Wings of Duty

Wings of Duty — Page 64

Syed Muhammad Ahmad 64 Command (CGC) at RAF station Leconfield, Yorkshire. In 1953, I attended the Fighter Leaders’ Course (FLC) at the Central Fighter Establishment at RAF station West Raynham, Norfolk. I then commanded the 33 Jet Fighter Wing. At the same time I was a member of the Pakistan Air Force’s famous aerobatics team, the Falcons. On 2 February 1958 this team made aviation history when a formation of 16 F-86 Sabres performed a simultaneous loop. I still have a photograph of it. In 1958, I graduated from the Air Force Staff College with the PSA symbol (BSc in War Studies). From 1960 to 1963, I spent over two years as an instructor at the Army Command and Staff College in Quetta. My final posting before retiring was as head of one of the branches in the War Planning Department of Air Headquarters in Peshawar. It is now 2010 and, at the age of 86, I am in America, at my daughter Dr Ayesha Ahmad’s house, writing down my memories of things that happened over 60 years ago. I feel it is important to record these events so that future generations might come to know of what happened in Qadian in 1947 and be acquainted with the story of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s small fleet of airplanes.