Vir Chakra (VrC)

One of our Army posts in Ladakh, having been surrounded by Chinese invaders, had to depend solely on air support. On 4 October 1962, Squadron Leader Surya Kant Badhwar and Flight Lieutenant Narayanan flew several sorties to carry out this task. During one of the sorties, they experienced loss of engine power and eventually had to forceland in a river-bed after avoiding a few Chinese posts. Meanwhile, 150 Chinese had taken up positions on hilltops near the helicopter and were beckoning to them to surrender. With great presence of mind, they managed to get to the helicopter, piloted it safely to one of our posts and thus saved valuable lives and equipment.

The cool courage displayed by Squadron Leader Badhwar and Flight Lieutenant Narayanan in a difficult situation was of a high order.