Mubarak Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

Mubarak Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Native name	مبارك عبد الله الجابر الصباح
Born	1934
Died	1987 (aged 52–53) *Directorate of Public Security Force Kuwaiti Army (1953-1961) Kuwait Armed Forces (1961-1980)
Allegiance
Service/branch	Kuwait Armed Forces
Rank	Lieutenant General of the Kuwait Armed Forces
Commands held	1st Deputy Head Commander of the Kuwaiti Army (1954) 1st Chief of the General Staff of Kuwait Armed Forces (1963)
Battles/wars	Operation Vantage (1961) Six Day War (1967) War of Attrition (1967-1970) Kuwait-Iraq 1973 Sanita border skirmish 1973 October War
Awards	Arab and non-Arab Military awards and decorations

Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (1934–1987) (Arabic: الشيخ مبارك عبد الله الجابر الصباح ‎) was a member of the House of Sabah and the first Kuwaiti to attain the military rank of lieutenant general. He was the first Kuwaiti to be commissioned as an officer by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK, and the first Kuwaiti to receive an Amiri Decree for appointment as Chief of the General Staff of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces (in March 1963, before the age of 30). Mubarak was the first military officer in the Persian Gulf to establish conscription, in 1978. He also initiated joint training of Kuwaiti and United States Armed Forces, in 1977.

Early life

Mubarak was the son of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (1898 – 1996);^[1]^[2]^[3] the first Minister of Education of Kuwait;^[4] and Sheikha Munira Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Military career

Mubarak joined the Directorate of Public Security Force as a Lieutenant during the period in which the directorate was divided to form the Kuwaiti Army and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior in 1953. The next year, he was appointed as the first deputy head Commander of the newly formed Kuwaiti Army.

During Operation Vantage (1961), a plan for the defense of Kuwait, Brigadier General Mubarak and Colonel Saleh Mohammed Al-Sabah commanded the Kuwait 25th Commando Brigade and the Kuwait 6th Mechanized Brigade.

Following the crisis, Brigadier General Sheikh Mubarak debated with the British Armed Forces on different deterrent strategies to protect Kuwait. A team of British military experts assisted him in organizing the Kuwaiti Armed Forces, liaising with the British Armed Forces for training. Mubarak acted as commander of the newly formed Kuwaiti Armed Forces for two years. Later he was promoted to Major General and designated Kuwait's first Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces in March 1963, reporting for the first time to a Kuwaiti Defense Minister following the formation of the first cabinet on 17 January 1962.

Six-Day War

In June 1967, the leadership of the Kuwait Armed Forces; from the principle of Arab solidarity; participated in the Six-Day War with other Arab countries (Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Jordan) against the State of Israel. On the request of defense minister Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Mubarak (now a Major General) along with his deputy Chief of the General Staff Brigadier General Sheikh Saleh as acting lead combat commander, assembled an elite task force from various combat units, designated the "Yarmouk Brigade". Accounting for a third of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces, it deployed to the Egyptian front on May 29, 1967. On the morning of June 5, 1967, the Yarmouk Brigade came under fire, forcing its dispersal. The brigade, intact, regrouped and remained at the Egyptian front from 1968 to 1972 during the War of Attrition between the State of Israel and Egypt that started unofficially a week later.

1973 Sanita border skirmish and October War

Ongoing Kuwaiti border disputes since Operation Vantage against Iraq left the majority of the military of Kuwait on alert, deployed all around the Kuwaiti desert. In 1973 the Government of Kuwait; mainly defense minister Saad Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah under the guidance of the Emir of Kuwait; asked Major General Mubarak to assemble a task force to militarily aid the Arab armies deployed on the Syrian front; similarly out of the same principle redeployment of the Yarmouk Brigade engaged on the Egytian Front in 1973.^[5] Taking into account the previous 1967, (1968-1972) and current redeployment of the Yarmouk brigade on the Egyptian front, he and his deputy assembled a stronger striking force which was designated the Al Jahra Force, which consisted of infantry units, special forces, tanks, artillery, air defense systems and armored brigades. This force was assembled in the Kuwait 25th Commando Brigade and deployed to Syria in two parts on 15 October 1973 with an air component and the majority of the force by land on 20 October. The force gathered in Damascus, and was initially in charge of protecting the capital.

The Al Jahra Force later supported the Syrian and Egyptian armed forces on the Egyptian and Syrian front of the war in October 1973 between Arab forces and the State of Israel known as the Yom Kippur War or October War.^[6] Mubarak, Saleh and the acting lead combat commander of the Al-Jahra force, led these Kuwaiti forces, in alliance with Iraqi Armed Forces, while at the same time battle-readying the remainder of the Military of Kuwait on the Kuwaiti borders due to the "Sanita" border skirmish against Iraq.

Joint drills of Kuwaiti and United States Armed Forces (1977)

In 1977, Mubarak Al-Abdullah initiated the first joint drills of the Kuwaiti and United States Armed Forces.

Lieutenant General of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces (1979)

In 1979, Mubarak was promoted to be the first Lieutenant General of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces. He retired from the military the next year, the first officer to retire from the Kuwaiti Armed Forces.

Mubarak al-Abdullah Joint Command and Staff College

The Command and Staff College was established in 1995, and named the Mubarak al-Abdullah Joint Command and Staff College (MAJCSC) in memory of Mubarak al-Abdullah in 1997.^[7]