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I have heard via DF twitter that the death has occurred of former UNIFIL Force Commander Lt Gen William "Bull" O'Callaghan.
He was Force Commander during perhaps the most active hostilities in the AO.
The death occurred of Lieutenant General William "Bill" Callaghan, a Cork native who had the unique distinction of holding the 2 most important United Nations appointments in the Middle East and arguably the world during a particularly tumultuous period in the 1970s and 80s, when he was the Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from February 1981 to May 1986 and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO,) from April 1978 to June 1979 and again from May 1986 to June 1987, commanding multinational troops in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Jordan.
Lt Gen Callaghan was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) from the Irish Defence Forces for his outstanding service. He was also awarded the French Legion d'Honneur and the Lebanese National Order of the Cedar. William Callaghan joined the Defence Forces with the 13th Cadet Class in 1939. Every year, the "Lt Gen William Callaghan Sword" is awarded to the Cadet who displays the best tactical ability throughout their intensive officer training course in the Cadet School.
In an interview in April 1982 with American magazine "People," with UNIFIL having suffered 145 combat casualties in its previous 4 years, 35 of them fatalities, he said; "Peacekeeping is not about firing shots. Its about not firing and stopping those who are. We must look for trouble at the 4 points of the compass, and then we look behind our backs."
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.
A great man and a great general. He was a great role model at home and abroad. A holy terror though with any officer whose standards fell short of what he expected.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dills.
MOD: Just a reminder to disable signatures when posting respects on the death of a comrade.
“The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.”
― Thucydides
"Let us be clear about three facts. First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier, he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm." ------- Field Marshall Wavell, April 1945.
I never met him, but I used to know one of his children, 30+ years ago!
Condolences to his family and friends.
'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
He died that's all. It was his unlucky night. http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html
"He is an enemy officer taken in battle and entitled to fair treatment."
"No, sir. He's a sergeant, and they don't deserve no respect at all, sir. I should know. They're cunning and artful, if they're any good. I wouldn't mind if he was an officer, sir. But sergeants are clever."
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