Woman IAF officer assumes charge as Director General Hospital Services (Armed Forces)

Published on: 24 Oct 2023 at 03:21 PM

Published by: PreetiMahajan

The Fact News Service

New Delhi, October 24

Air Marshal Sadhna Nair, a doctor who took over as the director-general of hospital services (armed forces) on Monday, joined her husband Air Marshal K P Nair, a fighter pilot who retired as the IAF director-general of inspection and flight safety in 2015. “They are the first and only Air Marshal couple in the IAF,” an officer said.A husband-wife combination of three-star generals is extremely rare.

Air Marshal Sadhna Nair also has the distinction of three generations of her family having served in the IAF in the last seven decades. Her father and brother were also doctors in the IAF, while her son is a fighter pilot (Ft Lieutenant).

The principal medical officer at the IAF Training Command at Bengaluru in her last appointment, Air Marshal Sadhna Nair is only the second woman officer who has served throughout in the IAF (military doctors can be posted to another service) to be promoted to the rank of Air Marshal. The first was Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay (retd). Another woman doctor who reached the three-star rank was Surgeon Vice Admiral Punita Arora (retd) in the Navy. After graduating from the Armed Forces Medical College at Pune, Air Marshal Sadhna Nair was commissioned into the IAF in December 1985.

The first was Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay (retd). Another woman doctor who reached the three-star rank was Surgeon Vice Admiral Punita Arora (retd) in the Navy.

After the combat exclusion policy was also progressively junked, women officers are now tearing into the skies in fighter jets, serving on frontline warships and handling howitzers and rocket systems in artillery regiments.

There are now 17 women flying supersonic jets like MiG-21s, Sukhoi-30MKIs and even the spanking new Rafales, apart from the over 145 women helicopter and transport aircraft pilots in the Indian Air Force, Army and Navy. Around 30 women officers have also been deployed on frontline warships.

There is, however, no move to induct women officers in the Army’s main “combat arms” of infantry, armoured corps (tanks) and mechanised infantry (infantry combat vehicles). Similarly, submarines in the Navy remain a no-go area for them as of now.