The Government has nominated Brig Gen Colm Mangan to be appointed Quartermaster General of the Defence Forces.
The appointment will be made by the President, Mrs McAleese, on November 29th. He will be promoted to the rank of major general, the second most senior rank in the Defence Forces. He will take over the position vacated by the retirement of Maj Gen Patrick Nowlan.
Born in Dublin, Brig Gen Mangan is 57 and is married with three children. He joined the Defence Forces in 1960.
He was appointed GOC Eastern Command in May 1996 and before that was commandant of the Military College.
He rose through the ranks from commandant in May 1978 to lieutenant colonel in June 1989, colonel in May 1993 and brigadier general in March 1995.
He has held the positions of director of the Military Police Corps and was also an important member of the team which drew up and finalised the Defence Forces Review Implementation Plan.
Brig Gen Mangan has served overseas on eight missions in Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria and former Yugoslavia. He was involved in the establishment of the UN force (UNDOF) which was set up to observe the ceasefire following the Yom Kippur war.
In 1990-91 he commanded the 68th Irish Battalion in Lebanon during the Gulf War. He was subsequently sent as an EU monitor to Yugoslavia and experienced at first hand the heavy fighting there.
Brig Gen Mangan's military education includes all the military career courses in the Military College. He also graduated from the German Army Command and General Staff Course in Hamburg. A fluent German speaker, he has also been an observer at military manoeuvres in Austria and the former East Germany for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
