The saga of high-flying Keelor brothers

THERE are legends and then there are the Keelor brothers! The recent demise of Air Marshal Denzil Keelor brought back a flood of childhood memories to this veteran — as it would have to countless others who grew wings on their exploits in the 1965 India-Pakistan War. India was recovering from the disastrous 1962 China conflict, in which IAF’s fighter fleet was not used. The general morale was low; we were making do with gifted American wheat (red in colour, it made for bad rotis); the Chinese threat had not gone away and the armed forces were attempting to build back their capabilities after the debacle. As can be guessed, Pakistan could not have found a better time to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir and finish what it called the ‘unfinished agenda of the Partition’.

Fifty-nine years ago, Pakistan launched Op Gibraltar in J&K by sending infiltrators to generate an uprising among the populace to support its military push that would follow. It had misread the local sentiment; instead of revolting, the locals actually reported the infiltrators to the Indian Army. Sure enough, India was at war again — a war that would put the nation back towards a military redemption. The start for the Indian Air Force (IAF), however, was not too good. As Pakistan mounted an armoured thrust towards Akhnoor to cut the solitary road connecting Jammu to Rajouri and Poonch, the IAF was called in to blunt the attack.

On September 1, Vampires and Mysteres were launched to target Pakistani tanks — they did so and stopped their charge, but we lost three archaic Vampires to the superior Sabres. The Vampires were withdrawn and the Gnats came in — and what an arrival that was! In the very first engagement on September 3, Flt Lt Trevor Keelor, Denzil’s younger brother, got the first kill of the war — a Sabre. That news was splashed all over the media and I still remember the gun camera shots of the kill on the front pages of newspapers. The Gnat soon became the ‘Sabre Slayer’ and as more kills came its way, Denzil got his own on September 19. The Keelor brothers (bandhu) became the toast of the nation.

They became a symbol of resurgence in the 1960s. They represented the valour of the IAF, and along with Army heroes like Lt Col AB Tarapore and Havildar Abdul Hamid (both posthumous Param Vir Chakra awardees), were icons of the resurrection of the armed forces. Just as the Kargil conflict motivated many young Indians to join the forces in the beginning of this century, the Keelor brothers were instrumental in spurring many boys to enter the IAF.

Fly well, sir, as you go and meet Trevor — you both have the gratitude of so many of us.