Swaroop (suppi) Krishan Kaul

Swaroop Krishna Kaul hails from a well known Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Lucknow. Son of a railway employee, He was born on 20th December 1934 in Kashmiri Mohalla at Lucknow. His schooling was done at Beseant college in Varanasi and did his graduation from Governemtn College Allahabad in 1951.

Kaul joined the National Defence Academy in December 1951 and went on to get commissioned in December 1954 in the IAF.Around 1989 he was appointed as the SASO in CAC at Allahabad and later in February 1991 he became AOC-in-C of the Central Air Command and he remained on this post up to 30 April 1992. He received the Param Vishisht Seva Medal in 1992 in recognition of his work as top post of CAC. On 18th May 1992 he was appointed as the AOC-in-Chief of the Western Air Command, which is the largest and one of the most important operational command of the IAF to keep a constant vigil on the western border of our country. On 31st July 1993 he was appointed by the government as the Chief of the Air Staff. He retired from this post on 21 December 1995 after putting in 42 years of active service in the Indian Air Force. In November 1994, he was also appointed as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.