Air Marshal Sadhna Saxena Nair took over as the Director-General Hospital Services (Armed Forces) on promotion to the rank of Air Marshal on Monday. With the promotion, Sadhna Saxena along with her husband achieved a rare feat by becoming the first and only Air Marshal couple in the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Air Marshal Sadhna was previously the Principal Medical Officer at the Training Command of the IAF located at Bengaluru. She is only the second woman officer who has served throughout in the IAF to be promoted to the rank of Air Marshal; the first woman officer to achieve this was Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay (Retd).

Air Marshal Saxena’s husband Air Marshal K P Nair, a fighter pilot, retired as the IAF director-general of inspection and flight safety in 2015. Air Marshal Sadhna is from a military background. Her father and brother were also doctors in the IAF. Her son is also a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

Air Marshal Sadhna has trained abroad in CBRN Warfare and in Military Medical Ethics. She was the first and only woman Principal Medical Officer of Western Air Command and Training Command.

She is the recipient of the Vishisht Seva Medal by the Hon’ble President of India and has received CAS and AOC-in-C Commendations as well.

She graduated from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and was commissioned into the IAF in Dec 1985. She holds a Post Graduate degree in Family Medicine and has undergone a two-year training Program in Medical Informatics at AIIMS, New Delhi.

In 2020, the Kanitkars became the first couple to have reached the rank of three-star officers in the armed forces after Lt-Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, a doctor in the Indian Army, joined her husband Lt-Gen Rajeev Kanitkar. As per The Times Of India Report, Lt Gen Rajeev Kanitkar served in the armoured corps officer and retired as quartermaster general in 2017.

source/content: timesnownews.com (headline edited)