The occasion was marked by a wreath-laying ceremony by Air Marshal SP Dharkar, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command, at the War Memorial, an official release said.
“The Eastern Air Command was born in combat and has grown through battles and is one of the lethal arms of the Indian Air Force which controls air operations over a vast area that straddles 11 states.
It includes the seven northeastern states, Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar and parts of Orissa and Jharkhand covering over three lakh square kilometers,” Lt Col Mahendra Rawat, a public relation officer with Defence Guwahati said.
“The Eastern Air Command also controls the air space over 6300 Km long international boundary with China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh,” he said.
The Command participated in the 1962, 1965, and 1971 wars, and over the years it has impressively contributed towards the evacuation of victims of natural calamities like floods, landslides, and earthquakes. Several new inductions have taken place in this Command to meet the changed security scenario, added Rawat.