Former JDF Chief of Staff dead at 90

Major General Rudolph Green, who served as Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) from 1973-1979 is dead.

Details surrounding the death of Major General Green have not yet been released but military sources say he was ailing for some time.  He was 90-year-old having recently marked the milestone.

Green was the first Chief Of Staff of the JDF to have attained the rank of Major General.

He served as head of the army during a rather tumultuous period of Jamaica’s history, being in command when the State of Emergency was instituted in 1976 and during the infamous Green Bay affair.

He had the distinction of steering the enlistment of women into the JDF in 1976.

News of the death of Major General Green comes hours before Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier Rocky Meade, takes over as head of the army.

Meade is to be sworn-in today after joining the JDF in 1984 where he began his career as a soldier and by 1985, after graduating from the Royal Military Academy in the United Kingdom (UK), he was appointed Platoon Commander, Second Battalion, Jamaica Regiment.

He progressed quickly through the ranks of the military to his current post of Deputy Chief of Defence Staff.

The Brigadier is enthusiastic about the JDF’s transformation and, this he notes, will happen through the implementation of strategic and long-term plans. Meanwhile, as part of his mandate, he hopes to devise policies and programmes that will enable the achievement of the planned objectives.