After completing his schooling, he was promoted to artillery lieutenant on 1 September 1911. A month later, he was assigned to the Danube Field Artillery Regiment. In the First Balkan War he held the same rank of Lieutenant as in the Second Balkan War. World War I found him in the position of commander of the second battery of the first division in the Danube Artillery Regiment part of the First Army under the command of general Petar Bojović and general Živojin Mišić. After the end of the Battle of Kolubara on 28 February 1915 he was promoted to the rank of artillery Captain (second class) and transferred to the commander of a battery as an aid to the Montenegrin Army. He held the same rank at the Battle of Mojkovac during the retreat towards Shkodra. In Shkodra he was captured on 9 January 1916 and taken to the Grednig camp where he remained until before the end of the First World War.