[3] Moolgavkar was commissioned into the Indian Air Force as an acting Pilot Officer on 30 November 1940.

He flew the Supermarine Spitfire in escort fighter role in supply dropping missions.

[4] He had multiple crushed vertebrae which required surgery and he spent about six months with his back in plaster.

Moolgavkar led the planning and execution of close air support during Operation Bison in Zoji La.

He was among four IAF officers who were awarded the MVC during the war, the other three being Air Commodore Mehar Singh and Wing Commanders Minoo Merwan Engineer and Sidney Basil Noronha.

[9] The citation for the Maha Vir Chakra reads as follows:[10][11] Gazette Notification: 59 Pres/51,1.12.51 Operation: 1947 Indo Pak Kashmir War Date of Award: 08 Dec 1951

In spite of having to plan out as well as conduct operations from both Jammu and Srinagar, this officer made time to take the air whenever the more difficult and dangerous commitments had to be carried out.

The air attack on the well defended Domel bridge and the Uri and Saadabad sectors was led and directed by Wing Commander Moolgavkar personally.

This attack not only exposed them to the fire of the anti-aircraft guns but also brought him within the dangerous probability of their aircraft entering the “Compressibility Zones” with a risky load of bombs at high altitudes.

The effective support that the IAF was able to render the Army during these operations was in no small measures due to his determination, initiative and drive in planning and co-ordinating the offensive to success.After the war, in March 1950, he commanded a detachment of de Havilland Vampire aircraft, which were recently received by the IAF.

He led the detachment touring South India and in flying demonstrations in Bombay, Poona, Bangalore and Madras.

He was promoted to the acting rank of Group Captain and appointed Director of Operations at Air HQ in May 1952.

The team rejected the Supermarine Swift, and chose the Folland Gnat, a decision which would hold India and the IAF in good stead during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

In October 1962, the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 arrived in India for a tour of demonstration flights.

[5] Promoted to the acting rank of Air Vice Marshal on 25 January 1967, he took command of the newly created HQ Western India at Pune.

On 1 April 1971, he was promoted to the acting rank of Air Marshal and appointed Commandant of the National Defence College in New Delhi.

He won the Staff Pilots Championship Trophy for firing rockets from a single-seater Hunter aircraft.

The Moolgavkars, Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu by caste, had two children - a son Dr. Prakash and a daughter Jyoti.

[3] Jyoti later wrote the biography of the former CAS titled Leading from the Cockpit: A Fighter Pilot’s Story.