Meet Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra: From Leading IAF’s Western Air Command to Managing Ram Mandir

Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, SYSM, AVSM, VSM, has spent most of his adult life in cockpits, command posts and planning rooms of the Indian Air Force. On 2 September 2026, four months after superannuation, he was appointed the first full-time Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the body that administers the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The appointment marks an unusual passage from one of the IAF’s most demanding operational commands to the professional management of a shrine of national significance.

He described the selection, made from 5,585 applicants, as both good fortune and a blessing. “I consider this a great fortune that they chose me from so many candidates. I also consider this the blessings of Lord Ram that after 43 years of service to the nation in the Air Force, He has given me the opportunity to serve Sri Ram Mandir and Sri Ram bhakts,” he told ANI. He added that he would look ahead rather than dwell on the past and would seek the capability to discharge the responsibility well.

Roots in Deoria, training across three countries

Mishra belongs to Bhopatpura village in Bankata block of Deoria district, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Nathuni Mishra, was a lecturer who later taught commerce at Delhi University. The family now lives in Delhi. He is married to Sarita Singh, a former president of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association. They have a son and a daughter. His brother, Dr Devendra Mishra, holds an administrative post at a medical college in Delhi; his sister, Dr Vandana Mishra, is a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

He joined the National Defence Academy (69 Course) and was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on 6 December 1986 from the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, as part of the 138 Course. Service number 18575 F(P) followed him through nearly four decades in uniform. He later qualified as a Fighter Combat Leader and an experimental test pilot at the Air Force Test Pilots School, Bengaluru. Staff education took him to the Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama, and to the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom. Over his career he accumulated more than 3,000 flying hours on more than 18 types of fighter, transport and helicopter aircraft.

From squadron command to the test-pilot community

The early and middle years of his career combined operational flying with the specialised work of experimental test flying. As a Squadron Leader at the start of the Kargil conflict, he was part of the team that operationalised laser-guided bombs on the Mirage 2000. Those weapons were used in strikes linked to Tiger Hill and Muntho Dhalo during Operation Safed Sagar.

As a Wing Commander he commanded a MiG-21 squadron of the MOFTU Braveheart formation at Tezpur from June 2003 to June 2005. He later served as Chief Test Pilot at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Nasik Division and as Chief Test Pilot at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment in Bengaluru. Staff assignments at Air Headquarters included Director of the Operational Planning and Assessment Group and Director (Projects) for aircraft upgrades, among them Su-30 MKI Block IV and BrahMos integration. In June 2010 he led the IAF contingent at the multinational exercise Garuda IV in France.

The Vishisht Seva Medal, awarded on 26 January 2013 when he was a Group Captain, recorded those years in official language: high serviceability of an ageing MiG-21 fleet under his command, timely production standards on newly built Su-30 MKIs, and the smooth conduct of Garuda IV. The citation also noted his work as Chief Operations Officer of a Su-30 MKI base and his subsequent role in revising operational philosophies at Air Headquarters.

Command of bases, ASTE and the Integrated Defence Staff

As an Air Commodore he commanded two frontline formations: No. 15 Wing at Bareilly (December 2013–August 2015) and No. 18 Wing at Pathankot (February 2016–August 2017). He then held the Air Staff Requirements portfolio at Air Headquarters before promotion to Air Vice Marshal in 2019.

As Air Vice Marshal he served as Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Projects) and, from June 2020 to December 2022, as Commandant of ASTE, the IAF’s principal flight-test establishment. Promoted Air Marshal on 1 January 2023, he moved to Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, first as Deputy Chief (Doctrine, Organisation and Training) and, from 5 December 2023, as Deputy Chief (Operations). Those appointments placed him at the junction of single-service and tri-service planning immediately before he took an operational command of his own.

Western Air Command and Operation Sindoor

On 1 January 2025, Mishra assumed charge as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Air Command, succeeding Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha. The Ministry of Defence noted his record as a Fighter Combat Leader and experimental test pilot and listed the command, staff and test appointments that preceded the posting. Western Air Command is responsible for a belt running from Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir through Punjab, Haryana and adjoining sectors. Its inventory during his tenure included Rafale, Su-30 MKI and MiG-29 fighters, attack helicopters, a large transport fleet, S-400 air-defence systems and BrahMos units.

Four months later, in May 2025, the command was at the centre of Operation Sindoor, launched after the Pahalgam terror attack. Mishra directed offensive air operations and air defence on the western front. After the operation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the forward base at Adampur, where Mishra briefed him. On the eve of Independence Day 2025, President Droupadi Murmu approved the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal for seven senior commanders of the campaign. Mishra was one of four IAF recipients. The medal, the highest Indian decoration for distinguished service in war or conflict, had been awarded only a handful of times before that group. He had already received the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2024. He retired on 30 April 2026 after 16 months in command.

A new cockpit in Ayodhya

The Trust created the CEO post after a controversy over alleged theft of donations, resignations among office-bearers, and a decision to separate day-to-day administration from trustee-level governance. A search committee examined thousands of applications, conducted virtual interactions and held in-person interviews in Ayodhya. Three names were recommended. The Trust selected Mishra. The term is reported as three years. Expected functions include security, logistics, crowd management, financial oversight and long-term planning for the temple and its donations. The Trust also appointed new trustees and reassigned the posts of general secretary and treasurer in the same meeting.

Mishra reached Ayodhya shortly after the announcement. He has said that managerial principles are universal and must be adapted to the organisation on the ground, whether military, corporate or an institution of the temple’s standing. He has also said that it is too early to announce specific plans before he formally takes charge and understands the Trust’s directions. “It is a transition from uniform to non-uniform, but it is again an opportunity to serve the nation,” he remarked.

The career that now feeds that task is unusually broad for a single officer: fighter combat leadership, experimental test flying, squadron and base command, aircraft-upgrade projects, tri-service staff work, and wartime command of the IAF’s principal western formation. Those elements do not by themselves determine how a temple trust will be run. They do, however, explain why the Trust looked beyond conventional administrative profiles when it chose its first CEO. The measure of the appointment will lie in whether the same habits of planning, accountability and operational clarity that marked his years in uniform can be applied, with appropriate restraint, to the administration of a place of worship that draws millions of devotees.