA (Local) for the benefit of “Sanginis” (wives of IAF personnel) and provided necessary impetus for various welfare activities. She also presented trophies to the winners of Best Air Force Schools in three different categories along with Best Medicare Centre of SWAC.
The airfield at Jaisalmer was started as No. 14 Care and Maintenance Units in 1970. After the 1971 war, it was upgraded and 4 Forward Base Support Unit(FBSU) came into existence on August 07, 1972 and was placed under the functional control of 32 Wing, Jodhpur. Its initial role was to provide staging facilities to fighter and bomber aircraft. Subsequently in 1979, Armament Training Camp was setup to exploit the Pokhran range in the vicinity. The station was designated to function as provision for flying facilities by day and night for visiting detachments for Air to Ground firing at the Range. 3 Air Force Range Unit (AFRU) was setup in 1982. The base was reassigned later as 41 Wing Air Force on January 12,1984.