Belagavi-AAB, June 27: Air Commodore Arun Bhaskar Gupta took over the Command of the Airmen Training School as Air Officer Commanding from Group Capt.S.K. Sharma here on Tuesday.
According to a press release, Air Commodore Arun Bhaskar Gupta became the pioneer as the first Air Officer Commanding of ATS, Belagavi as Command of the ATS had been upgraded from Group Captain (Station Commander) to Air Commodore (Air Officer Commanding).
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Pune and a Post Graduate in Defence Studies from Madras University through DSSC, Wellington, Mr.Gupta was commissioned into the Flying Branch of Indian Air Force on Dec.6, 1985. He has also undergone Higher Air Command Course (HACC) from College of Air Warfare, Secunderabad. The officer has more than 6800 hours of flying experience on HJT-16 (Kiran), HS 748 (AVRO), Microlights (‘X’ Air & Zen Air). During his illustrious career spanning over 31 years in IAF, he held various operational and staff appointments , including commanding the newly raised No. 2401 Squadron (Prithvi) from 2003 to 2005. He has also commanded No.11 Squadron from 2009 to 2011 and was the Group Commander, NCC Group at Nagpur. He has held the prestigious position as the Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Component (AOC, AFC) at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands from Dec.2013 to July 2016. Prior to taking over the present assignment, the Air Officer was posted to HQ ARTRAC, Shimla as Air Cmde (Concepts).
On the occasion, Mrs Geetali Gupta took over as President, Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Local) at ATS campus. She is an educationist with Post Graduation and M.Phil with vast experience as a Teacher and Principal at various Air Force Schools.
After assuming the charge, Mr.Gupta addressed all the Officers, Airmen, Civilians, Defence Security Corps (DSC) personnel and Non-Combatants of the Station and stressed upon accomplishing the important task of training assigned to the Station and to put up hard work with sincerity and dedication for imparting effective training to the newly recruited Airmen and Non-Combatants so that they excelled in their respective fields on successful completion of training to enhance readiness as well as fighting capabilities of the IAF.