Standing outside the gates of the Air Force Station Jalhalli (West), very obviously nervous, I approached one of the guards to let them know that I was there to meet Air Commodore Praveen Kumar, Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station, Jalahalli West. I was awestruck by the hospitality meted out to me, but still anxious when going past the white walls with blue borders that lined my route to the gates of the subcontinent's biggest Defence technical training establishment.
Spread over 1,600 acres, this station houses what the Air Commodore calls “the nursery for technical training of almost 65 per cent of the entire Airmen intake in the Indian Air Force”.
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“The annual intake under the Airmen category in the Indian Air Force is about 8,000. Around 5,000 to 6,000 of them are from Jalahalli alone,” said Air Commodore Kumar. Apart from this, the station trains around 45 officers, and 40 trainees from countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
During the next few hours of my stay at the station, Group Captain Sanjay Kant, Commanding Officer of the Communicating Training Institute, at the Air Force Station, doubled up as my host and guide through the campus.
The drive from the Commodore's office to the Communication Training Institute (CTI), which was our first stop, offered a glimpse of the wealth of trees and history that this campus has.
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Remnants of the past
Driving through the canopy of trees, I could see the remnants of the Prisoners of War (POW) camp buildings that were established by the British when they brought close to 20,000 Italian prisoners to the erstwhile Mysore state.
At that time, a hospital complex divided into ‘Hospital Town East and West' was set up to treat the victims of war here.
Today, in its place, there is a full-fledged, self -sustained large training centre that transforms “young lads into men”.
This establishment trains airmen in communication, radar, air field safety, operations assistance, logistics and material management, electronic and electrical trades. For nine months, these recruits, who have passed 10th and 12th standard, train to become airmen and are posted to different Air Force bases after they pass out of the centre. After two years of posting, they return to Jalahalli to complete six months of specialist training.
The institutes have facilities for both theoretical as well as practical training.
At the Logistics Training Institute, trainees are taught how to handle the online software for material management and given hands-on experience at handling air force supplies at a model house where supplies like fuel and Air Force apparel were displayed in specified quantities.
The west campus also houses state-of-the-art sports facilities for Air Force teams and a gymnasium for the sportsmen.
Well-oiled machine
As we saw airmen trainees filing in queues at the mess, we drove ahead to the place which makes lunch possible for the 5,000-odd trainees — the Angeethi Chapathi Kendra. Nearly 24,000 round, fresh fluffy chapathis are made here each day, thanks to a chapathi-making machine that cooks at the rate of 4,000 an hour. Seated above the machine is a man who adds water to the flour in the machine.
The machine kneads the dough, which passes through a roller that presses the well-mixed dough into neat sheets, which in turn pass through a cutter that cuts them into neat, round, raw chapathis.
These then pass through a three-tiered conveyor belt cum tawa that heats both sides of the cut-outs to produce chapathis. Two men sit at the other end of the machine waiting to pour ghee on these hot chapathis.
I watched with sheer stupefaction as this entire process functioned with a sense of rhythm.
As we were headed back to meet the Air Commodore, sensing my amazement, Group Captain Sanjay Kant explained that it was part of the culture in the Defence to be self-sufficient. “We have everything except milk. We can manage everything else within our campus,” he said.
To this, Air Commodore replied, “Even milk can be arranged. In the Air Force, in fact, like other Defence establishments, plan B is always ready.”
As I was getting ready to leave, I realised that what accompanied the strict discipline, planning and rigorous training within the Air Force Station at Jalahalli was a celebratory culture that united all men in uniform.
And this celebration was also born out of a deep sense of responsibility. In the words of Group Captain Sanjay Kant: “The more we spend in peace, the less you bleed in war.”