Ceylon Volunteer Force and Colonel F. C. de Saram, Deputy Commandant; implicated and arrested, Heyn was appointed Commandant, Ceylon Volunteer Force and began restructuring regiments involved in the coup as majority were volunteer regiments. Colonel A.R. Udugama succeeded Heyn as Chief of Staff. In January 1964, when the Army Commander Major General H.W.G. Wijeyekoon was forced to retire, he was succeeded by Colonel Udugama who was below Heyn in the army seniority list. Given that the officers connected to the attempted coup were all Christian, Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike had preferred appointing Udugama over the more senior Heyn, given that the former was a Buddhist and kinsmen from a Kandyan Radala family.