The next Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces and his family almost paid the ultimate price for Ireland's role in international peacekeeping in 1972 when he was serving as a UNMO (UN military observer) in Syria during the Yom
The Syrians had fired rockets across the border into Israel and the Israeli air force was sent to retaliate against Damascus where the then Capt Dave Stapleton, his wife, Maureen, and three children were living.
The air strike happened as Capt Stapleton was walking home from his office in the centre of Damascus to the apartment rented by the family. The jets bombed directly ahead of him, at what seemed to be precisely where his family lived.
He ran to the apartment building to find it had been caught in the blast but was largely intact. The family apartment had been badly damaged and his wife had suffered a bad injury to her eye. The children were also hurt and badly shaken.
Mrs Stapleton and the children were treated and evacuated to Ireland and Capt Stapleton returned to duties monitoring the moves towards a ceasefire on the Golan Heights, where Israel had seized the strategic high ground overlooking Damascus.
Last year, as a major general, he returned to Damascus as Force Commander of UNDOF, (the UN Disengagement Observer Force). His wife returned with him and they are again living in a city for which they, and other Irish UN military families who have lived there, have great affection.
This time their grown children, Aimee, David, Barbara and Jennifer, stayed at home.
The city and much of the region are in what could be called peace. However, Israel still holds the Golan Heights and the land is still bitterly contested. The mainly Druze people who live there have been divided by military lines and still wait for the day when they can return to their land. Israeli settlers are compounding the difficulties by moving into the annexed land.
Amidst all this, the UN's mission on the Golan Heights works away, monitoring what Maj Gen Stapleton says is a ceasefire and not a peace.
His 1,050 troops still have to carry out mine clearance exercises and negotiate the difficult bordercrossing protocols for the Druze families split by the war. A platoon of troops from the Austrian army permanently mans observation posts on top of Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the Middle East and almost permanently snow-covered while the rest of the region bakes below.
Maj Gen Stapleton liaises between the two governments through their military liaison officers. He briefs foreign delegations and ambassadors. He has right of passage across the border, the only person with such a right guaranteed by both sides.
His tour of duty in Damascus will be cut short when he returns to Ireland to take up the post of Chief of Staff on August 22nd.
The appointment has not surprised many in the Defence Forces. However, seven or eight years ago, some people wondered about him even having a longterm career in the Army.
He was one of the leading figures who pressed for representation for the Defence Forces in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Officers who backed the notion of a staff association were putting their careers on the line and a number, including Maj Gen Stapleton, were made aware of this.
However, a swing in favour of the staff association officers took place when the late Brian Lenihan became minister for defence and indicated the government was in favour of representation.
Two associations, one for non-commissioned ranks and another for officers, were set up. Maj Gen Stapleton was the first president of the officers' association, the Representative Association for Commissioned Officers (RACO).
His leading role in setting up what was effectively a union did not damage his career as RACO and the other association, PDFORRA, became an accepted part of military life. He was promoted to full colonel in September 1991, and became a brigadier general in 1995. He was moved up another rank to major general to become Quartermaster General.
His appointment as Chief of Staff underscores the changes which have taken place in the Defence Forces in the past decade. Under the stewardships in particular of the past two chiefs, Lieut Gen Noel Bergin and Lieut Gen Gerry McMahon, the move took place from an institution which still bore resemblances to the British army which left the State in 1922 to a developing European infantry force.
Under his new stewardship, moves towards greater involvement in NATO-led peace-keeping and greater involvement in European security structures will continue, although these are likely to be overshadowed by the controversy over military deafness compensation claims.
Factfile
Name: Maj Gen David Stapleton Age: 61
Why in news: He has been named as next Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces