In October 1945, aged 13, Moerdani took part in an assault on a Kempeitai headquarters in Solo after the Kempetai refused to surrender to Indonesian troops.

During the Second Dutch military offensive, Moerdani was part of the Abdoel Latif Company of Tentara Pelajar defending the city of Surakarta.

One of the bullet fired from the armored vehicle shattered his rifle buttstock and he was hit by the shrapnel, rendering him unconscious.

[5] In 1951, the Indonesian Government began undertaking demobilization but Moerdani's brigade was deemed to have performed well enough for its soldiers to continue serving with ABRI.

2 years later, in 1954, Moerdani received his commission as a Second Lieutenant and was stationed at TT III Siliwangi, which looked after the security of West Java.

In 1955, KKAD went through a name change, and it was now known as the Army Paracommando Regiment (Resimen Para Komando Angkatan Darat or RPKAD).

[7] As a member of RPKAD, Moerdani became part of the battle to suppress the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI), a Sumatran-based rebel group.

In March 1958, Moerdani parachuted down behind enemy lines in Pekanbaru and Medan to prepare the groundwork for ABRI to take over the two cities.

His achievements during the West Irian campaign had caught the eye of President Sukarno who wanted to recruit him as a presidential bodyguard and marry him to one of his daughters.

In 1964, Moerdani and an RPKAD Battalion was sent to Borneo to fight a guerilla war against Malaysian and Commonwealth troops as part of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.

Coincidentally, Ali at the time was the Intelligence Assistant for the 1st Combat Command, a Kostrad unit stationed in Sumatra in preparation for the confrontation ordered by Sukarno in response to the creation of Malaysia in the fall of 1963.

[12] As 1965 wore on, his assignment also covered sending messages out by Army officers, tired and weary, who were not interested in the confrontation to the Malaysian government for the prospect of gaining a peaceful settlement.

After the 30 September Movement was crushed on 1 October 1965 by Kostrad Commander Major General Suharto, Moerdani's activities intensified.

Their efforts culminated on 11 August 1966 when the Indonesian and Malaysian governments signed an agreement to normalise relations between the two nations.

In August 1975, Moerdani began sending Indonesian soldiers under the guise of volunteers to begin infiltrating East Timor.

Moerdani immediately left the meeting to go to Jakarta to prepare to take action, in the meantime the hijacked aircraft had landed at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport.

Moerdani met with Suharto and secured the President's permission to use force in a bid to release the hostages; the rationale being that the hijackers should not be allowed to intimidate the aircraft pilots into flying to other countries.

On the morning of 31 March 1981, Moerdani personally led the Kopassandha troops to storm the aircraft, take back control of it, and save the hostages.

In March 1983, Moerdani reached the pinnacle of his military career when Suharto named him as the Commander-in-Chief of ABRI and promoted him to the rank of full General.

In addition to the Commandership of ABRI, Moerdani was also appointed Commander of Kopkamtib, and retained his position in Pusintelstrat, which was renamed the Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS-ABRI).

Unlike previous New Order ABRI Commanders, Moerdani was not appointed Minister of Defense and Security in a concurrent capacity.

To improve the quality of the academy's input as well as to strengthen the nationalist base, Moerdani conceptualized a senior high (pre-Academy) school to train the nation's brightest talents to later become members of the national elite group (the school, Taruna Nusantara, is now running and located side by side with the Military Academy in Magelang).

[21] Moerdani's Catholic background came to the forefront in 1984 when together with KODAM V/Jaya Commander, Try Sutrisno, he ordered a crackdown on Islamist protesters at Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, which resulted in deaths.

As ABRI Commander-in-Chief, Moerdani was arguably the de facto second most powerful man in social and political aspects of the Republic, after Suharto.

As the General Session approached, Suharto began making signs that he wanted Sudharmono as his Vice President.

On the matter of the vice presidential candidate the Bureaucrats and Functional factions unanimously agreed to nominate Sudharmono.

It was believed that Brigadier General Ibrahim Saleh's attack on Sudharmono and the nomination of the United Development Party (PPP) Chairman Jailani Naro as vice president was Moerdani's work.