John Patrick Cantwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| John Cantwell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Allegiance |  Australia |
| Service/branch | Australian Army |
| Years of service | 1974-Present |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands held | Deputy Chief of the Army Commander of the 1st Brigade Royal Military College, Duntroon |
| Battles/wars | Gulf War 1990-91 Iraq War 2006 |
| Awards | Member of the Order of Australia (AM, 1988) U.S. Legion of Merit (Degree of Officer, 2006) Officer of the Order of Australia (AO, 2007) |
Major General John Patrick Cantwell AO, is a senior officer within the Australian Army.
John Cantwell joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1974. He attended officer training in 1981, and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Armoured Corps.
As a Major, Cantwell commanded a British tank squadron as an exchange officer with the British in Germany. As a result of that posting he served in Operation Desert Storm with the Coalition forces in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait between 1990-91.
In August 1996 Cantwell became Commanding Officer and Chief Instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. In January 1999 he took up an appointment as an instructor at the British Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom, returning to Australia as the Director of the Force Development Group, Land Warfare Development Centre, on promotion to Colonel in December 2000.
Cantwell was promoted to Brigadier in January of 2003 as Director General of Capability and Plans in Australian Defence Headquarters. Following command of the 1st Brigade (2004-2005), in early 2006 he deployed to Iraq as the Director Strategic Operations, Headquarters Multi National Forces Iraq. While on this deployment he was promoted to Major General on 4 December 2006, and assumed the appointment as Deputy Chief of Army on 29 January 2007. In February 2008 Cantwell was selected by the Chief of the Defence Force to be the senior military member of the team working on a new Defence White Paper, the paramount Australian security and defence policy document, commissioned by the Australian Government.
