The Agra Station will be one of the three to be established in India in the near future. The remaining two will be at Poona and Kalaikunda near Calcutta. All the three permanent Air Force Stations are expected to be after the pattern of some of the most modern air force stations of the world.

The demonstration of dropping of paratroopers, ammunition and rations such as live goat, chicken and eggs convinced the spectators that jumping from the air was after all not as risky as most of them had imagined.

The spectators were thrilled to witness the aerobatics of a pilot who plied his kite as though he was doing tricks on a push-bike in a circus.

The Defence Minister laid a metal casket containing newspapers and magazines published in India including the "Fauji Akhbar" under the foundation-stone.

Group Captain K L Bhatia, Sation Commander, Agra, informed the spectators that the Transport Squadron operating at Agra Air Force Station had won 13 out of 19 Vir Chakra awarded to the Indian, Air Force for its heroic deeds in Jammu and Kashmir operations.

Inviting the Defence Minister to lay the foundation of the permanent I A F Station at Agra, Air Marshal Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman, C-in-C, I A F said ‘‘Before partition the Indian Air Force had a few well designed all weather stations built on a permanent basis and situated in the West and North-West part of India, all of which, or virtually all have since been lost to the country. As a result, during the last three years the personnel of the Indian Air Force have been accommodated in temporary huts, buildings which had been hastily constructed during the war of 1939-45, purely to meet the day to day operational requirements and naturally with no thought to the peace time needs of a permanent Air Force.’’

After laying the foundation-stone, Sardar Baldev Singh, Defence Minister, said ‘‘Our Air Force is a young service with a history of no more than seventeen years. It was not until October 1932, that the Indian Air Force Act was promulgated and it started with the first flight of some four Wapati aircraft with a small batch of airmen, of whom Air Vice-Marshal Mukerjee had been commissioned earlier.

"I would like to mention here that the earliest reference to the need for an Air Force in India was recognised by what was known as the Skeene Committee, appointed in 1926 to report on the possibility of Indianising the Armed Services. Its interest to us today is merely academic, but I refer to it because of the connection with it of one of our most illustrious compatriots, the late Pandit Motilal Nehru, the indomitable fighter in India's struggle for freedom and father of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, our Prime Minister today. Few could have imagined in 1926, that the foundations then laid down by his father would bear the edifice of which the chief architect was to be his son.

"The Indian Force, as I have said, is young in years. And yet within this short period of seventeen years, our airmen and their officers have carved for themselves a place in the Armed Forces.

"Up till now, the Army was and it still remains the main force of our Defence Services. Revolutionary changes have taken place throughout the world, particularly since the last World War, in the general evaluation of Land, Air and Naval Forces and the overall tendency seems to point to a balanced integration and closer collaboration. This must come here in course of time and I have no hesitation in saying that the Air Force will attain its proper place and is bound to grow from strength to strength. Your role and importance in any operation is clear, in fact, as we have found ourselves, it is not possible to undertake any operation without your help and a co-ordinated plan.