Commander 1st Brigade
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| Brigadier Michael Krause |
Brigadier Krause was born on 13 January 1962 in Melbourne, Victoria. He completed Year 12 at Wesley College, Melbourne and entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, on scholarship in 1980. He graduated to the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in 1983. His first posting was to the 1st Armoured Regiment in Puckapunyal where he commanded a Tank Troop, winning the Paratus Cup competition in 1985.
Brigadier Krause undertook all his junior regimental appointments in Land Command in 1st Brigade, mainly in 2nd Cavalry Regiment, where he was Assistant Adjutant, a Squadron Second in Command, Adjutant, Officer Commanding B Squadron, and the Commanding Officer 2000-01.
Brigadier Krause has served in Training Command as a Company Commander at Apprentices School and as the Operations Instructor at Australian Command and Staff College, Queenscliff.
His Staff Appointments include service as SO2 Close Combat (Heavy) in Land Development and as SO2 (Operations) 2nd Division. He was the Military Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Army in 1997 and was the inaugural Chief Staff Officer (Operations) to the Vice Chief of the Defence Force when that position was also Chief of Joint Operations 2004-05. He has also served for short periods as the Director Future Warfare and Director General Future Land Warfare. In 2006 he was the Head of the Recruitment and Retention Implementation Staff, responsible for implementing major improvements in Defence Personnel matters.
Brigadier Krause served in Iran as a United Nations Military Observer on the UNIIMOG mission in 1990 and in the Solomon Islands as the Military Adviser to the Special Coordinator of RAMSI during 2004. He also served in Iraq for a very short period in 2005. He has served overseas with 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards as a Reconnaissance Troop Leader in 1986 and as the Liaison Officer to the United States Marine Corps at Quantico in 2002-03.
Brigadier Krause holds a Bachelor of Arts, Military Studies, a Graduate Diploma in Defence Studies, a Master of Arts (International Relations) and a Master of Defence Studies. He is a graduate of Australian Command and Staff College (1995) and is a Member of The Royal College of Defence Studies (2006). He was the Chauvel Medal winner in 2006 for his essay on Minimum Mass Tactics.
Brigadier Krause assumed command of 1st Brigade, the Australian Army's premier warfighting formation, on 7 December 2007.
Brigadier Krause has been married to Jacqueline for 16 years and they have two wonderful children, Renata (13) and Johnathan (10).