[citation needed] 2 Lt Sami Khan joined the Indian Army on 10 January 1951 and was commissioned into the 4th Battalion the Madras Regiment.

In a career spanning 38 years, Lt Gen Khan served with the United Nations in Congo, and was awarded the Sena Medal.

He then attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and later became the Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General of the 69 Brigade in Chaubatiya (now in Uttaranchal).

Thereafter, the General took the battalion to Trivandrum and left for an instructor's job at the Central Command, Lucknow as the GSO 1 (Ops) Air.

After spending two-and-a-half to three years as such, he was posted as a full colonel and instructor to the Infantry School Mhow (near Indore in Madhya Pradesh).