Former Air Marshal Pranab Kumar Barbora talks exclusively to Sentinel Assam

Former Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Pranab Kumar Barbora spoke exclusively to sentinelassam.com about the interesting story behind operationalising Daulat Beg Oldie after a gap of over 40 years and how he made it to the Air Force and why. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Sentinel Assam: What was the trigger? What inspired you to join Indian Air Force?

Fmr Vice Chief of Air Staff, Pranab Kumar Barbora: I hated schools because one had to study. I was desperately trying to get into Sainik School because I was given to understand that Sainik Schools are all fun and games. I was studying in St Edmunds School (Shillong). I was told by my good teachers and Irish brothers that to pass 10th class or Junior Cambridge, one has to be more proficient in Hindi and my Hindi was quiet poor. Decision was taken by my father and I moved out to Don Bosco, Guwahati. There was not much pressure and I passed Matriculation and joined college in Guwahati but I still did not like studies. I saw the advertisement that said join national defence academy. I went to the recruiting officer, collected the form for applying to UPSC for the exams. Filled it up but obviously there were many errors in the form. I showed it to my elder brother, he said you filled up all the wrong things. So, I went back to collect the second form. Unfortunately for me there was no second set of form available. Just about 50 forms had come for whole of Northeast. So, I went to Fancy Bazar (in Guwahati) and got some ink remover. Cleaned the form and my elder brother helped me fill the form correctly and I submitted.

Now, why Indian Air Force. Because its always about the glamour, the birds flying gave you a sense of freedom.

The call letter to appear for the exams came in Shillong. When I entered the examination hall, there were only 15 of in the hall. I was the only idiot who passed. Finally, the letter to join NDA came and I joined NDA in December, 1965.

In NDA also I thought there would be no studies. But my God! Each term has two sessions – mid term and second session of five and half months each. In the first mid term exams out of 7 subjects I failed in 6. I was called by all the officers of NDA and they said 'son this is not meant for you. We are sorry you have to go home. I thought about it and I realised that I have to be smart, street smart about it and I studied and this time I passed in 6 subjects, failed in one subject, Hindi by one mark. But I managed to hang on for the three years and got selected for Air Force. I graduated from NDA in December, 1968 and I went for Fighter flying, became an officer on June 13, 1970.

Sentinel Assam: Air Force is still not the first choice of youth from the region. Why?

Fmr Vice Chief of Air Staff, Pranab Kumar Barbora: When I joined NDA, among 1500 boys, there were only five from the entire Northeast. Isn't that a shame? We, the people from the Northeast are very satisfied with the life in the Northeast. We do not have starvation death. All we do is take a fishing rod, go and sit next to a river catch fish and tell the whole world we are eating non-veg food everyday. We're very happy and contented with that. From past experience I can say the people of Northeast hate hypocrisy. Firstly, we don't want to get out and even if we do get out of the Northeast and come to India, we could not adjust to the drastic change. People who joined the Air Force from the Northeast left much before their retirement age. I was very fortunate to have moved up the ladder. I was very lucky to have gone immediately in 1974 to a brand new aircraft which was gifted to us by the Russians and then I was in the 1st squadron of Jaguars that came in 1979. I progressed in the Air Force.

Sentinel Assam: Want to hear about your Daulat Beg Oldie story.

Fmr Vice Chief of Air Staff, Pranab Kumar Barbora: It was first commissioned in 1962 and then decommissioned after 1965. First and foremost, two engine aircraft operation was not possible, post 1965 we didn't have three or four engine aircraft, we had the packet for some time but packets were becoming old. So, Daulat Beg Oldie became only a disused advanced landing ground, the highest in the world. There is no grass, no vegetation, no insects, no mosquitoes unlike in the Northeast. From Eastern Air Command I came to Western Air Command where my first priority was to look in to be a day-to-day peacetime and wartime commitment that might be there any time. I was given a presentation by a Commanding Officer of 48 Squadron, Chandigarh and he said "Why can't we try Daulat Beg". I said okay, first go and find out what happened. When I went through the paperwork, I found various reasons both operational and logistical issues which is why people have been saying no can't be done and there is some kind of evidence to say that maybe an earthquake has also cracked the surface. When I said that we will do it and I talked to my own army counterparts, colleagues and we took a joint decision that we will see what can be done to quickly make it feasible for AN-32 aircraft to land. If the AN-32 switched off there it cannot be started. Anyhow, on the last day of 31st of May we did it and I was the passenger on the aircraft. Daulat Beg Oldie was done, the Chinese wanted a flag meeting which they never gave. After that the government asked us if we can open more of this disused airfield landing ground and I said why not, so we re-commissioned again, a new landing ground was created and then we improved the infrastructure. Thereafter, the government said why don't we open up all the things in the northeast. So, in Arunachal all the advanced landing grounds and helipads were opened, most of them maintained by the Indian Air Force.

Sometime starting from early 2000 we also realized that our problems are not going to be necessarily Pakistan only, it can be Chinese too. So, since 2000, we have improved infrastructure, we have brought in modern aircraft into Northeast and a lot of infrastructure build-up has been done. At the same time infrastructure of the army has also improved. The government concept of not creating any roads next to the border because the Chinese might make use of them like in 1962, that view changed over a period of time. So, one of the decisions taken is to create this road all the way to Daulat Big Oldie. These things were making the Chinese jittery. 

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