Chandigarh/New Delhi, July 11 (IANS): Western army commander Lt.Gen. Philip Campose will be the next vice chief of army staff (VCOAS), an Army spokesman said Friday.
Campose will take over from Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, the current incumbent who takes over as the Army chief Aug 1.
Campose will hand over his charge of the frontline western command to Lt Gen. Kamal Jit Singh, an Armoured Corps officer, Aug 1.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla (Pune) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun, Campose was commissioned into the 9 Gorkha Rifles in 1974. He was later seconded to the newly-constituted Regiment of Mechanised Infantry in 1982.
A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he also attended the Higher Command Course, Mhow, and the National Defence College, New Delhi. He has been awarded the Vishist Seva Medal and the Ati Vishist Seva Medal for distinguished service.
Campose has commanded an independent armoured brigade, an infantry division on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and a corps in the western sector. He also headed a UN Peace Keeping mission in the former Yugoslavia and northern Iraq.
He is the current colonel commandant of the Mechanised Infantry Regiment.