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Adi is the youngest pilot to be awarded the "Vir Chakra", for
having shot down a Pakistani F-86 "Sabre" from his
 Hunter
during the 1965 Indo-Pak war. He was also awarded the Ati
Vishisht Seva Medal
(AVSM)
for distinguished services of an exceptional order at the
Republic Day in 1994. He has also been awarded the "Three Star"
category for safe and accident free flying. He was awarded the "Gaurav
Puraskar" for his gallantry by the Government of Maharashtra in
1991 and is also the recipient of the Colonel Tarapore Annual
Achievement Award. In the Republic Day honours' list for the
year 2003 he was awarded the Param Vishist Seva Medal for
distinguished service of the most exceptional order as the Air
Officer Commanding in Chief of Western Air Command, the largest
and most active Air Command of the IAF.
As a young boy Adi had shown a keenness for the Armed Forces by
joining the Sea Cadet CorpsIt was, however, during the Indian
Air Force air show at Bombay off Marine Drive in the year 1960,
when Adi was in his final year, and the whole of Campion had
gone to see it from Nariman Point, that he changed his mind,
after seeing all the aircraft streaking across the Bombay
skyline, and decided to join the Air Force.
He was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on 28 Oct 63 as a
fighter pilot. During his 41 years of service, he has flown a
variety of fighter aircraft including the venerable Vampire,
Hunter, Gnats, as also more contemporary aircraft like the MiG
21, MiG 29, Mirage 2000 and the latest SU 30. He has flown over
5500 sorties on fighter aircraft during his service career.
Adi has also undergone a variety of professional courses from
Junior Commander's Course, to Joint Warfare Course, Higher Air
Command, Senior Defence Management and National Defence College
Course. He is a Master Green Pilot, the highest professional
grading and Command Examiner of long standing. He is a Fighter
Combat Leader (Directing Staff) and served two tenures at
Tactics and Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) AF as O i/c
Development and O i/c Training. Air Marshal Ghandhi has also
served tenure abroad on deputation to the Nigerian Air Force for
two years as an instructor pilot.
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Mahendra
is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla, and was
commissioned on 01 January 1970. During the early part of this career he
served as a Missile and Gunnery Officer and Executive Officer on board a
 number of missile vessels, commanded a minesweeper and thereafter went on
to command the Training school of the Nigerian Navy.
His later afloat assignments are that of Commanding Officer of Coast Guard
Ship Varuna during which he made four record hauls of smuggled gold
totaling to over Rs.50 crores, and thereafter of Commanding Officer INS
Tir and TS 1.
His shore appointments include those of Battalion Commander at the NDA,
Chief Staff Officer (Operations) of the Coast Guard Western Region, Chief
Staff Officer (Training) of the Southern Naval Command, Chief Staff
Officer (Operations) of the Western Naval Command and Chief Instructor
(Navy) at Defence Service Staff College, Wellington.
Prior to assuming his present duties as Flag
Officer Offshore Defence Advisory Group, Mahendra was the Flag Officer
Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area.
He is the recipient of Ati Vishisht Seva
Medal, Nau Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal, three commendations by the
Finance Minister and one by the Director General Coast Guard.
His wife Neelam is a B.Ed in Fine Arts and besides having served in Air
India, has been actively involved in welfare activities of the Navy
culminating in being President of the Navy Wives Welfare Association of
the Western Region. He has two children, a married daughter aged 27 and a
son aged 25
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Rinaldo
was one of three (Francesco, Rinaldo & Danilo) Veri brothers who studied
in Campion.
 After returning to Italy he joined the Naval Academy in Leghorn from
where he graduated in 1975 with the rank of Ensign. After graduation he
spent almost two years in the United States of America attending Pilot
Training and in Dec.1977 was pinned with wings both for turbo prop A/C
and Helicopters. From 1978 till 1982 he served as pilot both in
land-based Helo Squadrons and on board various ships, flying mainly ASW
and ASUW missions. In July 1982, in the rank of Lt., he took command of
his first ship ITS LAMPO (phb), while a year later, in the rank of
Lt.Cdr., he commanded the corvette AQUILA.
He was promoted Captain in 1995. On 1 July 2001 he was promoted to Rear
Admiral (1*). On July 1s t 2005, he was promoted to Rear Admiral Upper
Half (**)
Rinaldo has the distinction of holding several prestigious appointments
:
Commandant of the Cadet Course at the Naval Academy.
Office of the National Armaments Director
Defence General Staff in the Office of the Chief of Defence
Head of the Maritime Policy Division in the General Plans Department
Italian Senior National Representative in USCENTCOM (Florida ) for
Operation Enduring Freedom
Commander Italian Naval Task Group
Commander Italian/Spanish Amphibious Force
Commander European Maritime Group and CTF 150 (responsible for the Horn
of Africa) participating in Operations Resolute Behaviour / Enduring
Freedom.
