1965 War Hero and Vir Chakra Awardee Flight Lieutenant Alfred Tyrone Cooke Dies at 87

19 September 2026· West BengalNational

Flight Lieutenant Alfred Tyrone Cooke, a Vir Chakra awardee of the Indian Air Force, died on 18 September 2026 at the Base Hospital, New Delhi, aged 87. He is remembered for the Kalaikunda air battle in West Bengal during the 1965 Indo-Pak War, when, flying a Hawker Hunter, he took on six Pakistani Sabre jets attacking the airfield, shot one down and damaged another. He was awarded the Vir Chakra on 7 September 1965. Cooke served with No. 14 Squadron, the 'Bulls', retired from the IAF in 1968 and later settled in Australia, donating his Vir Chakra medal to the squadron in 2016.

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The Vir Chakra is India's third-highest wartime gallantry award, after the Param Vir Chakra and the Maha Vir Chakra | All three were instituted on 26 January 1950, with effect from 15 August 1947 | The 1965 Indo-Pak War ended with the Tashkent Declaration signed on 10 January 1966

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