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President appoints 43 new generals in armed forces

On Wednesday, President Chen Shui-bian appointed five new lieutenant generals and 38 major generals or rear admirals, including 21 major generals for the Army, eight naval rear admirals and nine major generals for the Air Force.

Commanding a Lafayette-class frigate seems to be a useful indicator of future promotion as three of the eight newly-promoted rear admirals have been captains of the vessels.

Among the 43 newly-promoted high-ranking officers, Air Force Major General Ding Chung-wu (丁忠武) drew media attention because of his background.

Unlike other pilots, Ding did not begin his career at the bottom.

candidates who are qualified jetfighter pilots usually stand a better chance of being promoted as an Air Force general,

In order to qualify as a jetfighter pilot, the candidate must complete all training courses at the Air Force Academy and have graduated from its undergraduate programs.

Ding, however, graduated from National Taiwan University, one of the country's top universities, with a bachelor's degree in Geography in 1979.

He subsequently joined the Air Force Academy's training courses for pilots and eventually flew F-5E Tigers.

During his career as a pilot, Ding crashed twice but escaped unharmed.

Prior to his promotion on Wednesday, Ding had just been transferred from an attache to the US to the director's position at the Air Force Command Headquarters' Personnel Affairs Department.
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