I learnt More than Flying from Them: “BABA” KATRE
Writing this down on Teachers’ Day, my thoughts went back to this great professional and personality who set an example for me on how to live one’s life and conduct oneself. Even if Lakshman Madhav Katre, popularly known as “Baba” Katre had not risen to be the Chief of the Air Staff, we would always remember him as someone to emulate and inspire us. That is when I decided to pen this down as an overdue tribute to someone who taught me so much, silently by example. I first had the honour of meeting Baba Katre when I reported to my very first operational squadron, 37 Squadron or The Black Panthers operating Hunters in Hasimara. Reporting there on the 4 December 1968 from OTU, AF in Jamnagar and attending my very first Meteorological and Operations briefing in the Base Ops Room, I was immediately taken by Baba’s personality and the way he spoke. Baba was then commanding the base at Hasimara as a Group Captain and after the meteorological and ATC briefing was over, he stood up and addressed the whole lot of us on conducting ourselves with dignity and in an officer-like manner with the large number of tea planters in the area. I think some folks had had some sort of altercation with the planters over the preceding weekend in one of the planters’ clubs. If I remember correctly it was Kalchini club. Baba then looked like a double of Gregory Peck and even spoke a lot like him in that deep bass, masculine voice reminding me of Peck as the bomber commander in the movie “Twelve O’Clock High”. Many thought of him as another Cary Grant. All in all, Baba was a very personable figure.
Hasimara (Photo: Samir Chopra/www.bharat-rakshak.com)
While we lowly Pilot Officers sitting in the back rows never got to meet him then or immediately thereafter, we slowly came across him in the Officers’ Mess once in a while since he was staying single in the Mess in the so-called VIP room of Hasimara since Mrs Srilata “Sheila” Katre was in Delhi due to children’s schools and education. Groupie “Baba” Katre would sometimes join us in the bar in the evenings for a couple of drinks with some younger company and though we hesitated a bit initially, his demeanour soon made us comfortable and we never felt that we were speaking to or mingling with a very senior officer. Baba also had a reputation of being a very knowledgeable and professional officer which we soon saw for ourselves whenever he spoke on various matters at the briefings. On weekdays at the bar whenever he came across, he would generally start a conversation on some military matter or a topic of general knowledge. That got most of us to visit the library more often to pick up books on military history or current events so that we could talk to him without making a fool of ourselves. That habit, initiated for me by Cecil Parker earlier in Jamnagar, stood me in great stead later in my professional and personal life. While he was very proper and correct in his behaviour at the bar or the dining hall of the Mess, following the laid-down timings for the bar on weekdays, he did let his hair down a bit on weekends when he would suddenly ask, “anyone for —- club?” depending on which club he intended to visit that evening. Many of us would then jump in to his Jeep and he would take us to those places and introduce us to his planter friends to get us going socially, both in terms of improving our social graces as also to make friends with whom we could spend some good times, particularly on weekends since there was no other social activity outside of the base in that back of the beyond place like Hasimara. In such outings, we also saw how well he was received by the tea planters. On the way back, he even let me drive him back in his Jeep one time when he found out that I could drive well and at the same time did not overdo the drinking. Mrs Shiela Katre visited Hasimara briefly in the few months that Baba Katre stayed in Hasimara after I arrived and we only met her very briefly and formally in a Mess Party. Even Mrs Katre came across as a warm and friendly person while, at the same time, being very sophisticated and polished. Unfortunately, Baba left Hasimara soon after in the summer of 1969 and I got a very short stint under him. Destiny, however, had plans of its own and I soon served under the Katres again in 1974 in the Air Force Academy at Dindigul, just outside Secunderabad. This time, I was surprised with his memory and the ability to remember names and faces of people who had served under or with him many years ago. Having freshly graduated from the Flying Instructors’ School in Tambaram, I reported to AFA in June 1974. Reporting to Baba, the Commandant of AFA then as an Air Commodore, on the very first day, he called me by my first name while welcoming me to the Academy and said that “he had high hopes from me” in my tenure as an instructor under him. That initial remark made me work even harder to ensure that I performed to his expectations. Baba’s reputation had spread further in the intervening years with his handling of operations in Pathankot, a front-line base, during the 1971 War. While I did not personally serve under him there, I did hear a few snippets about how he had turned the base around during the War due to his foresight and ability to motivate the people around and under him as a leader. These snippets came from some of my friends in 20 Squadron which was in Pathankot during the war but was operating from Srinagar in May 1972 when I did the survival course there. Admiral Arun Prakash, serving in 20 Sqn during the 1971 War as a Lieutenant has this to say of Baba, “By the morning of 5 December, it had become quite obvious that 18 Wing, located just 12 miles from the international border, and home to some valuable IAF assets (including two squadrons of Hunters Mk. 56-A), was going to be an attractive target for PAF Mirage IIIs (by day) and B-57s (by night). Since much of the IAF’s “counterair offensive” task, in the West, had been assigned to these two Hunter squadrons, it was vital that the Wing not only remained at peak of functional efficiency, for operations, but that its flying-effort was astutely directed and targets selected for maximum impact on the enemy.
