The death in Cyprus on March 11th of Brig Gen Patrick Diarmuid Hogan, usually known as "PD", further reduces the survivors of the cadet classes commissioned in the years 1938-1941as Europe slipped into war.
Born in Tipperary town in 1919, Hogan entered the Cadet School in the Curragh in September 1938 and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant into the 2nd Infantry Battalion in October 1939.
As junior officers, the cadets of these classes, with the Volunteer Force officers, trained the thousands of recruits who enlisted in 1940. (The Volunteer Force was the equivalent of the present FCA).
Hogan underwent the demanding training in austere surroundings common to these schools everywhere.
In June 1938 Hogan and a Michael Gibson used a home-made canoe to rescue two women in difficulties off Bettystown, Co Louth, and later that year, at the HQ of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute in London, they were presented with meritorious awards by the Duke of Kent.
He was particularly good on tactics and planning and acquired wide experience with infantry units, including command of the depot where recruits and NCOs were trained. He became second-in-command of the 5th and 6th Battalions and Officer Commanding (OC) 20th Battalion FCA (Wexford). In 1962 he was promoted Lieut Col and OC, 2nd Battalion, his first unit as a new lieutenant 23 years before.
In succession he then became director of the Military Police/Provost Marshal, Executive Officer, Eastern Command, and Commander 2nd Infantry Brigade. He ended his varied military career as General Officer Commanding, Curragh Command, in 1979.
In the separate, acronymic world of UN peacekeeping he served with Observer Group Lebanon (the State's first UN contribution) in 1958. In 1960 he was second-in-command of 33rd Infantry Battalion in the Congo and then OC 4th Infantry Group in Cyprus (1965).
He was back in Cyprus in 1971 as chief operations officer. Promoted colonel in 1972, he became senior staff officer (SSO) of the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organisation (UNTSO) in Jerusalem in 1973, the year of the October war.
Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal, captured forts on the occupied eastern side and took many Israeli prisoners. The shock was profound. The Israelis recovered rapidly, but the situation had irrevocably changed.
United Nations Emergency Force 2 (UNEF2) was formed with UN troops airlifted from Cyprus less than 26 hours after the Security Council decision. (Kissinger said that no other military system could have reacted so fast). The UNEF2 Commander, Gen Enzio Siilasvuo (Finland), and the initial staff, including Col Hogan as chief of staff, were drawn from UNTSO. They had both served in the 1958 Lebanon operation.
Gen Siilasvuo was much away, negotiating with the parties at senior level. Col Hogan set up a small HQ in Cairo. Troop contingents were arriving; they had to be met, briefed, deployed and supplied in the Sinai Desert, and Siilasvuo has said that Hogan's initiative and experience were vital at that stage and writes warmly of him in his memoirs.
Eventually, Hogan returned to UNTSO as senior staff officer. He was later sent to Damascus, Syria, as CoS of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights. When UNDOF got its own staff he again returned to Jerusalem as SSO. In summary, he was switched between five senior appointments in three different capital cities at crisis times.
Hogan had been a boy scout in the 5th Tipperary troop and became chief scout of Ireland, 1970-74. Always innovative, he initiated training officer appointments in each diocese.
He was chairman of the Irish Red Cross from 1985 to 1989, and the Irish Red Cross Review recalls his "hands-on approach" in restructuring the organisation. His greatest outside interest was probably the Irish Military Society. He was a founder member, later vice-president and then president.
He was always a courteous man, setting and demanding high standards of dress and conduct.
His first wife, Neene, died some years ago, but he found renewed happiness with Valerie in recent years.
Patrick Diarmuid "PD" Hogan: born 1919; died March 11th, 2004