Lieutenant-Colonel Robert D McKeegan - Brown

Robert 'Bob' D McKeegan was a member of REME Tels Tech in the Signals Platoon, 3 Para 1971 - 1976.

Bob was parachute jump trained on Course 749. He successfully completed a course of 8 jumps, including 2 balloon jumps and a night jump, between 18 October and 12 November 1971. He held the rank of L/Cpl with Depot REME whilst he undertook this training. 

Bob left the REME in 1977 as a Sgt and transferred to the newly created permanent cadre of the UDR. he was promoted to CSgt and then offered a Reserve Commission. He then went to Sandhurst and was commissioned into the UDR, by coincidence his Pl Sgt was Csgt Geoff Guest who he had served alongside in 3 Para. Bob was shortly promoted to Lt and as an acting Capt and served as the Ops Officer for 6 UDR.

Bob resigned his Reserve commission in May 1981 for the purpose of going to Sandhurst to gain a Regular Commission. He left RMAS 13 months later as a Lt  with a Special Regular Commission in the RAOC and was posted to 87 Supply Depot in Munster. This unit was shortly thereafter retitled 33 Ordnance Company and Bob was the Training Officer. Some months later the Company 2ic was sacked and Bob went to Dortmund to command our sub-unit there. Whilst there he was promoted to Captain.

Bob subsequently went back to the UK and attended the RAOC Food Technology Course and on completion was posted to 13 Ord Coy as 2ic based in Hohne. On completion of this posting he received a Regular Commission and was subsequently posted to 15 Bn RAOC at Donnington as a Company Commander. Following this posting he went to Cranfield University and did a Masters Degree in Logistics and Management and at the end of the course he was lucky to be selected to be an Exchange Officer at New Cumberland Army Depot in Pennsylvania.

After two years in the USA he returned to Germany as OC 64 Ord Coy in Bielefeld. Next posting was to Andover to the now defunct HQ QMG as SO2 B Vehicles. Bob spent three years there to complete a staff qualification as Bob had never been an SO3.

His next posting was to  HQNI as the SO2 Materiel. Just as Bob arrived in NI the RLC was formed and he duly became an RLC Officer. At the end of his time in HQNI Bob was selected for promotion to Lt Col and was posted to the Falklands where he commanded the Logistics Unit.

After this he was posted to the Equipment Support Provisioning & Procurement Agency in Telford as the Military Liaison Officer. Two years later he was posted to France as the British Liaison Officer at the Commandament de la Force Logistique Terrestre at Monthlery just south of Paris. Together with language training at Beaconsfield this posting covered just short of five years.

On leaving France Bob was posted to IMATT Sierra Leone as Commander of 4 Brigade Advisory and Support Team (BAST) for one year. After Sierra Leone he was posted to MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the Military Assistant to the Senegalese 4 star General who commanded the military element of MONUC. Following this posting Bob returned to Sierra Leone and 4 BAST where he completed my time in the Army and retired in 2007.