"He was a very simple man at heart and a good father, husband to my mum Gul and though a fighter pilot, at home he loved joking with us and having musical evenings, singing war time favorites with his close retired friends,” noted businesswoman Roxanne Ichhaporia (née Nicholson) about her stepfather Air Marshal Minoo Engineer (retd). Engineer passed away in 1992 and this year marks his 100th birth anniversary. "He loved children and going for family walks at the United Services Club,” she reminisced about the highly decorated officer who won civilian and defense services accolades, culminating in the Padma Bhushan for his career spanning three decades.
Clockwise from top: Air Marshal Minoo Engineer (2nd from l) with colleagues and staff;
Indira Gandhi, Engineer, Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal; Engineer, Kekoo, Feroza, Gul, Roxanne
Ichhaporia recollected that "his niece Farida Singh visited him often as the likeable uncle… the eternal warrior she called him.” Complimenting his "quiet generosity” to the poor children of their house help, she recalled that he "loved me immensely, bringing me joy.” A traveller even in his retirement, "he gave us great holidays in air force guest houses, keeping in touch with his siblings and the Engineer family on a regular basis.”
Engineer was commissioned in the Royal Indian Air Force in 1940 and was a frontline combat pilot on the Burma front until 1945. After the fall of Japan, Engineer commanded the only Royal Indian Spitfire Squadron in that country with other occupation forces. Recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Engineer was decorated with the Mahavir Chakra for his efforts in 1947-48 in setting up an operational airbase in Jammu and Kashmir. The year 1954 saw him finalizing long term training plans for the expansion of the Indian Air Force. For his services on the eastern front duing the 1962 Indo-China war, the officer was recognized with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal. As deputy chief of Air Staff in Delhi in the late 1960s, Engineer was responsible for policy making and coordination with the navy and the army. As Air Office Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command, Engineer coordinated operations during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
Researcher Marzban Giara calls Engineer "the most decorated officer” in the Indian Air Force in Valiant Parsis in War and Peace. The sixth of siblings and the third brother to join the Air Force, he was a "jovial, genial” man with a "steely resolve.”
After his retirement from the services, Engineer headed Gul’s advertising agency Selvel as chief executive officer.
"The wonderful human being at heart” passed away in 1992 of asthma without suffering, stated Ichhaporia.