Punita Arora

Surgeon Vice Admiral (Lieutenant General) Punita Arora PVSM, SM, VSM is a former Flag Officer of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army. Arora was the first woman in the Indian Armed Forces to be promoted to a Three-star rank. She held the ranks of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army[1] and Surgeon Vice Admiral in the Indian Navy.[2]

Surgeon Vice Admiral
Lieutenant General

Punita Arora

PVSM, SM, VSM
Born (1946-05-31) May 31, 1946
Lahore, Punjab, British India
Allegiance India
Service/branch Indian Army
 Indian Navy
Rank Lieutenant General
Vice Admiral
Commands heldArmed Forces Medical College
Awards Param Vishisht Seva Medal
Sena Medal
Vishisht Seva Medal

Early life

She was born into a Punjabi family which hails from Lahore. When she was only one-year-old, her family moved[3] to India during partition and got settled in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.[4]

Education

She studied in Sophia School in Saharanpur till 8th grade. After that she moved to Guru Nanak Girls Inter-College. In 11th standard while getting admitted to Government school for boys she decided to take Science as a career. She joined Armed Forces Medical College, Pune in 1963[5] which was the second batch of the AFMC and she turned out to be the topper of that batch.[4]

Career

Punita Arora was commissioned in January 1968.[6] Before becoming Surgeon Vice Admiral of Indian Navy she was Commandant of AFMC. She took the charge of commandant of Armed Forces Medical College on 1 September 2004 thereafter becoming the first woman officer to command the medical college.[7] Before that she was co-ordinating Medical Research of the armed forces at the Army headquarters as additional director-general of Armed Forces Medical Services (Medical Research).[6] She moved from the Army to the Navy as the AFMS has a common pool which allows officers to migrate from one service to another depending on the requirement.[8]

Awards and medals

She has been awarded with 15 medals in her 36 years of career in Indian Armed Forces.

Param Vishisht Seva Medal Sena Medal (2006) Vishisht Seva Medal (2002)
Special Service Medal Sangram Medal Sainya Seva Medal 50th Independence Anniversary Medal
25th Independence Anniversary Medal 30 Years Long Service Medal 20 Years Long Service Medal 9 Years Long Service Medal

See also

References
  1. "The General in Sari". Specials.rediff.com.
  2. "Navy gets its 1st lady vice-admiral". The Times of India. 16 June 2005.
  3. "rediff.com: The General in a Sari - A Slide Show". Specials.rediff.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  4. "Stars & Stripes". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.
  5. "Sorry!!". Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  6. "A Doctor Who Looks After An Army". The Financial Express. 8 September 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  7. "Heera Mandi then and now". Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  8. "Exclusive varsities for PIOs on the cards: Tytler". Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  9. "Lieutenant General Of Indian Army Was A Sikh!!!". TrendPunjabi.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
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