Thus, all of us, junior aircrew, were surprised and mystified to see an Air Commodore in the Base Ops briefing, that morning. But things began to fall into place, when the whispered name “Baba Katre” began to go around. Although we were not clear about A/C Katre’s role and designation, it soon became apparent that much of the day-to-day ops planning for 18 Wing, was being undertaken by him and our Boss, Wingco Parker, who were meeting frequently. For us, ‘juniorjoes’ it was most reassuring to know that operational decision-making was in the capable hands of two most professional IAF officers of that era”. The second person Admiral Prakash is obviously referring to is then Wg Cdr Cecil “Nosey” Parker who was commanding 20 Sqn at that time. Air Vice Marshal Cecil Parker, now settled in Secunderabad and a prolific contributor to the Vayu Aerospace Review journal, adds, “despite differences in age/seniority we had a close personal relationship dating back to 1951 when as a (thoughtless) flight cadet I got the better of Baba on the tennis court in the Sirhind Club in Ambala. As the operational commander he left me and my squadron completely alone and would not even come and have a drink unless I also invited the Stn Cdr (which I did the day my MVC was announced. Baba was a professional and a diplomat who handled air operations hands-off with finesse”. In AFA itself, he gave me a glimpse of his thinking and preparations for operations by training well during peace time. While I could narrate many instances of this, let me narrate just a few to highlight Baba’s methods. I had landed up in AFA with very little flying and little cloud flying to get an instrument rating. On the Su-7, that I had flown prior to the Instructors’ Course, I had barely managed the four hours of cloud flying needed to get a “White” rating. In AFA and, particularly in Hakimpet where I was initially attached for a few months to fly lead sorties for trainees and a lot of Vampires were idling on the ground, I managed to collect the cloud flying or ‘actual’ hours and got my “Green” rating on the HJT-16 Kiran. Soon after that, there was a really bad weather day with lot of clouds and pouring rain and we were not flying. Like everyone else, I was sitting in the crew room, having the most suitable snacks for that kind of weather, “hot pakoras” with “chai”. The crew room phone rang and the Flight Commander, then senior Flt Lt Vinod Bhatia, picked up the phone. After a few mumblings which we couldn’t hear, he called me and said the Commandant wanted to speak to me. After I wished Baba Sir, he immediately asked me what I was doing. When I told him, he curtly said, “Is this why we gave you a Green rating? You should be out in this weather training other people so that in war, this kind of weather doesn’t prevent you from operating.” I told Vinod what the Commandant had said and he promptly authorised a cloud flying sortie for me with Flt Lt Mohan “Dixie” Dikshit, my course mate and a co-instructor with us. I still recall that we were in cloud and rain through the sortie from soon after take-off at about 300 feet AGL all the way till we recovered on an NDB approach. That was the only navigational aid available at AFA those days. Thereafter, I kept doing these kind of sorties with full encouragement from my Flt Cdr and ACFI, then Sqn Ldr HS Riar. As a matter of fact, a stage came when we would do the complete air test or even an aerobatics sortie completely on instruments while the other instructor pilot acted as a safety pilot if ever something went wrong. Fortunately, that “if ever” never happened and we got tremendous self-confidence to fly in the most adverse weather or night and still perform the mission at hand which came in very handy, for me at least, later in operational squadrons.
At Hasimara
Baba also used to take me along for the air tests sorties that he personally flew, particularly when the aircraft had a peculiar snag which he felt he needed to assess for himself. While totally a task master when it came to professional aspects, Baba and Mrs Katre were also very hospitable and socially friendly even with the most junior of instructors, like us. While demanding professional standards, he also showed a lot of empathy and compassion for the juniors, even for the flight cadets who may be struggling in some phase of flying so as not to ruin their career without a detailed review and a second chance, if required. So, he flew at random with different cadets and also meticulously went through the reports put up to him. Once, he called me and asked me if I could take Flt Cadet VS Ashok for a few sorties and teach him close formation since Ashok had been put up for suspension for being weak in formation flying. I found Ashok responded and performed when he was explained the theoretical aspects of formation flying and treated gently. Ashok went on to become a good Comm Sqn pilot later in his career. If it wasn’t for Baba’s detailed scrutiny of Ashok’s documents and his compassion for cadets, the latter would have been just another another statistic in the list of those who didn’t make it. At the same time, Baba did not accept any compromise in moral values and ethics in his subordinates. Much later when I was in Staff College as a DS, we had a case of some nine student officers in early 1985 who had obviously copied from each other in an exercise out of sheer laziness even though it meant little in their assessment. Baba was then the Chief and directed that the officers should be suspended and removed from the course. The case went to the High Court of Madras and though Baba had passed away in the meantime, the Staff College authorities persisted and finally got the judgment accepting their removal just before the course graduated. Baba was also displayed his caring nature when it came to personal matters. I still recall when my future in-laws, Brigadier and Mrs Mitra, fixed a date for my wedding with their daughter, Malini, through their family pandit and found the most auspicious date as 25 November 1974 when we were in the last stages of the 113 Pilots’ Course with the deadline of the passing out parade fast approaching. Both Flt Lt Nitin “Goofy” Gupte and I had got the same date for the wedding bells somehow. While I didn’t want to leave my pupils till the course passed out and wanted to delay the wedding by a couple of months, Baba called us and said that this was also a very important event in our lives and we need to go and not disappoint our families who had made all preparations. However, the task and mission accomplishment being the most important, all he would give us is a week off in which to get married and get back. In that one week, I still recall the rush to Binaguri and Indore to make it back just in time. Before going, we were also to make sure that we had done all the dual sorties required for our pupils so that they could continue for that one week with just solo sorties to the extent possible. As soon as we got back, we are back to 5-6 sorties a day/night to make up and I still remember how tired Goofy and I used to be when we got back to the house we initially shared to quickly grab whatever Sunilla, Goofy’s wife, and Malini had mustered up for dinner and fall asleep, sometimes even while having dinner. Even for the new year’s eve in December 1974, Baba and Mrs Katre had organised a party in their house for many of us but we, the ones who were flying, were only allowed to come back around midnight to have one dance with our wives, kiss them happy new year and get back to night flying.
7 Squadron formation team
Mrs Katre, on the other side, would regularly organise events and dances like the “Kiran Night” and other social events where she encouragingly inducted all the newly-wed and young wives for various dances and plays and thus help build up their confidence in such and other welfare activities. On normal days, she also kept them occupied in the AFWWA shops so that the wives didn’t sit at home waiting and worrying about their husbands. I found Malini benefitted from such activities and grooming from Mrs Katre tremendously. All in all, we were one big happy family in AFA with lot of work but also lot of play in the time that we had to spare. That is where I coined the phrase, “Work hard, Play hard” which I used later in my operational squadrons and other tenures. Malini got so good at organising such activities and leading the girls into having fun that when we were in senior appointments later, the young folks, both officers and wives, initially reluctant due to their own commitments or outlook, would later join in on their own since the events were full of fun and without compulsion. Even the airmen’s wives joined her willingly in many such activities and outings that she organised regularly with and for them. Unfortunately, my stint in AFA was also cut short soon after I got my Instructor’s Category B, and while I was still working on accumulating 300 instructional hours to be able to upgrade to A2, with a posting to 17 Sqn on MiG-21s. By then, I had just finished a year in AFA and did voice my concerns to the Commandant. Baba called me to the office and spoke to me at length patiently explaining why I needed to get onto MiG-21s as soon as possible since all I had before, as experience on operational aircraft, were the Hunter and the Su-7. Baba