26-Year-Old Abhilasha Barak Is Indian Army’s First Woman Combat Aviator

Captain Abhilasha Barak scripted history on 24th May by becoming the first woman combat aviator in the Indian Army. She graduated at a ceremony held at the Combat Army Aviation Training School in Nashik. She credits her achievement to the fact that she has grown up in military Cantonments across the country and so, joining the forces came naturally to her.

Here's everything you should know about Abhilasha Barak

Captain Barak studied in The Lawrence School, Sanawar in Himachal Pradesh. Post schooling, she completed her graduation with B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Delhi Technological University in 2016. She was then placed at Deloitte, USA.

She was commissioned into the Indian Army from the Officers Training Academy, Chennai in 2018. During her attachment with the Corps of Army Air Defence, President Ram Nath Kovind selected her as a Contingent Commander for Presentation of Colours to Army Air Defence.

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She attained ‘A’ grading in the Army Air Defence Young officers course and 75.70 per cent in Air Traffic Management and Air Laws course. Not only this, she passed the promotional exam, Part B, in her first attempt.

In an interview shared by the Indian Army, Abhilasha said that she had always grown up in military cantonments and was always surrounded by people in uniform and so she found it to be ordinary but she realised that she had been leading a completely different life after they had to move out of the military life due to her father's retirement in 2011.

The feeling that she belonged to a military life only grew stronger when she was the witness to her elder brother's passing out parade at Indian Military Academy in 2013. She decided at that moment what she wanted to do in future.

“After completing my training from Officers Training Academy, Chennai, in 2018, I opted for Army Aviation Corps. As I was filling the form, I knew I was eligible for only ground duty role but I ended up mentioning that I had qualified Pilot Aptitude Battery Test and computerised pilot selection system. Somewhere in my heart, I always knew that the day was not far away when Indian Army would start inducting women as combat pilots,” she said in the interview.