Hailing from the Sainik School Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi and Army Chief Designate Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi were together in the school from class 5th-A in the early 1970s.
For the first time in Indian military history, two classmates, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi and Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, will be service chiefs of Indian Army and Navy.
“This rare honour of nurturing two prodigious students, who would go on to lead their respective Services 50 years later, goes to Sainik School, Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh,” Defence Ministry Spokesperson A Bharat Bhushan Babu said in a tweet.
The appointments of the two classmates have also come around the same time, in a gap of around two months.
Admiral took over the command of the Indian Navy on May 1, while General Dwivedi would be taking over his new appointment tomorrow.
Lieutenant General Dwivedi has had a long tenure as the Northern Army Commander where he has had long exposure to the ongoing operations in the military standoff on the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
He currently serves as the 46th Vice Chief of Army Staff.On 11 June 2024, the Government of India appointed Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi as the next Chief of Army Staff. He will assume the charge of Chief of Army Staff effective June 30, 2024 when General Manoj Pande demits office upon superannuation. He was previously tenanting the appointment of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, prior to that he served as the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (Information Systems and Coordination)and as the General Officer Commanding IX Corps.
Born on July 1, 1964, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi was commissioned into the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles of the Indian Army on December 15, 1984.
(with inputs from ANI)