Lieutenant General Sean McCann is the current Irish Defence Forces Chief of Staff. He assumed command in 2010 upon the retirement of Lieutenant General Dermot Earley, DSM. McCann joined in the Army as a cadet in 1970. Commissioned as a Cavalry officer he was previously an instructor at the United Nations Training School Ireland and the Military College, Director of Cavalry, Director of Operations, and most recently Deputy Chief of Staff (Ops). McCann has been deployed overseas six times to Lebanon, Israel, the Iraqi/Kuwaiti border and the former Yugoslavia. McCann is a graduate of University College Galway and the United States Army Command and General Staff College. In October 2011, McCann was honoured as an inductee into the International Hall of Fame of the Army Command and General Staf