Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cyriac (Cyri- ac) Chemmangattu was born as the 4th out of the 8 children of Late Thommy and Mariamma Chem- mangattu Koodalloor Kottayam on the 25th of January 1957! His schooling was in St Joseph’s UP School Koodalloor, Saint Patrick’s Anglo In- dian High School, Adyar, Madras and Saint Mary’s High School Kidangoor from where he passed his SSLC. Thereafter Lt Col Cyriac did his Pre- Degree Course in Saint Thomas College Palai. On completion of PDC, he joined the Indi- an Army as an Inventory Clerk! On completion of training in the Army as an Inventory Clerk, he appeared for an all India test and was selected to the Army Cadets College in the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun! During the 4 years of train- ing at the Indian Military Academy, besides un- dergoing Military Training, Lt Col Cyriac did his graduation and obtained BA Degree from Jawa- harlal Nehru University Delhi ! At the end of the 4 years training at IMA Dehradun, he passed out as a Second Lieutenant into the Army Ordnance Corps and his first posing was with an Infantry battalion in Mizoram During a total of 30 years of service in the Indian Army, Lt Colo- nel Cyriac served in 19 places all over In- dia which also includ- ed a very prestigious posting as a Captain to Somalia Africa as part of the UN Peace- keeping Operation (Operation UNOSOM II) dur- ing the years 1992-1993 During his Military Career he was honored to be the Officer Com- manding (OC) of 2 military units as a Major and as the Commanding Officer (CO) of a large Mil- itary Unit in the Western Sector! Lt Colonel Tho- mas Cyriac’s last assignment was on deputation with DRDO in Research Centre Imarat Hydera- bad which is a premier Missile Research Estab- lishment from where he sought voluntary retire- ment on 30th November 2005!
After retiring from the Army, the Colonel worked in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman for 2 years and then migrated with family to NY in USA! Col Cyriac is married to Ancy Ko- sapallil and the couple has a Daughter and a Son who are both Engineers in USA! While in the Army, besides doing MBA from Sym- biosis Institute of Management Studies Pune, Col Cyriac did a number of courses in Ar- mament and Ammunition Technology and also in Management. The Colonel believes strongly that there is no alternative to Hard Work and Prayer and believes in the Motto ” There is no Crown, without a Cross “!
