Known as the ‘Father of the Indian Air Force’, India’s first Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee was one of Indian Air Force’s first recruits.

More about his life:
- At the age of 18, he was one of the first six Indian boys selected to undergo two years of flying training at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.
- On 8th October 1932, he was one of the six Indian Cadets who received their commission.
- He became the first Indian to command a Flight, a Squadron, a Station, and finally, the Service itself.
- In 1936-37, he served in northern Waziristan in North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan).
- In 1939, Mukerjee was promoted to Squadron Leader, the first Indian to receive such a command.
- He participated in NWFP Operation in 1942 and was Mentioned-in-Dispatches.
- In June 1945, he was awarded with ‘Order of the British Empire’ (Military Division).
- At the time of India’s independence from Britain in 1947, Mukerjee was the highest-ranking officer in the IAF.
- Later, he was promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal and posted as the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.
- He took over as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Air Force in 1954.
- In 1955, the position was renamed as Chief of the Air Staff.

He breathed his last in 1960.

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