Monte Pastello desired for a military career and in 1833, he enlisted in the Imperial and Royal Pioneer School in the monastery barracks at Tulln an der Donau as a cadet before graduating in 1837 as a second lieutenant as he was assigned at the 45th Galician Infantry Regiment.

[2] After being transferred to the Quartermaster General's staff, he began to implement Birago's ideas in 1846, reorganizing the Imperial and Royal Danube flotilla and incorporated the river boats of the "Tschaikisten" into it.

On August 12, 1842, he was promoted to first lieutenant to the 9th Graf Hartmann Infantry Regiment, March 1, 1843, to general quartermaster, January 15, 1847, to captain and on February 21, 1849, to major.

[2] In the Battle of Schweinschädel at Bohemia which took place on June 29, 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War, Mollinary also fought against the needle gun for the first time and had to acknowledge the technical superiority of the Prussians.

He did not receive the supreme command of the Bosnian campaign that he expected, because his views on an Austrian Greater Croatia made him politically unpopular with the Hungarians and especially with the Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy and he was sidelined.