Brigadier General Jan-Gunnar Isberg (7 April 1947 – 14 December 2022) was a Swedish Army officer. Isberg has served extensively abroad, in Cyprus, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His senior commands include commanding officer of the Norrbotten Engineer Corps and the Haparanda Border Regiment, deputy force commander of MONUC and brigade commander of the Ituri Brigade and the Kivu Brigade.
Early life
Isberg was born on 7 April 1947 in , Stockholm, Sweden. Isberg graduated from Military Academy Karlberg (the same class as Ulf Henricsson) in 1969 and was commissioned as an officer the same year in Svea Engineer Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.
Career
Early military career
From 1969 to 1975, Isberg served as platoon leader and company commander. He attended the Engineering Officers School at the Artillery and Engineering Officers School from 1971 to 1972 and the Swedish Armed Forces Staff College from 1975 to 1978 and served in the Army Staff from 1978 to 1983, whereupon Isberg served as company commander 1984 to 1985. His first mission abroad was with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in Cyprus in 1984. Isberg was head of the Army Field Work Department in the Operation Section 4 in the Joint Operations (Operationsledningen, OPL) in the Defence Staff from 1985 to 1988 and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1986 He served as battalion commander from 1988 to 1990, after which he was commander of the Swedish Lebanon Battalions L106/L21 from 1990 to 1991 and commanding officer of the Swedish Army Field Work School (Fältarbetsskolan, FarbS) from 1991 to 1993 and at the same time head of the Swedish UN Stand-by Force in 1992. In 1992, Isberg served as head of the System Department at the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration.
1990s to early 2000s
In January 1992 during the Yugoslav Wars, during the planning stage of the Swedish contribution to the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), there was thought that the Swedish unit JK01 could largely amount to a battalion, possibly in cooperation with other nationalities. Battalion commander would be the then colonel Isberg, but politicians and other senior decision makers wanted otherwise. The force finally came to include a purely Swedish company instead, now led by major Jan Söderberg. In January 1993, Isberg was appointed to command Nordbat 1 (Nordic Battalion 1) with the United Nations Protection Forces/Macedonia (UNPROFOR/M), a joint Nordic unit consisting of a mechanized infantry company from Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as a joint staff and train company from these countries. In mid-1993, American troops were sent to Macedonia and were put under Isberg's command. This was the first a Swedish officer commanded American soldiers.
In 1993, Isberg was also appointed commanding officer of the Norrbotten Engineer Corps (Ing 3) and the Haparanda Border Regiment (Haparanda gränsregemente) (that consisted of the 2nd brigade of the Norrbotten Regiment) which comprised more than 6,000 men. In the 1990s, he also served as adviser in Bulgaria. In 1996, Isberg served in the Bosnia Army Corps Staff of the Implementation Force (IFOR). Isberg was promoted to senior colonel in 1997v and served at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters in Stockholm from 1997 to 1999: as head of the Program Department (1997–1998), as head of the Ground Warfare Department in the Joint Forces Directorate (Krigsförbandsledningen) (1998–1999). Isberg served as Senior Military Adviser at the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) from 1999 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2003 he served as head of the Baltic Cooperation Department at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters.