General de Kaste

Marshall-General ’General’ de Kaste is the Commander-in-Chief of the Knootian Defence Force. He known for having a calm, stern appearance, and keeping cool under any circumstance. He only speaks when absolutely necessary. De Kaste is married to Bina de Kaste, a woman of arabic decent. He is also rumoured to be having an affair with his much younger 'special assistant', Tanya. Currently however, he and his family have taken residence in Nieuw Rotterdam on Mars, returning only when he has to attend ceremonial functions.

De Kaste is valued as an excellent member of the General Staff, who favours more offensive doctrines. He is an expert in cooperative multinational operations, and extremely popular in Knootian political opinion. His flaws, however, include a limited span of control, limited communicativeness, old age and a somewhat slow, intellectual, attitude.

History

Biography

Unusually old for a Knootian, De Kaste was born just after the military withdrawal from the Knootian East Indies in a pre-eminent Knootian bourgeois family with a long history of influential positions in government. De Kaste quickly gained ranks in the KDF officer corps and was assigned a position in the general staff at the age of thirty-one.

As a general, de Kaste presided over the operations against FARC in Colombia and was highest-ranking Knootian during the joint Knootian/Chimaean operations in Colombia. De Kaste was promoted to full General when the nation joined SATO and became effectively the highest-ranking military officer of the nation’s tiny military. He was supreme Knootian commander during all SATO operations for the entire period of Knootian membership. He thought up the innovative dropping of paratroopers in the Der Angst capital during a Stalinist uprising to secure the city. More notably, he was in charge when the Dominion (GDODAD) invaded Knootoss during the Shadow War. He coordinated the failed defence of The Hague and the SATO attempt to retake the city. Another major engagement during the shadow war was the SATO assault on Brotherhood of Nod forces that had landed in South Holland. It is held against de Kaste that he was unable to prevent the destruction of the EOTED battlefleet during the Shadow War. He was also unable to prevent Dominion forces from landing at strategically important locations. However, after the war he was promoted to the specially created position of Marshall-General and given the position of Commander-in-Chief to improve military coordination. His son Maurijn de Kaste, meanwhile, was married to the former Biotopian head of state Afra Da'reaven. De Kaste was in charge of several Knootian peace missions and other operations. (See: Knootian history entries) He was also in charge of Operation Tempo Doeloe in Tanah Burung during the first months of the war, but has since retired to a more ceremonial function. He has been leading the establishment of Nieuw Rotterdam on Mars.

Military history

Operations: Colombian intervention, Colombian peacekeeping, Reich Containment Effort (RCE), Shadow War, Red Bracelet war, SATO peacekeeping in Bloodreign, Operation Rattling Sabre, Operation Tempo Doeloe

Major engagements: Mönchengladbach liberation, Battle for The Hague, South Holland front, New Jigoku “humanitarian aid effort”