A gun carriage carried the mortal remains of Arjan Singh from the air force legend’s residence to Brar Chowk in Delhi Cantonment, where top military and civil dignitaries laid wreaths.
Arjan Singh, the Marshal of the Air Force, a war hero and a legendary fighter pilot, was laid to rest today morning in New Delhi with full military honours. Singh died on Saturday at 7.47 pm at the age of 98.
These included former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minster Nirmala Sitharamanand the three service chiefs – Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, General Bipin Rawat and Admiral Sunil Lanba. A 17-gun salute and a fly past by IAF’s Sukhoi-30 fighter jets was also carried out in honour of Arjan Singh.
The three service chiefs also paid their respects. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat described the five-star ranking officer as “a legend, an icon, a pilot-chief who led from the front and a philanthropist to the core”.
He recalled Singh’s immense contribution as the Air Chief during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, the first major air battle of the IAF after independence.
“It was to his credit that despite initial setbacks, we were able to overcome and overwhelm the enemy and spoil their design to annex Jammu and Kashmir,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa told reporters.
ELITE CLUB
Arjan Singh, a hero of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, was part of an elite club of military men. He was one of only three men to have been elevated to a five-star rank. The other two were KM Cariappa and Sam Manekshaw, both field marshals of the Indian Army.
Born on April 15 Apr, 1919, in what is now Pakistan’s Faisalabad, Singh the Indian Air Force in 1938. In August 1964, Arjan Singh took charge as the IAF’s third Indian Chief of Air Staff at the relatively young age of 45.
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1965 for his contributions in the 1965 Indo-Pak War. Singh retired from service in 1970 and in 2002, was promoted to Marshal of the Air Force, becoming the IAF officer to occupy that rank.