Since March 9, 2004 he has been appointed Chief of the General Plans
Department.
Rinaldo has earned, with honours, a BS in Maritime & Naval Science and a
Masters in International & Diplomatic Science.
He is married to Rita and has three children, and they live in Rome. He
enjoys reading, fresh air walks and jogging, while the sports he prefers
to practice are tennis, swimming and horseback riding
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A second generation Naval Officer (his father,
a Marine Engineer, retired from the Indian Navy as a Commodore), Rear
Admiral Pradeep
 Chauhan (or ‘Billoo’ Chauhan, as he is commonly known) is proud to be a
true-blood, blue-blood Campionite, having passed out with
the ISC Batch of 1969 (Class XI-A : Science) — with a First Division, to
boot! He then joined St Xaviers College, Mumbai (or Bombay as it was then
called) for a magical spell of a little over a year (‘Inter’) indulging in
the liberal arts, before setting off — in June of 1971 — to join the
National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakvasla, (near Pune – or ‘Poona’ as it
was then) for his three years in this very prestigious tri-Service ‘cradle
for leadership’.
He underwent his early naval training aboard INS Delhi and INS Tir,
emerging as Best Cadet and first in the order of merit as a Midshipman and
was commissioned into the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy, on 01 Jul
75. After obtaining his ‘Bridge Watch-keeping Certificate’ aboard INS
Himgiri , followed by stints aboard INS Nirbhik and INS Amba, he was
selected for the Long Navigation-Direction Course and graduated, at the
head of his course, in 1981. After successful tenures as a specialist
‘Navigation, Direction and Operations’ officer aboard IN Ships Talwar and
Himgiri, he was appointed on the instructional staff of the ‘Navigation &
Direction School’ at Kochi, Kerala. During this tenure, he went as apart
of the ‘Fourth Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica’, as the
‘Expedition Navigator’ as well as the ‘South Pole Probe Team’ navigator.
In 1986, he was deputed to Mauritius, as the Commanding Officer of MNS
Amar. While in Mauritius, he was privileged to conceive-of and to set-up
the ‘Mauritius National Coast Guard’ and to thereafter, be its first
Commandant.
Upon his return from this three-year deputation to Mauritius, he was
select-listed for Commander and, in 1989-90, underwent the 45th Staff
Course at the DSSC, Wellington and was awarded an MSc (Def Studies) from
the Madras University, in the ‘First Class with Distinction’. This was
followed by three professionally rewarding years at Naval Headquarters as
the ‘Commander, War Room’, in the ‘Directorate of Naval Operations’. In
1993, he assumed command of the Missile Corvette, INS Khanjar, which was,
under his leadership, adjudged the ‘best ship’ of the Eastern Fleet.
He was, thereafter, appointed on the faculty of the ‘Defence Services
Staff College’ (DSSC) at Wellington (a verdant hill-station in Tamil Nadu)
and, in Jan 95, upon his promotion to the rank of Captain, was appointed
as the Head of the Training Team (Navy). In 1996, he was honoured by the
award of a ‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ for distinguished service of an
exceptional order.
He then shifted to Mumbai, where he served as the Captain Work-up (West) —
an organisation functioning under the ‘Flag Officer Sea Training’ that
ensures and certifies our warships as being professionally-fit to join the
Fleet. During this tenure, he underwent the 9th Naval Higher Command
Course (NHCC) at the College of Naval Warfare (CNW), Karanja. This was
followed by his assumption of the directorship of the prestigious ‘Indian
Naval Tactical Evaluation Group’ (INTEG), and, of the Maritime Warfare
Centre (MWC), Mumbai.
In December 1999, he was chosen to commission the Indian Navy’s latest
multipurpose frigate, INS Brahmaputra, and held that command until
December 2001, when he was promoted to the rank of Commodore and selected
to undergo the 42nd Strategic Studies Course at the National Defence
College at New Delhi.
Having graduated from the NDC, he did his second tour of duty at Naval
Headquarters (newly re-named the ‘Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry
of Defence [Navy]’ or ‘IHQ/MoD (N)’ for short) this time as the Principal
Director, Directorate of Naval Operations.
This was followed by a successful and enriching 18-month experience in
command of the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, the very top-most of the
Indian Navy’s sea-going commands. He was promoted to Flag rank on 01
September 2005 and assumed his present appointment as the Assistant Chief
of the Naval Staff (FCI) i.e, Foreign Co-operation and Intelligence)
on that date.
Admiral Chauhan retains his fondness for aquatics (he has been an NDA
‘Blue’ in swimming and in water-polo) and is considering taking-up the
formidable challenge of golf. He enjoys reading and dabbles at writing
from time-to-time. He is is happily married to Nisha, having
remained in a state of marital bliss for the last 28 years. They have a
daughter, Karishma, who is just about to graduate (in April 2006) from St
Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and hopes to become a marine biologist
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