No 1 Squadron Instructors at Risalpur - January 1970

This photograph was taken at the end of my first term at the PAF Academy.
I have deliberately cropped the students' faces for their own safety.

Left to right: Flt Lt Khudadad Khan (always known simply as KD), Flt Lt Khalil, Flt Lt Mati, Flt Lt Shafi Dar the Flight Commander, Sqn Ldr Saleem the Squadron Commander, Flt Lt Ghaus (whose name I never could pronounce properly - to his amusement), the Iranian Exchange Officer, and me on the extreme right.

Flt Lt Dar, a very fine pilot and highly-respected officer, left the Academy at the end of my first term and was posted back to operational flying. I understand he lost his life on active service in East Pakistan a year later. That left a vacancy for a flight commander. Sqn Ldr Saleem told me that the Commandant, Air Commodore O'Brien, had decided that I should be the new flight commander. I was astonished. None of my predecessors had ever been made flight commander. I objected, politely, on the grounds that it seemed  more appropriate that the post should be filled by the senior PAF officer. It was explained to me that it would be seen as humiliation for me if I did not accept the appointment because, notwithstanding seniority in rank, I was the only A2 qualified flying instructor. I could not argue with that so I took the post but made sure the other QFIs understood why. I need not have bothered because they already understood why I had got the job.