K. R. Nair

Nair was commissioned in the Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RINVR) in 1942,^[2] and was promoted temporary acting lieutenant on 8 April 1943.^[3] In 1944, he attended a specialist anti-submarine course in the United Kingdom.^[2] On 21 January 1945, he was posted to HMIS Machlimar at Bombay, whose executive officer was Lieutenant-Commander Ram Dass Katari.^[4]

Nair was promoted to acting commander (paid) on 31 December 1949 and to substantive commander on 30 June 1951.^[5][6] On 3 January 1955, he was appointed CO, INS Venduruthy at Cochin with the acting rank of captain,^[7] receiving promotion to the substantive rank on 31 December 1955.^[8] He held several important commands, including CO of INS Rana, captain of the 22nd Destroyer Squadron and INS Valsura at Jamnagar.^[2] He was appointed Chief of Personnel (COP) at Naval Headquarters on 20 November 1959, in the rank of commodore,^[9] and served until 1963, when he was appointed chief of staff to the Flag Officer Commanding Indian Fleet (FOCIF),^[2] serving under Rear Admirals Adhar Kumar Chatterji and Benjamin Abraham Samson. In June 1965, he was appointed to a second tenure as Chief of Personnel and was promoted rear admiral in August when the post was raised to flag rank.^[2]

In July 1967, Nair was appointed the first Flag Officer East Coast, based at Vishakhapatnam.^[10] Eight months later, on 1 March 1968, he became the first Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command (FOC-in-C, ENC) when the post was upgraded. He was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) on 26 January 1969,^[11] and retired from the Navy in March 1971.^[12] He died in 2007.^[1]