Advisor Reintegration, International Security Assistance Force

Major General PD Jones MBE, Late R ANGLIAN Director, Force Reintegration Cell

Major General Phil Jones was born in Maldon, Essex. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1981. His early years in the Army were spent at regimental duty with the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment in UK, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, Belize, and Germany.

Following a residential tour as the Brigade Operations Officer in HQ 8 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland, he attended the Army Staff Course at Camberley in 1993. He returned to 1 R ANGLIAN as a rifle company commander in 24 Airmobile Brigade. He remained within 24 Airmobile as the Brigade Chief of Staff until late 1995 when he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to a NATO appointment as the Military Assistant to Commander in Chief Allied Forces Northwest Europe. In 2000 he completed seven months as the Chief of Operations for the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.

At the end of 2000 he returned to Northern Ireland to take command of 1 R ANGLIAN. Six months after assuming command the battalion redeployed to the mechanised role in England. 1 R ANGLIAN deployed to Kabul in January - July 2002 following which he was promoted to Colonel. In 2003 he took up the appointment of Director Plans in the United States’ Combined Joint Task Force 180 (Afghanistan). On completion of this operational tour he became the Assistant Chief of Staff Plans within HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (HQ ARRC) where he led the planning effort for a potential deployment to Iraq followed by a deployment of HQ ARRC to Kabul as HQ ISAF IX.

He was promoted to Brigadier and took command of 8 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland in November 2005, following which he returned to Afghanistan for a 13-month tour as the Military Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative.

 In 2007 he was posted to Washington DC as the Military Attaché following which, in 2010, he was promoted to Major General and assumed the post of Director of the Force Reintegration Cell at HQ ISAF.

He is married and has two adult children.