NEW DELHI: For the first time in Indian military history, two classmates, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi and Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, will be service chiefs of Indian Army and Navy. Hailing from the Sainik School Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, 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 roll numbers of the two officers were also around each other, as Lt Gen Dwivedi's roll number was 931 and Admiral Tripathi's was 938. Their bonding was strong from the initial days in the school and they remained in touch all along, even though they were in different forces. A defence official who knows both the officers said that strong friendships among the senior leadership in the military matter a lot in strengthening the working relationship between the forces.

"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 A Bharat Bhushan Babu said in a tweet.

The appointments of the two classmates have also come around the same time, in a gap of around two months. Admiral took over the command of the Indian Navy on May 1, while Lt Gen Dwivedi would be taking over his new appointment tomorrow.

Lt Gen Dwivedi has had a long tenure as the Northern Army Commander where he has had long exposure to the ongoing operations in the military standoff on the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

Born on July 1, 1964, Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi was commissioned into the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles of the Indian Army on December 15, 1984.