Welcome new Army Chief Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapoor

July 27: A veteran of the 1971 war with Pakistan, having all the big feathers of Army in his cap, and the distinction of three master degrees, Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapoor has been named the next Army Chief succeeding Gen. Joginder Jaswant Singh.

Following the principle of seniority the cabinet committee on appointments finalized his name as the successor of Gen. J J Singh who is retiring on September 30 2007.

His contenders left behind by him in the race are Lt Gen Daljeet Singh from Western Army Command and Lt. Gen Aditya Singh.

LT. Gen Kapoor has been a student of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and had various medals to his credit. He commanded 161 brigade on line of control in Jammu and Kashmir in 1998 for which he was awarded the ‘Sena medal’. An artillery officer Lt. Gen. was awarded Ati Vishisht Sewa Medal for the excellent command of the 33 corps deployed on Indo-China border. He has been the Chief of Staff of 4 corps in the North-East.

He commanded the RAM a reorganized infantry cum-armour division during Operation Parakram.

He also commanded the Army Training Command at Shimla. Just after the three years of induction in Army Lt. Gen participated in 1971 war with Pakistan. He also served as the chief operation officer of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia.

The senior most officer in Army decorates his collar with almost all the medals of distinction PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC.