General Om Prakash Malhotra, (6 August 1922 – 29 December 2015), best known as OP Malhotra, was a senior army officer in the Indian Army who served as the 10th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 19781981. Upon retiring from his military service in India, he served in the Indian Foreign Service when he tenured as the Indian Ambassador to Indonesia 1981-1984, and later served as a political administrator in India as the Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh 1990-1991. Early life Om Prakash Malhotra was born on 6 August 1922 in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, British India, into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family of the Malhotra clan, within the Dhai Ghar family-group. Malhotra received his schooling first at Model High School, Srinagar, and then at Sri Pratap College, Srinagar. He then attended Government College University, Lahore, before being selected to join the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dera Doon. Military career He was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery as a Second Lieutenant in November 1941. His first assignment was with 26 (Jacobs) Mountain Battery in Razmak, North West Frontier Province. He was later assigned to 15 (Jhelum) Mountain Battery which, as part of the 50th Parachute Brigade, fought against the Japanese during the Second World War on the Burmese front. He distinguished himself as a young officer in the Battle of Sangshak where he was wounded in action. He later became Second-in-Command of 13 (Dardoni) Mountain Battery. Malhotra became an instructor at the School of Artillery in Deolali, and in 1946 attended the Long Gunnery Staff Course at the Royal School of Artillery in Larkhill, United Kingdom. He commanded artillery regiments across India between November 1950 and July 1961 including 37 Coorg Anti Tank Regiment, 20 Locating Regiment and 42 Field Regiment. In between he served at Army HQ, New Delhi, did the Defense Services Staff College course at Wellington and was later an instructor at the Defense Services Staff College, Wellington. He was then posted from 1962 to 1965 as the Military and Naval Attaché of India to the USSR, concurrently accredited to Poland and Hungary, holding the local rank of brigadier in the role. Upon return from Moscow in August 1965, Malhotra commanded 1 Artillery Brigade, part of 1 Armoured Division and fought in Sialkot Sector during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. After the ceasefire with Pakistan he commanded 167 Mountain Brigade at