Military commanders

[arghton 6,639]

On 20/10/2021 at 13:38, arghton said:

Remaining Chiefs of Defence born before 1930:

Tahar Zbiri (1929-) Algeria's first Chief of Staff of the People's National Army, 1964-1967. Frail and was hospitalised with covid a year ago.

David Musuguri (1920-) Chief of Tanzania People's Defence Force 1980-1988. Has diabetes, Uganda's Idi Amin was Musuguri's pupil. Also helped overthrow Amin. Served in WWII

Sumio Murai (1925-) Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces 1983-1984

Hiroshi Mori (1928-) Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces 1986-1987

Tin Oo (1927-2024) Myanmar Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services 1974-1976. Frail.

Rahimuddin Khan (1926-2022) Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Pakistan Armed Forces 1984-1987

Fidel V. Ramos (1928-2022) Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines 1984-1985, 1986-1988 and later President of the Philippines

Liu Ho-Chien (1926-2023) Chief of the General Staff (Republic of China) 1991-1995

Karel Pezl (1927-2022) Chief of the General Staff (Czech Republic) 1993 and Chief of the General Staff (Czechoslovakia) 1991-1992

Jaakko Valtanen (1925-2024) Chief of Defence (Finland) 1983-1990. Served in WWII

Wolfgang Altenburg (1928-2023) Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (Germany) 1983-1986, Chair of the NATO Military Committee 1986-1989

Stamatis Vellidis (1928-2021) Hellenic National Defence General Staff (Greece) 1989-1990

Ion Coman (1926-) Chief of the Romanian General Staff 1974-1976

David Craig, Baron Craig of Radley (1929-) Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom) 1988-1991

Phillip Bennett (1928-2023) Chief of the Defence Force (Australia) 1984-1987 first as Chief of Defence Force Staff

Chi Haotian (1929-) Head of the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army 1987-1992

Othmar Tauschitz (1925-2022) Chief of the General Staff (Austria) 1987-1990 

Updated for the deaths of Tin Oo and others. Not many left.

 

Is Ion Coman still alive? Last interview seems to have been in 2010 when he was "frail with arthritis".

[drol 11,797]

Former Italian chief of staff Claudio Graziano commits suicide at 70.

[drol 11,797]

K. M. Shafiullah, first chief of Bangladesh Army staff and commander during their independence war, hospitalised in critical condition.

[arghton 6,639]

Salah Aboud Mahmoud, Iraqi Lt. General and one of Saddam's top henchmen during the Gulf War, dead at around 82.

 

Main commander in the battle of 73 Easting against US and UK forces, described the "last great tank battle of the 20th century". He wasn't a major name anymore during the invasion of Iraq and wasn't in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. 

[The Immortal 632]

Brigadier General William Weise, a Marine commander in the Battle of Dai Do in the Vietnam War, is still alive at the age of 95 but I haven't seen any public news of him in the last five years. 

[arghton 6,639]

On 24/06/2024 at 18:08, The Immortal said:

Brigadier General William Weise, a Marine commander in the Battle of Dai Do in the Vietnam War, is still alive at the age of 95 but I haven't seen any public news of him in the last five years. 

Latest I could find is this video from 2021.

 

On South Vietnam's Generals, I found this page recently. More names there than on my previous list, but it also seems to imply Brig. Gen Chương Dzềnh Quay and Lt. Gen Trần Văn Trung would still be alive, which I do not believe. The latter was gravely ill and in coma in April 2012 and not expected to survive, either he's dead or has been in some kind of horrible condition since. Both lived in France, Chương Dzềnh Quay in Bagneux and Trần Văn Trung in Paris.

 

Is there anything anywhere on who the oldest Soviet/Russian General officers living are? Most of the prominent ones born in the 1920s are long dead, ru Wiki has a lot of ones that are very likely dead, but here are the earliest-born ones who've received media attention in recent years:

 

1) Boris Kravtsov (1922) Soviet Minister of Justice 1984-1987. State Justice Counselor 1st Class, comparable to the rank of Colonel General. 

