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Squadron 24
"Hawks"

The Crest shows a hawk swooping down towards its prey. The squadron's motto is "Navijitya Nivartanam", or "No Return without Conquest"

The Squadron was formed on 16 February 1962 at Air Force Station Chabua, in Assam. It was equipped with Vampire fighter bomber aircraft, which the IAF had been flying since 1948. At that stage, war clouds were already on the horizon and the need of the hour was to have the Squadron in fighting shape as soon as possible. It didn't take long for the Squadron to convert on to its new aircraft and contribute positively to IAF's air action in the Eastern Sector in the 1962 war with China.

Soon after its formation, the Squadron became operational and undertook Combat Air Patrol duties during the 1962 Chinese aggression. Besides the primary task of guarding the Indian skies, it was tasked with other assignments as well. The most notable of these was the reconnaissance of some of the narrowest and most treacherous valleys of the East, to facilitate supply dropping missions by the Dakotas. These reconnaissance missions were flown in the worst of weather conditions and without help of any radio-navigational aids. The Squadron earned laurels in counter-insurgency operations in the North Eastern Frontier Area (NEFA).

During the Indo-Pak War of 1965, the Squadron saw considerable action. While operating from Kalaikunda in West Bengal, the Squadron was tasked to provide close air support to the Indian Army for operations in the Eastern sector. After the initial few days of the war, on 6 September 1965, the Squadron moved to Barrackpur from where it took part in day light strikes over vital targets. The Squadron pilots undertook most of the strikes under hostile weather conditions. Towards the later part of the war, the Hawks were deployed on Combat Air Patrol duties in Gorakhpur region.

In the begining of 1966, when the IAF embarked upon its modernisation program, 24 Squadron was chosen to be equipped with the Gnat aircraft which had already earned the nickname of "Sabre Slayer" in the 1965 war. By the end of the year, the Squadron achieved total operational capability on the new war machines. Having faced 'action' in the not so distant past, the 'flyboys' and the'spanners' set about sharpening their claws and honing their skills in order to use new aircraft as an effective weapon platform in war. Later in 1971, when the country went to war, they were to fall back upon this training and hard work to use the aircraft as an instrument of the nation's Air Power.

During the Indo-Pak Operations of 1971, on the second day of December, the Hawks received a flash message for a move to Kumbhigram Sector. The missions undertaken by the Squadron in close support of the advancing ground troops, involved going in, right into the thick of the battle to take out enemy gun position and fortifications in the face of heavy attack and gun fire from combat ready enemy troops. Within the first six days of war the Squadron had successfully destroyed enemy gun positions and vital target systems in Brahmbaria, Maulavi bazaar, Munch bazaar, Sylhet, Kalaura, Narainganj, Dolanganj and Mainwati. In this War, for the first time in the history of IAF operations, helicopters were employed to air lift troops. The Squadron had the distinction of being the very first squadron of the Indian Air Force to provide top cover to helicopter engaged in airlift operations close to the Forward Edge of Battle Area.