also said that A2 was just a symbol which I could later work for on the MiG- 21, if I wanted though I didn’t need it, but that I had more of a future as a combat pilot and unless I converted to the MiG- 21 fast, I may just miss the bus since the Air Force was going in for a large number of MiG squadrons. He was so right in his assessment, as I realised later. After a short stint in 17 Sqn, by the time, I reached 101 Sqn on MiG-21s in Adampur as an instructor in the end of 1976, Baba had returned from RCDS in the UK and had taken over as SASO in Western Air Command in Delhi. We kept calling on the Katres whenever we passed through Delhi and they were in town. Every time, when we left them after a very pleasant evening, Baba Sir would come to the gate and see us off even when he became AOC-in-C. Initially, I tried dissuading him from doing this since we could see ourselves out but he always came out saying that if we had taken the trouble to come and see them by driving through the traffic of Delhi, surely he could see us off. Needless to say, Baba remained humble despite the higher ranks he richly deserved and reached. In 1981, I was in DASI for a brief while before proceeding to Staff College and was staying with my elder brother, “Sonny” who happened to be in Communication Squadron at Palam at that time since Malini was with her parents expecting our first and only child. I particularly remember one occasion when I called on them at 25 Safdarjung Road which was then the WAC C-in-C’s house, I think. Baba asked me why I had never mentioned my brother earlier. I told him that the topic had never come up before and since Sonny was in transports, I was not certain Baba would even know about him. Baba surprised me by saying that he had always thought that I was the best but Sonny had recently flown him somewhere in the Tu-124 and he thought Sonny was better than me. I told him that I was glad he felt that particularly since it was a Masand he was talking about. I passed this compliment to Sonny when I got home and found that even Sonny had come under Baba’s spell when, in the kind of weather that they had flown in, Baba had sat in the cockpit all the while just watching how Sonny handled the situation without interfering or telling Sonny what to do.
We met again in Gorakhpur in 1983 during 1 Squadron’s Golden Jubilee when I heard of Baba’s feats as a young Adjutant of the squadron in 1947 when he saved the silver of 1 Sqn for the IAF even though 1 Sqn had been given to Pakistan during the division of assets. The greatest compliment I received later in my career, even though I do not think I deserved it, came for Air Mshl Dhatigara who had settled down in Poona after retirement. I had taken over command of the base in Poona in January 1997 and we met a few times. I used to have a delegation of senior retired officers of all three services come to the base every couple of months to spend the morning at the base and interact, particularly with the younger lot in the base. There was also the induction of the Su-30 in June 1997. After the Air Force Day in October, Air Marshal Dhatigara was very generous to write a letter to my C-in-C, then Air Marshal SR Deshpande, saying that I reminded him of Baba Katre. He then sent a copy of this letter to me. Even though I cannot ever compare myself to this great man, I still cherish that letter since that made me feel, right or wrong, that I didn’t let Baba Katre down, at least to some extent. Once again, unfortunately, our association with Baba Sir was cut short due to his untimely passing in June 1985 while he was the Chief. We kept in touch with Mrs Katre though and kept seeing her and calling on her whenever we got the opportunity. As a matter of fact, we became even closer to the Katre family since now there could be no suspicions or talk about seeking any favours from a senior officer. Mrs Katre mentioned later that she considered Malini and me as the seventh and eighth in their household after Vijay “Gujoo” and Sharmila “Khuku”, Sameer “Sam” and Anez and Naveena and Ranjit. That was also a proud moment for us and I still keep in touch with the Katres, who are still like family to me, even though Mrs Katre and Malini also passed a few years ago. After all, the memory of such mentors can never leave one.
Am I claiming that Baba didn’t have any fears and concerns of his own or was a superhuman? Not at all. What I am trying to convey is that he never showed or shared his problems or fears with us so as not to demoralise a junior. All he did once while I was leaving AFA is to ask if I played Golf. I had told him that I was just hitting a few balls when I had the opportunity but didn’t really play the game due to lack of time and opportunity in field units. He then said that life in the Air Force was like golf. When one picks up the game, one would find it difficult to reduce one’s handicap, particularly when one had reached a single-figure handicap. Thereafter, even a reduction of one stroke was like climbing a hill with many (jealous) people trying to find a fault and pull one back. So, one had to make sure that one didn’t ever give such an opportunity to others by being way ahead. Certainly, a tough challenge worth taking up. I don’t know if he was hinting at his own life in the Air Force or whether that was just a piece of advice for me but I certainly found that to be truly helpful later. Thank you Baba Sir and Mrs Sheila Katre for all your guidance with affection.
Chief of the Air Staff, Lakshman Madhav Katre (“Baba” Katre) and Mrs Srilata (“Sheila”) Katre