2) Oleg Kulabukhov (1923) Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops who fought in Stalingrad and later lead a group of liquidators during the Chernobyl disaster, suffering radiation poisoning and vomiting blood during the first weeks. 

3) Alexey Zazulin (1924-2024) Major General of the MVD. Looked quite well earlier this year.

4) Ivan Slukhay (1924) Major General, Chairman of the Moscow Committee of War Veterans. Decrepit, regularly appears in local media.

4) Viktor Chvyrev (1926) Major General of the Medical Service.

5) Yefim Leonov (1927) Lieutenant General.

6) Pavel Gutenko (1927) Belarusian. Lieutenant General, Chief of the Engineering Troops of the BVO. Met Xi Jinping some years ago. Quite decrepit in recentish images.

7) Nikolai Kizyun (1928) Colonel General.

8) Mikhail Bordyukov (1931) Prominent Major General and USSR State Prize recipient.

9) Rasim Akchurin (1931) Colonel General. Tatar born in what is now Uzbekistan. Seems to be in good health.

10) Konstantin Kochetov (1932) General of the Army and the oldest living with this title. Seems to keep a low profile due to his involvement in the massacre of Tbilisi

11) Petro Gusev (1932-2024) Lieutenant General. Ukrainian.

 

Still quite many of them.

[drol 11,797]

Xinhua has visited some Long March veteran last week. Min JIngde is now completely unable to move or speech and Ma Zhixuan looks already dead. The other are doing relatively well.

 

 

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

Sanford K. Moats (wiki), U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General and fighter ace (and mentioned on DL Forums before), died off radar in December 2023, aged 102.

Another WWII ace gone.

[drol 11,797]

On 13/03/2023 at 11:05, arghton said:

Chinese full General (promoted 1994), WWII veteran and Commander of the Beijing Military Region 1993-1997 Li Laizhu dead at 90.

 

As far as I know there are a few older Generals living, by far the oldest being Wan Haifeng who fought in the Long March.

 

Edit: Wan Haifeng's the oldest, Tiananmen butcher Chi Haotian is the second-oldest (but nine years younger than Wan Haifeng) and then there's Fu Quanyou, Cao Pengsheng and Dai Xuejiang from 1930, Yu Zhenwu, Zhang Lianzhong, Yu Yongbo, Ding Henggao, Wang Ke and Gu Shanqing from 1931, Sui Yongju from 1932, Liu Jingsong from 1933 and Zhang Zhijian from 1934.

 

Wan Haifeng, Chi Haotian and Wang Ke are the last ones to have enlisted before the end of WWII/fought in it.

Gu Shanqing dead at 92.

[YoungWillz 20,919]

Death notice for Air Chief Marshal Sir David Harcourt-Smith aged 92, veteran of the Suez Crisis and the Aden Emergency: https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/harcourt-smith-notices_58322

[Gisooo 3,259]

Gary E. Luck (Wiki), four-star general of the United States Army who was a combat veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, dead at 87

 

[drol 11,797]

Former Indian Chief of Staff S. Padmanabhan dead at 83.

 

Many old military guys left in Indian ranks.

 

Chief of Army staff (born in or before 1940)

 

1)Vishwa Nath Sharma (1930): veteran of Indo-Pakistani wars, was doing well about three years ago. His brother and fellow military Surindra Nath Sharma (1923) turned 100 last year and seems in great shape.

2)Shankar Roy Chowdhary (1937): also an Indo-Pakistani wars veteran, still giving public advice as of 2024.

3)Ved Prakash Malik (1939): commander of India during the Kargil War.Doing very well.

 

Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee:

 

1)S. K. Kaul (1935): also chief of Air Staff. Giving intwerviews in 2021, always slightly obese.

