Military Career
Thein Sein graduated from the 9th intake of the Defense Services Academy with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968, becoming a second lieutenant afterward.
Throughout Thein Sein's four-decade-long military career, he was considered a bureaucrat, not a combat soldier. In 1988, he served as a major for Sagaing Division's 55th Light Infantry Division and later served as a commander for Sagaing Division's 89th Infantry Battalion in Kalay Township. The following year, he studied at the Command and General Staff College in Kalaw, Shan State. By 1991, he had returned to Yangon, after being promoted to the rank of colonel and 1st Grade General Staff Officer in the War Office. He was then promoted to Brigadier General, but remained at his position in the War Office, which marked the first time a Brigadier General was promoted to General Staff Officer. In 1995, he was recruited as the commander of Yangon Division's Military Operations Command 4 in Hmawbi. A year later, in 1996, he was appointed to lead the new Triangle Regional Military Command in Kyaingtong, Shan State, serving this role for four years (1997–2001). In 1997, he became a member of the State Peace and Development Council and was appointed as Secretary-2 in 2003. He was also promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General that year. After Khin Nyunt was deposed in 2004, Thein Sein was promoted to Secretary-1.
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