A medical officer of Indian Air Force Air Marshal Sadhna S Nair has assumed the post of Director General of Armed Forces Hospital Services. Dr. Sadhna Saxena Nair is the first woman officer to handle this responsibility after being promoted to the post of Air Marshal. Prior to this appointment, Air Marshal Sadhna S. Nair was posted as the Principal Medical Officer (PMO) at the Air Officers Training Command (Air Force) Headquarters, Bangalore.
Air Marshal Sadhna S Nair taking charge of the post of Director General in the DGAFMS office on October 23, 2023, added a beautiful page to the history of the Indian Air Force. Dr. Sadhna Nair is also the wife of K P Nair, who retired from the post of Air Marshal. It has rarely been found in the defence forces when a husband – wife has reached the rank of three star general.
Air marshal KP Nair was a fighter pilot who retired as the Director General of Flight Safety (Inspection) in 2015. In this way, the Nair couple have become the first and only Air Marshal couple in the Indian Air Force. On top of that, the interesting thing is that his son is also a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force and currently holds the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
Three generation Air Force family :
This is another interesting fact about Air Marshal Sadhna Nair. Air Marshal Sadhna is also the daughter and sister of Indian Air Force doctors. Three generations of his family have been in the Air Force for almost 70 years. Her father and brother were also doctors in the Indian Air Force. After completing her MBBS from Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, Dr. Sadhna got commission in the Air Force in December 1985. She holds a postgraduate degree in Family Medicine and also did two years of training in Medical Informatics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in New Delhi.
Air Marshal Sadhna has been trained in CBRN combat services with the Israeli Defense Forces and Military Medical Ethics in Switzerland. Dr Sadhna S Nair has been the first and only woman Chief Medical Officer of the Western Air Command and Training Command.
Women officers in the rank of General:
Dr. Sadhna S Nair is the second woman medical officer of the Air Force to reach the rank of Air Marshal. The first woman Air Marshal was Padma Bandopadhyay who retired in 2005. Padma Bandhopadhyay was the second woman in Indian military history to reach the rank of three-star general after Vice Admiral Punita Arora of the Indian Navy.
