India's First Param Vir Chakra Award holder the Great Flying officer Nirmal jit Singh Sekhon

Flying officer Nirmal jit Singh Sekhon is the only member of IAF to have been awarded the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), India's highest military decoration.

Flying officer Nirmal jit singh sekhon was a pilot of Folland Gnat Detachment based at Srinagar for the air defence. Flying officer Sekhon was therefore, unfamiliar with the terrain and was not acclimatised to the altitude of Srinagar especially with the bitter cold and biting winds of the kashmir winter. Nevertheless, from the setout of the war, he and his colleagues fought successive waves of intruding pakistani aircraft with valour and determination, maintaining the high reputation of the Folland Gnat aircraft. 

On 14 december 1971, Srinagar airfield was attacked by a wave of six enemy sabre aircraft. Flying officer Sekhon was on readiness duty at the time.However, he could not take off at once because of the cloud of dust raised by another aircraft which had just taken off. By the time the runway was fit for take-off, no fewer than 6 enemy aircraft was overhead and strafing of the airfield was in progress. Nevertheless, inspite of the moral danger of attempting to take-off during an attack, and inspite of the odds against him. Flying officer Sekhon took off and immediatly engaged a pair of the attacking sabres. In the fight that followed at tree top height, he all but held his own, he managed to destroy two sabres in the dogfight before his aircraft crashed and sacrifice his life for nation. 

The remaining sabres chose not to press the attack and returned to pakistan. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his single handed protection of the Srinagar airbase. Flying officer Sekhon achieved his object, for the enemy aircraft fled from the scene of the battle without pressing home their attack against the town and the airfield. The sublime heroism, supreme gallantry, flying skill and determination, above and beyond the call of duty, displayed by flying officer Sekhon in the face of certain death, set new heights to AIRFORCE traditions.