At the age of fourteen he volunteered for service in World War I and joined a komit unit led by Kosta Vojinović.

In early October 1915, he was wounded while fighting Bulgarian troops, before taking part in the Serbian army's retreat through Albania in the winter of 1915, and the Salonika front offensive in September 1918.

As a World War I volunteer, he was later awarded a five hectare plot of land near Uroševac in southern Kosovo by King Alexander I.

In 1932, he became a member of the Yugoslav gendarmerie and was stationed in a series of cities around Kingdom of Yugoslavia, including Priština, Split, Mostar, Peć and Prizren.

During the outbreak of World War II and the 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia he was in Prizren, where he joined the Yugoslav Partisans.