An Officer & A Gentleman!

The first engagement between the Indian and Pakistani Air Forces occurred at Boyna, off Kolkata, in November 1971. Indian ground radar detected three Pakistan Sabre Jets in Indian airspace, and the Indian air force scrambled its own jets very quickly. The dogfight is remarkable in that the vintage Gnat of the IAF performed beyond expectation and downed two Pakistan jets. One of the pilots who was shot down was Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi, then taken as a Prisoner of War! The man who won that particular air battle was Flight Lt. Don Lazarus. More fighting in the air occurred, but the first one is always remarkable.

In 1996, Air Chief Marshal Parvaiz Mehdi Qureshi was appointed Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force. When this news was reported in India, Group Captain Donald Lazarus from the No. 22 Squadron 'Swifts', who shot Qureshi's superior Canadair Sabre down with his Folland Gnat in the Battle of Boyra in 1971, wrote a letter congratulating Qureshi for his achievement in becoming CAS. He mentioned that Qureshi may have yet to recall his earlier meeting with Lazarus, which was in the air. Lazarus did not expect a reply to the letter, but it seemed the right thing to do to wish someone well whom he had met in battle a couple of decades back.

Group Captain Don Lazarus was surprised when a letter signed by the Pakistani CAS himself came to him. Air Chief Marshal Qureshi thanked Lazarus for his wishes and complimented the Indian pilots on the 'fight' shown on the occasion. Group Captain Lazarus still preserves the letter quite carefully, which serves as a reminder that despite the hostility left behind by the war, chivalry is still alive among soldiers and as a testament to the characters of both men. Eventually, as they say, men in uniform are both officers and gentlemen.

As an aside, the four Indian Gnats were led by the formation leader, Flight Lieutenant Roy Andrew Massey. In 1983, I sailed with a relative of Massey, who I understand later migrated to Australia.

The United States Naval Institute describes an Officer & Gentleman in the following words: A man, gentle, unafraid in the face of danger, courteous always without condescension or servility, tactful, honourable in all his relations with mankind, patriotic, subordinate, an example to all about him of initiative, ambition, loyalty, good judgment, justice, and kindness; such a one fulfils in its highest sense, the true meaning of the phrase, "An Officer and a Gentleman."