Indian army, navy chiefs alumnus of same Sainik School in rare coincidence

The incoming Indian Army chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi and Indian Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi were classmates in the 1970s at Sainik School in Madhya Pradesh'sRewa district, about 780 km southeast of New Delhi.

Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, currently the Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS), will become the 30th Chief of the Indian Army, succeeding General Manoj Pande, on Sunday (June 30th). Commissioned into the 18 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles or JAK RIF on 15 December 1984, Lt Gen Dwivedi is an alumnus of Sainik School, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, like the current Indian Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi.

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This is the first time that two alumni of the same Sainik School will be heading their respective services. The Sainik Schools are a system of public schools in India established and managed by the Sainik Schools Society under Union defence ministry.

Classmates of 5th-A from Sainik School, Rewa

Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi and Army Chief Designate Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi were together in the school from class 5th-A in the early 1970s.

The appointments of the two classmates from the Rewa School have also come around the same time, in a gap of around two months.

Admiral Dinesh Tripathi took over the command of the Indian Navy on 1st May, while Lt Gen Dwivedi would be taking over his new appointment on 30th June.

"For the first time in Indian Military history, Chiefs of Navy and Army hail from the same school. 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 Bharat Bhushan Babu said in a post on X.

Interestingly, until April, the then-Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande, and Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhary all hailed from the same Batch of the National Defense Academy. But that's not unusual since NDA is the common mediator in the becoming of young Indians into soldiers of armed forces. But the chiefs of army and navy hailing from the same school isunique and fascinating.

(With inputs from agencies)