THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Lieutenant General Cherish Mathson, hailing from Tiruvalla, has been appointed general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) of the Jaipur-based South Western Command of the Indian Army. Gen Mathson, who belongs to the 1976 batch at Sainik School, Kazhakoottam, is at present commanding Sudarshan Chakra Corps in Bhopal. Indian Army has seven commands and the South Western command guards the area from Ranjitsinh Pura in the Jaisalmer-Bikaner sector to Abohar-Fazilka in Punjab.
Gen. Mathson, son of the late Oommen Maliekal and the late Susy Oommen, hails from an agrarian family and was commissioned into the Garhwal Rifles in June 1980. He is a graduate from the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and has attended various important career courses which include Senior Command Course at Army War College, Mhow, Long Defence Management Course at Secunderabad and the prestigious National Defence Course at New Delhi and in the Republic of South Africa. He has won gallantry medals Sena Medal and Vishist Seva Medal.
The general has considerable experience in varied operational assignments across India. He has fought in rural and urban insurgency/ terrorism situations in Mizoram against Mizo National Front (MNF) and in Operation Bluestar in Amritsar. He has commanded a battalion on the Line of Control with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir during Operation Parakram. He has served two tenures on Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield. He has also commanded the Trivandrum Brigade which he transformed to an amphibious role (akin to US marines). As major general, he commanded an infantry division based in Hyderabad and the Special Frontier Force operationally deployed on the Eastern and Northern borders of India. Lt. Gen Mathson is married to Mareena Mathson and the couple has a son Gideon Thomas Mathson.
