About
Joe (Joseph) Mallon, Company Sergeant (retired), enlisted in the Defence Forces on his birthday in 1958. His father served during the Emergency and advised him to join the Army. His brother also served in the Defence Forces. He worked as an instructor training recruits and non-commissioned officers for much of his career and was serving as a Company Sergeant in the Cadet School in the Military College at the time of his retirement from the Defence Forces in 1989. He went overseas with the 32nd Infantry Battalion, which was the first Irish Battalion to serve in the Congo in 1960. He also served with the 38th Battalion in the Congo, the 11th Infantry Group in Cyprus and the 51st Infantry Battalion in the Lebanon. He was interviewed for the Military Archives Oral History Project on 15th February 2017.
