He is a lieutenant general employed by NATO who took control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Regional Command South (RC-S) on November 1, 2006, until May 1, 2007.

In this position, he was able to leverage and solidify his earlier experiences in international military cooperation by organizing the first rotations of the Royal Netherlands Army at the (US) Combat Manoeuvre and Training Centre in Hohenfels.

From June 2000 to January 2004 Van Loon served on the Staff of the Royal Netherlands Army in The Hague.

On October 13, 2006, Van Loon was promoted to the rank of major general, ahead of his deployment to Afghanistan.

During this posting, he conducted several operations and continued NATO efforts to implement the 3D (defense, diplomacy, development) program.

His involvement with ISAF continued after his return to The Netherlands, where he served as a senior mentor in a number of pre-deployment exercises and as a subject lecturer.

At that occasion, Van Loon was presented with the Ehrenkreuz der Bundeswehr in Gold for "his career-long efforts to improve Dutch-German cooperation".