Lieutenant General Dading Kalbuadi (14 April 1931 – 10 October 1999) was an Indonesian Army General and the commander during Operation Seroja (Operation Lotus) the Indonesian invasion of

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

(1975–1976). He last served as an Inspector General of the Department of Defense of Indonesia.

Early life

Dading Kalbuadi was born in Adipala,

Cilacap Regency Cilacap Regency ( jv, ꦏꦨꦸꦥꦠꦺꦤ꧀ꦕꦶꦭꦕꦥ꧀, also spelt: Chilachap, old spelling: Tjilatjap, Sundanese: ) is a regency () in the southwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is the town of Cilacap. ...

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

, April 14, 1931. During the

Indonesian War of Independence The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcoloni ...

, he joined the "Indonesia Merdeka atau Mati" armed militia (IMAM) in

Purwokerto Purwokerto is a large but non-autonomous town on the island of Java, Indonesia. It is the capital of Banyumas Regency, Central Java province. The population of the four districts which comprise the town at the 2010 census was 233,951 and 22 ...

Banyumas Banyumas ( jv, ꦧꦚꦸꦩꦱ꧀, formerly spelt "Banjoemas") Regency is a regency ( id, kabupaten) in the southwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is the town of Purwokerto, but that town no longer has a central adm ...

from 1946 to 1950.

Military career

Dading Kalbuadi continued his career to the

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and Enlisted rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. ...

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

, where he befriended

Benny Moerdani General (Ret.) Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani (also publicly known as LB Moerdani or Benny Moerdani and in foreign media as Murdani; 2 October 1932 – 29 August 2004) was the ABRI Commander from 1983 to 1988 and also served as Indonesia's Min ...

future General of the

Indonesian Armed Forces , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo ...

. After graduating he joined the Resimen Para Komando Angkatan Darat (RPKAD) and continued his studies at

Fort Benning Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama–Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Dading Kalbuadi was deployed against Darul Islam rebels in

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

, and PRRI Rebels in

Riau Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...

, as part of Operation Tegas, where he was shot in a rebel attack. In 1975 he was assigned by Benny Moerdani, to Operation Flamboyan, in

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor ( pt, Timor Português) was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the ...

, where he was tasked with infiltrating the territory and supporting pro-Indonesian forces, in preparation for the main Indonesian invasion in

Operation Seroja The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus ( id, Operasi Seroja), began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to o ...

. During the Indonesian Occupation of East Timor he obtained the rank of general and was appointed as the commander of the regional defense and security of

, replacing Soewano. After leaving East Timor in 1978 he became commander of

Kodam IX/Udayana Kodam IX/Udayana (IX ''Military Regional Command/Udayana'') is a military area command of the Indonesian Army which is responsible for the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was established as part of the 1985 reorganisation of the Indonesian National Armed ...

until 1983. When Benny Moerdani was promoted to Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces, Dading was given a promotion to Chief of the General Staff of the Indonesian Army, when Benny was promoted to

Minister of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

, Dading was promoted to Inspector General of the Department of Defense.

Personal life

Dading Kalbuadi died in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

on October 21, 1999

References

Sources

*TNI Watch!-- Let. Jendral Dading Kalbuadi - https://web.archive.org/web/20110801015157/http://www.minihub.org/siarlist/msg03876.html (October 12, 1999) * NDONESIA-LKMP - Dading Kalbuadi- http://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1999/10/10/0048.html (October 10, 1999) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalbuadi, Dading 1931 births 1999 deaths People from Cilacap Regency Javanese people Banyumasan people Indonesian generals