A total of 166 gentleman cadets were on Saturday commissioned as officers in the army during 12th passing out parade at Officers Training Academy (OTA), Gaya. Of the 166 newly inducted officers, four are foreigners while 14 belong to Assam Rifles. Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, Chief of Staff, Afghan National Army, was the reviewing officer of the passing out parade while Lieutenant General B S Negi, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central command, was the chief host. Yaftali was welcomed in customary army's buggy by Lieutenant General B S Negi and OTA and Gaya's Commandant Lieutenant General V S Srinivas. The reviewing officer gave away the awards to cadets who performed well during the training. Dharmesh Kumar was awarded 'sword of honour' for his best performance in TES- 30 course. Addressing the function, Afghanistan's Army Chief of Staff congratulated gentelman cadets for their fine drill show and gave them best wishes for the future. "Cadets should imbibe the qualities of being a disciplined soldier to be successful in career", Yaftali admonished them. The OTA, Gaya is the third pre-commissioning military academy in the country and was raised on July, 2011 apart from Dehradun and Chennai. The OTA was established- near Paharpur village on Gaya-Dobhi main road- to train both new entrants and serving army personnel in different modes of conventional as well as non-conventional warfare.
