Early life

Singh attended St Francis College and La Martiniere College

La Martiniere College

La Martiniere is a non-denominational public school in India and in France .La Martiniere Schools were founded posthumously by Major General Claude Martin in the early 19th century. Martin had acquired a large fortune while serving the Nawab of Awadh Asaf-ud-Daula and bequeathed a major part of...

 in Lucknow

Lucknow

Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. In 1987 he was an officer in the Indian Marines special forces (later MARCOS

Marcos

-Sports:* Dayton Marcos, Negro League baseball team from Dayton, Ohio * Nélson Marcos, Portuguese footballer* Marcos Ambrose, Australian racing driver currently competing in NASCAR* Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player...

).

Career

As a cadet

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

 at the Naval Academy, Cochin, Arvind Singh was awarded the President's Gold Medal for best cadet in 1980. A meritorious naval officer, he was soon selected for the BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition School)/ SEAL

Seal

Seal commonly refers to:* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals many of which are commonly called seals* Seal , a device which helps prevent leakage, contain pressure, or exclude contamination where two systems join...

 course at San Diego, USA, and emerged from the course with flying colours.

He was thereafter deployed to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 with the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Forces) at the helm of the newly raised Indian Marine Special Forces or IMSF (later MARCOS

Marcos

-Sports:* Dayton Marcos, Negro League baseball team from Dayton, Ohio * Nélson Marcos, Portuguese footballer* Marcos Ambrose, Australian racing driver currently competing in NASCAR* Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player...

). As part of the Operations conductd by the IMSF in Sri Lanka he was awarded India's second highest Gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra

Maha Vir Chakra

The Maha Vir Chakra is the second highest military decoration in India and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It may be awarded posthumously. Literally Maha Veer means extraordinarily brave.-Appearance:The medal is made...

, thereby becoming one of only nine as well as the youngest ever recipient in the Indian Navy. The follwing is the citation of the MVC

MVC

MVC may refer to:* Maha Vir Chakra, a military decoration in India* Marvel vs. Capcom, a video game series* Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes* Monroe County Airport's IATA airport code...

 awarded to Lt Singh:

Lieutenant Arvind Singh was the Officer-in-Charge of the Indian Marine Special Force (IMSF) team which along with 10 Para Commandos was given certain specific tasks as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force operation in Sri Lanka.

Lieutenant Singh leading a team broke out from Jaffna Fort at 1430 hours on 19 October, 1987. During this operation, the team had to negotiate through heavily mined road - with booby traps laid by the militants. The team was under militants' fire from buildings and roof-tops. Lieutenant Singh by his personal example of bravery motivated his men to secure the area which resulted in link up of 41 Brigade with 1 Maratha Light Infantry on 20th October 1987.

On the Night of 21/22 October 1987, IMSF team under his leadership was tasked to destroy Guru Nagar Jetty and the militant speed Boats in the Jaffna Lagoon. The team successfully placed and detonated explosive charges and extensively damaged the Jetty and destroyed six militant speed boats. In order to destroy the remaining militant speed boats, the team reached its destination by swimming over a mile underwater and successfully planted demolition charges in 11 speed boats, kept ready for the escape of hard core militants. Before the charges could be exploded, the team came under heavy fire from the militants. Lieutenant Arvind Singh once again effectively took charge of the situation and provided diversion by exposing himself to militants' fire without regard to his life and personal safety.

'This act inspired his men who accomplished the task of destruction of all of the speed boats.

Lieutenant Arvind Singh thus displayed exceptional devotion to duty and gallantry in utter disregard to his personal safety.

In 1993, he was involved in the interdiction and destruction of an LTTE ship off Madras. For his actions, he was awarded his second gallantry award - the Nao Sena Medal

Nao Sena Medal

Nao Sena Medal is a gallantry award for servicemen in the Indian Navy. It was established by the President of India, 17 June 1960.Obverse: The medal was originally described as a pentagonal silver medal, with concave edges, but it appears this design was never issued and the design was altered in...

 (Gallantry).

He was selected for the Staff Course in 1995 at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington Cantonment

Wellington Cantonment

Wellington is a cantonment town in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu. It is the Regimental Centre for the Madras Regiment of the Indian Army. One of its most famous residents was Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who died in the town on June 27, 2008....

, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. From 1996 to 1999 he was involved in staff duties at NHQ (Naval Headquarters). Thereafter he assumed role of XO (Executive Officer) on board INS Ranvir (D54); During his tenure at Ranvir, the ship earned the trophy for the best ship, the missile trophy as well as the best galley. This was followed up by a successful stint as CO of the 5665 ton INS Gharial (L23)

INS Gharial (L23)

INS Gharial is a Magar class amphibious warfare vessel of the Indian Navy....

 LST

LST

LST is a three-character initialism that may refer to:* Landing Ship, Tank, a U.S. Navy ship class, of type Amphibious Warfare* Laplace-Stieltjes transform, a transform similar to the Laplace transform* Launceston Airport* Least slack time scheduling...

 (Landing Ship Tank) which conducted numerous successful beachings and retrievals in various exercises under his command. In 2003 he was given command of the Navy's premier Special Forces Establishment, INS Abhimanyu near Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

.

In 2004, he was promoted to Captain and completed a one year stint as CO of INS chilka, a large naval NCO training establishment near the Chilka lake

Chilka Lake

Chilka Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Orissa state on the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal...

 in Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

. On account of his meritorious services, he was selected for the Air Higher Command Course at the College of Air Warfare (CAW), Secundrabad, Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

 in 2005.

He was Director of Diving & Special Operations at NHQ from 2006 to 2007 and thereafter assumed command of INS Ranjit

INS Ranjit

The following ships of the Indian Navy have been named Ranjit: was a R class destroyer acquired in 1949 from the Royal Navy, where it served in World War II as is a Rajput class destroyer, currently in active service with the Indian Navy...

 (D53) until 2009. In view of his exemplary performance he was nominated to attend the prestigious Higher Command Course at the National Defence College, New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

.