New Deputy Chief of Staff Begins His Office at Army HQ

Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc of the Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the newly-appointed Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS), 3rd most senior appointment of the Army assumed office on Friday (15 Dec) at the Army HQ during a simple ceremony.

As Buddhist monks began chanting ‘Seth Pirith’, Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc signed an official document symbolizing the acceptance of the new office. Later on, he offered ‘Pirikara’ and ‘Gilanpasa’ to the monks and received spiritual blessings.

At present, Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc in addition is performing duties as the Colonel Commandant of Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Senior Officers, Staff Officers at the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) and Other Ranks joined the occasion.

Here is a brief profile of Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc;

Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc was enlisted in the Regular Force of the Sri Lanka Army as an Officer Cadet on 22 February 1988. Upon successful completion of military training at the Sri Lanka Military Academy - Diyatalawa in the Intake 29, he was commissioned in the rank of Second Lieutenant and posted to the Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers on 16 December 1989. After being steadily elevated to subsequent Ranks in the course of the span of service in the Army, he was promoted to the rank of Major General on 18 May 2021.

Throughout his military career, he has served in Command, Staff, and Instructional appointments exemplifying his extraordinary capacities in respective appointments in the Sri Lanka Army and also he has served overseas as the technical officer for Sri Lankan contingent in the UN Peace-keeping Mission in Haiti during his three decades of military career.

He has followed many local and foreign courses during his military career, such as Modern Motor Vehicle Technology Course, Unit Commander Refresher Course, Young Officer Course (India), Psychological Operations Training Course (USA), Workshop Company Commander Course (India), Financial Management, Logistic Material Management and Human Resource Management Course (Pakistan), Senior Officer EME Course (India), Ground Artillery Repair Engineer Course (China), Higher Defence Management Course (India) and Logistic Staff Course (Pakistan).

The Senior Officer has also followed a number of higher educational and non-military courses such as Master of Management Studies (MMS) and MSC in Logistic and Supply Chain Management and the International Higher Diploma Certificate in Computer Programme. With his profession, he has become a member of the Automobile Association of Ceylon (AA), the Institute of Management of Sri Lanka (MIM), the Chartered Institute of Logistic and Transport International (CMILT) and a member of the Institute of Automobile Engineers (MIAE). He is also a honorary member of the College of Military Engineering and Technology Sri Lanka (CMETSL).

Further, Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc is widely known as a professional and veteran national award winning racing driver and motorcycle racing rider in Sri Lanka. He has held number of appointments in the sphere of motor sports. He is also the chairman of the Army Motor Sports Committee.

Major General S.P.A.I.M.B Samarakoon Hdmc Lsc to his credit has been extensively involved in the designing of the Diyatha Uyana broadwalk restaurant, flower stalls and aquarium, new bus halts in the Colombo metropolitan area during his tenure as Colonel Project at Directorate of EME at AHQ.

His expertise also resulted in the production of the state-of-the art heavy vehicles of international standards for the Army, such as Unicolt trucks, Aimov and Unicob, APCs vehicles.