Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a retired Sri Lankan Army lieutenant colonel who became the 8th President of Sri Lanka in 2019. In July 2022, he came to the limelight after he escaped from Sri Lanka and resigned from his Presidentship.On 26 April 1971, Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the fourth batch of the Sri Lankan Army Training Center as an officer cadet after completing his schooling.On 26 May 1972, after completing his military training, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was commissioned into the Sri Lankan Armys Signal Corps as a second lieutenant. A photograph of Gotabaya Rajapaksa (left) as a second lieutenant.A few months after his commissioning, in 1972, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sent to Pakistan by the Sri Lankan Army to complete his signals young officers course.Later, in the same year, after Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka from Pakistan, he was posted as a signal officer to the Task Force Anti Illicit Immigration (TF-AII).After getting promoted to the rank of lieutenant, in 1974, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sent as an infantry officer to an infantry regiment of the Sri Lankan Army named the Sinhala Regiment.Gotabaya Rajapaksa was once again sent to Pakistan by the Sri Lankan Army to attend the infantry young officers course at the School of Infantry and Tactics. He completed the course in Pakistan and returned to Sri Lanka in June 1975.In the same year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was promoted to the rank of captain, and he was posted as an intelligence officer; an appointment which he held until 1977.Later, in 1977, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was posted in the administrative branch of the Diyatalawa Garrison as a Grade 3 Staff Officer (GSO-3).In 1977, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sent to attend a senior staff and tactics course, conducted by the Sri Lankan Army.