By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Mar 1:
Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, took over as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C), Western Naval Command (WNC), from Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, who retired from service on superannuation on Tuesday.
Tripathi, took over at an impressive ceremonial parade held at INS Shikra located in South Mumbai, where he was given a guard of honour. On taking over, the he paid homage to all personnel who made the supreme sacrifice in service of the Nation by placing a floral wreath at the Gaurav Stambh (a Sea Memorial at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai).
Prior to taking over as FOC-in-C, Vice Admiral Tripathi served as the Chief of Personnel at the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) (Navy) in New Delhi.
He is an alumnus of Sainik School, Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla (Maharashtra). He graduated from the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington(Tamil Nadu), where he was awarded the “Thimmaiya Medal”. He also attended Naval Higher Command Course and Naval Command College at the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Islands in 2007-2008, where he won the prestigious “Robert E Bateman International Prize”.
He was commissioned into the Indian Navy on July 01, 1985. A Communication and Electronic Warfare specialist, he served on frontline warships of the Navy as Signal Communication Officer and Electronic Warfare Officer, and later as the Executive Officer and Principal Warfare Officer of Guided Missile Destroyer-”INS Mumbai”.
He commanded Indian Naval Ships-”Vinash”, “Kirch” and “Trishul”. He has also held various important operational and staff appointments which include Fleet Operations Officer of the Western Fleet at Mumbai, Director of Naval Operations, Principal Director Network Centric Operations and Principal Director Naval Plans at New Delhi. On promotion to the rank of Rear Admiral, he served as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) at IHQ MoD (Navy) and as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet.
On promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral in Jun 2019, he was appointed as Commandant of the prestigious Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala, Kerala. He was the Director General of Naval Operations from July 2020 to May 2021, a period that witnessed a high tempo of Naval Maritime Operations. He ensured that Navy remained a combat ready, cohesive and credible force, ready to address a host of complex security challenges despite all round severity of COVID Pandemic.
