Mhow girl sweeps top honours at IAF Tech College

MHOW: Mhow girl Prachi Jain, a newly commissioned flying officer, has bagged a stunning troika of awards at her passingout-parade two days ago — the President’s shield, Vice-President’s sword of honour and Chief of Air Staff ’s gold medal.
The shield is given to the officer-cadet standing first in overall merit, the coveted sword of honour goes to the one who tops technical subjects, and the gold medal is given away to the topper in aeronautical engineering at the Bengaluru-based Air Force Technical College.
As the icing on the cake, she was the parade commander at the POP on December 5 where Western Command chief Air Marshal V R Chowdhry have her the awards.
Prachi returned home to a hero’s welcome on Monday as Mhow residents and local organisations feted her.
“I am not from a defence background, but I was always fascinated by the uniform. I had resolved early on that I will join the Indian Air Force,” Prachi told TOI.
The daughter of Prof Archana Jain of Veterinary College, she is an NCC (Army) ‘C’ certificate holder and has an engineering degree from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Bhopal. “I had begun preparing for IAF right after schooling, which intensified when I was studying engineering,” she said.