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Commander Invited to Meet His Former Course Mates at Pakistan's School of Armour and Mechanized Warfare

Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army, now in Pakistan at the request of his Pakistan’s counterpart, was privileged to walk down memory lane on Wednesday (4) when he was invited to be the Chief Guest at a special get-together where he would meet his former course mates at Pakistan’s School of Armour and Mechanized Warfare (SA & MW) at Nowshera cantonment in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

The visiting Commander on arrival at the Pakistan’s School of Armour and Mechanized Warfare at Nowshera cantonment was warmly received and later explained how those vital wings in the Pakistan Army operate depending on demand for training in these fields of professionalism before the get-together.     

It was indeed a moment of pride to the visiting Commander of the Army since memories would never fade away as the saying goes. All his yesterday’s Pakistani course mates are today’s senior high ranking officers in Pakistan Army and they too were exceptionally thrilled at the prospect of seeing his fellow-course mates again after absence of so many years, now as the Army Chief in Sri Lanka.
    
Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya bringing back lots of good memories when he was following the Young Officers Course AC-46 in 1980 to become the 1st in order of merit as the 2nd Lieutenant and his subsequent pursuit of knowledge in the Mid Career Course as a Major of Sri Lanka Army at the same prestigious SA & MW in 1988, recalled how a melange of different cultures and ethnicities during those two periods followed the courses in a remarkably pleasant milieu during the tenure of Brigadier Rao, the SA & MW Commandant at that time.   

Towards the end of the interactive social get-together, the visiting Chief Guest was honoured by his former fellow-course mates awarding him a special memento as a token of their cherished memories.  

SA & MW in Nowshera, whose founding history dates back to the year 1947, is one of the elite institutions of Pakistan Army and has the honour of training more than 600 foreign students to-date. During 2000-2012, the SA & MW has provided training to 74 officers in the Sri Lanka Army in Armour Course, Junior Staff Course, Mid-Career Course, Armour Officers Advanced Technique Course and Radio and Armour Instructor Course.  
    
Nowshera cantonment which has also been entrusted the training of all mechanized troops of Pakistan Army over a span of six decades has improved tremendously and is situated in the medium-sized Nowshera city, having a number of Army training establishments.          
    
The Commander, himself from the cavalry, had a very close review of the methodology, pertaining to their training curricular and shared his views with a few instructors who were present at the location.