He completed six grades of gymnasium in Kruševac, then finished the 33rd class of the Military Academy in Belgrade in 1903, with the rank of infantry lieutenant.

He subsequently joined the Serbian Chetnik Organization, and in 1905, crossed the Serbian-Ottoman border into Old Serbia with a company.

Together with Lazar Kujundžić and Savatije Milošević he turned and went for Poreče, through Kosovo and Podgora, in order to bypass Ottoman harassing in the Kumanovo region.

Milovanović, as a Serbian officer, was to establish the headquarters of Western Povardarje.

The company was betrayed in Velika Hoča on May 25, 1905, by local Albanians who had promised (see besa) their security, thus they were forced to battle the Ottoman Army and neighbouring Albanian kachaks.