Major M J Salgadu RSP USP SLE
COMMANDING OFFICER 14 SLE
BRIEF HISTORY
With the expansions of the Army to fight against the LTTE, the requirement was aroused to establish another engineer battalion to support the infantry divisions. Also at the final stage of the operation, four divisions and three task forces were attacking to the LTTE’s final holding position from seven directions. In this background with direction of Secretary of Defense, the Commander of the Army has decided to raise 14 Engineer Regiment (initially as a reinforcement regiment) to support the infantry divisions on 15 July 2008at Thrikonamadu. Major NKLSR Dias RSP SLE (O/61072) was the first Commanding Officer and Major DNC Serasinghe SLE (O/62484) was the first Second in Command at the commencement of the regiment.
Further, there were 13 officers and 551 other rankers to carry out the assigned duties in the regiment’s commencement. On the same day, the regiment was shifted to Periyamadu for participating the humanitarian operation. The part of troops were transported to Periyamadu by air and rest of them were transported by busses through Pampemadu, Madu church and Palampidy. Initially the regiment was assigned to perform the infantry duties as per the requirement in the battlefield under different brigades and divisions such as 571Bde in Thunukkai, 572Bde, 573Bde in Ampakamam, 621Bde in Udayarkattukulam, 623Bde in Pudukuduirippu, 682Bdes in Walliwarmpuram and so on.
On 01 January 2010, Lieutenant Colonel WANS Perera SLE took over the duties as second Commanding Officer of the 14 Engineer regiment.After the repositioning of divisions and brigades, unit was kept under the 682 Brigade under command to 68 Division.While performing duties under 682 Brigade, many troops were deployed to assist the resettlement of Internally Displaced Personals (IDPs) in the cleared areas and coordinate many CIMIC activities. During this process, 14 Engineer Regiment troops constructed a nursery building at Walliwarmpuram area for villagers.In this period, Lieutenant Colonel DCA Wickramasinghepsc USACGSE SLE and Major WS Gamage RSP psc SLE took over the duties as third Commanding Officer and third Second in Command of the unit respectively.
After end of the war, it was a national requirement for accelerating of humanitarian demining process in war affected areas before the resettlement of IDPs. During this humanitarian demining operation, troops recovered 24825 mines, 9800 unexploded explosive ordinance and nearly 3000 improvised explosive devices. Due to the Humanitarian Demining process, 14 Engineer Regiment was released from infantry role and deployed for fulltime humanitarian demining role as a classic field engineer regiment. This was continued from 2010 to mid of 2014.
On 10 July 2010, the unit was transferred from Pudukuduirippu to Kachchigala at Embilipitiya to provide the field and plant engineering duties of classic role in SFHQ (Central) AOR while one squadron of 03 x 75 remained at Pudukuduirippu to assist 11 Field Engineer Regiment to continue with the humanitarian demining process.Since the unit was converted into the classic engineer role, the name of 14 Engineer Regiment was changed into 14 Field Engineer Regiment SLE.
On 05 October 2015, the unit was undergone the Battalion Training Course at Sri Lanka School of Military Engineering (SLSME) up to 07 December 2015. Intermittently in the battalion course, the unit was transformed to 14 Independent Engineer Regiment on 10 October 2015 as per the ARO 20/2015. It was established at Mattegoda on 09 November 2015 in order to deliver the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear (CBRN) response tasks. Lieutenant Colonel TDP Siriwardanepsc SLE was the Commanding Officer of the unit.On the same day, the Independent EOD squadron was reformed into two squadrons and amalgamated with the unit as 141 and 142 squadrons. Similarly, Independent CBRN Response squadron was also placed under the 14 Independent Engineer Regiment as 143 Squadron.
The activities around Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear materials have gone up with the rapid development of the country. With comparison to that the probability level of occurrence of such disasters also gone to a high point. Therefore, to face such situations very efficiently and effectively by using the best technical knowledge and instruments the CBRN response team was established as an independent squadron on 01 March 2015.This independent CBRN response squadron was also placed under the 14 Independent Engineer Regiment as 143 Squadron.Hence, 14 Independent Engineer Regiment was re-designated as 14 CBRN Regiment SLE on 20 April 2017.
APPOINTMENT HOLDERS
| Second In Command | O/65936 | Maj BDJ Rangajeewa USP psc SLE |
| Adjutant | O/70593 | Capt KAHS Keeragala SLE |
| Intelligence Officer | O/71694 | Lt RGC Ruchiranga SLE /td> |
| Quarter Master | O/66727 | Maj HMSCB Herath USP SLE |
| Regimental Sergeant Major | NO | |
| Artificer Sergeant Major (Field) | S/240599 | WO I JUN Jayawardana USP |
| Artificer Sergeant Major (Plant) | NO | |
| Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant | S/241611 | WO II Wickramasingha WMPS USP |
SQUADRON COMMANDERS
| 140 HQ Squadron | O/66727 | Maj HMSCB Herath USP SLE |
| 141 EOD Squadron | O/67544 | Maj ETAR Asanka SLE |
| 142 EOD Squadron | O/69266 | Maj KVP Gunasekara SLE |
| 143 CBRN Squadron | O/69335 | Maj HMRP Herath SLE |
| 144 DISASTER RESPONSE Squadron | O/68571 | Maj GGASPK Ganegoda SLE |
FORMER COMMANDING OFFICERs
| Lt Col NKLSR Dias RSP SLE (15/07/2008 – 31/12/2009) |
Lt Col WANS Perera USP SLE (31/12/2009 –16/03/2011) |
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| Lt Col DCA Wickramasinghe USP USACGSC SLE (16/03/2011–18/06/2012) |
Lt Col SDPC Arachchige SLE (05/07/2012 –10/08/2015) |
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| Lt Col TDP Siriwardane psc SLE (10/08/2015 –06/02/2018) |
Maj RDS Wijethunga USP SLE (06/02/2018 –26/08/2019) |
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| Lt Col MDJ Wickramaarachchi USP psc SLE (26/08/2019 –26/11/2020) |
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FORMER REGIMENTAL SARGENT MAJORs |
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| WO I MRA PERERA (15/07/2008 - 01/07/2009) |
WO I GM NAMAL WIMALASIRI (20/07/2009 - 30/07/2010) |
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| WO I WG DASANAYAKA (30/07/2010 - 07/03/2011) |
WO I OMS SENARATHNA (07/03/2011 - 31/12/2011) |
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| WO I A GAMINI (01/01/2012 – 22/07/2012) |
WO I SP PREMASIRI (23/07/2012 – 12/04/2013) |
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| WO I DML DISSANAYAKE (13/04/2013 – 17/07/2014) |
WO I GG SIRIPALA (18/07/2014 – 06/08/2015) |
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| WO I AD HARISHCHANDRA (07/08/2015 – 10/03/2017) |
WO I RM ANURABANDARA (11/03/2017 – 11/09/2018) |
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| WO I DMUG RANASINGHA BANDA (12/09/2018– 11/09/2019) |
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