Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Joseph Boateng Danquah (born 7 July 1947) was the twenty-seventh Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the

Ghana Armed Forces The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is the unified armed force of Ghana, consisting of the Army (GA), Navy (GN), and Ghana Air Force. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is the president of Ghana, who is also the supreme military commander ...

Education and Military training

Joseph Boateng Danquah attended

Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary (formerly St John's Seminary and College, nicknamed POJOSS), is an all-boys boarding school, located at Effiduase, Koforidua, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It was established in 1958 by Bishop ...

at Effiduase,

Koforidua Koforidua, also popularly known as K-dua or Kofcity, is a city and the capital of Eastern Region in southern Ghana. Koforidua was founded in 1875 by migrants from Ashanti. It is also called New Juaben. The city has a settlement city proper popu ...

and had his basic military training at the Ghana Military Academy at

Teshie Teshie is a coastal town in the Ledzokuku Municipal District, a district in the Greater Accra Region of southeastern Ghana. Teshie is the ninth most populous settlement in Ghana, with a population of 171,875 people. Politics Teshie is in the ...

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

. He did his junior and senior staff courses in Ghana and

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

respectively.

Career

Danquah was commissioned as an infantry officer in the

Ghana army The Ghana Army (GA) is the main ground warfare organizational military branch of the Ghanaian Armed Forces (GAF). In 1959, two years after the Gold Coast obtained independence as Ghana, the Gold Coast Regiment was withdrawn from the Royal West Af ...

on 14 December 1969. He has held various positions including the commanding officer of the Third Battalion of Infantry and Four Training Battalion. He has also been director, Army Operations and assistant commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (Junior Division).

Peacekeeping duties

Danquah was the commanding officer of the Second Ghana Battalion of the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (

ECOMOG The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work ...

) based in

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

between October 1990 to June 1991. He has had three duty tours on

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

peacekeeping missions

UNIFIL The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

, southern

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. He was company commander of Ghanbatt 13 on his first duty tour, from May to December 1980. Next he was the second-in-command of Ghanbatt 20, between June 1983 to January 1984. His final tour was as commanding officer of Ghanbatt 36 from September 1991 to April 1992.

Senior military duties

Between August 1999 and March 2001, he was chief staff officer at Army Headquarters. Prior to his appointment as CDS, he had been the general officer commanding the Southern Command of the Ghana army from March 2001. On 20 May 2005, Danquah then a brigadier, was promoted major general and appointed the CDS of the Ghana Armed Forces by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Kufuor. He was retired in January 2009 when

John Atta Mills John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party ...

came to power following the

2008 presidential elections This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto list of sovereign states, sovereign states and their list of dependent territories, dependent territories. Referendums are included ...

Honours

*January 2001 — Awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

by Ghana government.

References

External links and sources

Profile on Ghana Armed Forces website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Danquah, Joseph Boateng 1947 births Living people Ghanaian soldiers Chiefs of the Defence Staff (Ghana) Members of the Council of State (Ghana) Ghanaian military personnel Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary alumni