General Francis George Hassett AC KBE CB DSO 1918-

On graduation from the Royal Military College Duntroon, Frank Hassett was posted as a platoon commander in Darwin Mobile Force, then adjutant 2/3 Bn, being wounded in the Western Desert campaign. Attending the British Army Staff College at Haifa, after return to Australia he was promoted to lieutenant colonel at the unusual age of 23.

His subsequent appointments in World War 2 were staff and training ones, ending in Bougainville. After the war, he was instructor at the Staff College at Queenscliff and then GSO1 of 2 Div when it was reestablished as part of the CMF. Then followed postings to the Royal Australian Regiment, the second commanding 3 RAR in Korea where he distinguished himself at the battle of Maryang San.

He returned as Director of Military Art at RMC, which was subsequently upgraded to colonel – he was relieved at this promotion after 12 years as a lieutenant colonel. He then commanded 28 Cwlth Brigade in Malaya, became GOC Northern Command, and then headed a study which ill-advisedly endorsed the end of the geographical command system of the army, its natural state, to a functional command one which suited the RAAF and Navy. It also accepted the British McLeod model splitting the combat supplies-transport nexus, which had to be restored soon after its implementation by Chief of Operations Williamson.

Appointed VCGS, and then CGS, his final posting was Chief of Defence Force Staff in the maelstrom of the Tange reorganisation, where the single departmental heads on each of the Military, Navy and Air Force Boards were replaced by 120 unaccountable public servants. While the public service prospered greatly from the new arrangement, the intended Defence command system failed to come into being under his regime. Hassett was a great, unflappable infantry commander, but out of his depth in such a management environment.