2)Vijai Singh Shekhawat (1933): Indo-Pakistani war hero, looked amazing in January.

3)Satish Sareen (1939): no news in a while, never seemed the picture of health.

 

Chief of Naval Staff:

 

1)Vishnu Bhagwat (1939): fired in 1998 because he contested the government.

 

Chief of Air Staff:

 

1)Anil Yashwant Tipnis (1940): commander during the Kargil War.

 

 

[polar duck 775]

Arthur Gregg, America's first black Lieutenant General, dead at 96.

[Gisooo 3,259]

Denzil Keelor (Wiki), an air officer of the Indian Air Force and a hero of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, dead at 91

 

[Gisooo 3,259]

On 13/06/2021 at 17:09, arghton said:

South African Border War 1966-1990, South Africa against SWAPO

Sam Nujoma (b. 1929) SWAPO leader

Georg Meiring (b. 1939) South Africa Chief of Army

José Eduardo dos Santos (1942-2022) President of Angola, SWAPO's side

 

 

South African military commander Georg Meiring (Wiki) dead at 84

 

[drol 11,797]

He was SA's last living white chief of army. The oldest chief of Army is Gilbert Ramano (1939), who was the first black chief of army.

[arghton 6,639]

From the other SA military chiefs, I wonder if Air Force commanders Michal Muller, Jan van Loggerenberg and former Surgeon General Eugene Raymond are alive. van Loggerenberg is marked dead on Wikipedia without a source, Muller and Raymond would be 94 and 101 respectively.

[Sinbabad 1,083]

40 minutes ago, arghton said:

From the other SA military chiefs, Jan van Loggerenberg is marked dead on Wikipedia without a source 

Here’s a source for Jan van Loggerenberg’s death.

Edited September 4 by Sinbabad

[Summer in Transylvania 2,134]

1 minute ago, Sinbabad said:

Jan van Loggerenberg has died on 9 March 2022.

 

33 minutes ago, arghton said:

van Loggerenberg is marked dead on Wikipedia without a source

 

[Summer in Transylvania 2,134]

This, however, seems to confirm van Loggerenberg's death on the date Wikipedia has listed.

[Summer in Transylvania 2,134]

1 hour ago, arghton said:

From the other SA military chiefs, I wonder if Air Force commanders Michal Muller, Jan van Loggerenberg and former Surgeon General Eugene Raymond are alive. van Loggerenberg is marked dead on Wikipedia without a source, Muller and Raymond would be 94 and 101 respectively.

I can't find anything concrete enough to say for certain, but it looks like Eugene Raymond died either in or prior to January 2018.

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

1 hour ago, arghton said:

From the other SA military chiefs, I wonder if Air Force commanders Michal Muller, Jan van Loggerenberg and former Surgeon General Eugene Raymond are alive. van Loggerenberg is marked dead on Wikipedia without a source, Muller and Raymond would be 94 and 101 respectively.

Eugene Raymond

I'm not subscribed to this website so I can't open it but death record for Raymond is available through IdentityNumber, which holds all the SA death records.

From looking at family trees elsewhere online he likely died in 1990, not 2018 (I don't know where @Summer in Transylvania gets 2018 from the link they posted!).

Jan van Loggerenberg

Dead in 2022 as already sourced above. I've updated his Wiki.

Michal Muller

Alive and well in 2016, when he received a medal from South Korea. See here.
 

[Summer in Transylvania 2,134]

Just now, Ulitzer95 said:

From looking at family trees elsewhere online he likely died in 1990, not 2018 (I don't know where @Summer in Transylvania gets 2018 from the link they posted!).

I said prior to 2018, as that is when the profile, which includes a mention of death, just not when, was last updated. Thus, he could not have died more recently, else there would be no death field for him.

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

Yeshayahu Gavish (wiki), ancient IDF major general, dead at 99.

[drol 11,797]

I often confused him with Amos Horev. This guy anyway is more important, being the last living commander of the six days war.