Air Force Command chief of staff Ting Chung-wu (丁忠武) will become the nation’s first lieutenant general who graduated from National Taiwan University (NTU), after his and 26 other military personnel’s promotions to take effect on Monday.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday released a list of 27 military officers to be promoted next month, including seven ministry-affiliated officials and one National Security Bureau (NSB) official who are set to be advanced to the rank of lieutenant general.
The list, which has been ratified by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), also includes 17 ministry-affiliated personnel and two staff under the command of the bureau and the Presidential Office that are to be promoted to the rank of major general.
A rank conferral ceremony will be held tomorrow, presided over by Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱), the ministry said in a press release.
After graduating from NTU’s geography department, Ting entered the Air Force Academy for military flight training before pursuing further studies at the US-based Naval Postgraduate School, Taiwan’s Armed Forces University — National Defense University’s predecessor — and the US-based Air War College.
During his career, Ting has served as the chief of the Republic of China’s Defense Mission to the US, the director of Air Force Command’s Personnel and General Affairs Division, the vice principal of the Air Force Academy, the deputy director of the ministry’s Integrated Assessment Office and the dean of National Defense University’s Air Command and Staff College.
Sources who know Ting said he was “steady and clear-minded” and that during his tenure as Personnel and General Affairs Division director, he had helped stipulate regulations governing the military’s human resources management and computerize administrative processes.
Aside from Ting, the only graduate from NTU, the country’s top-ranked university, to serve in the armed forces was former director of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Communications, Electronics and Information Office, Major-general Chai Hui-chen (柴惠珍), who retired in 2010.
The other seven military personnel to be advanced to the rank of lieutenant general are: the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence Office Ko Wen-an (柯文安); Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Communications, Electronics and Information Hu Yan-nien (胡延年); Army Headquarters Political Warfare Office Director Tseng Yu-fu (曾有福); Comptroller Bureau head Chen Chi (陳麒); Hua-Tung Defense Command commander Chuan Tzu-jui (全子瑞); Naval Fleet Command deputy commander Kao Tien-chung (高天忠) and NSB secretary-general Ho Pao-lin (何保林).
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