Petr Pavel

Petr Pavel ( born 1 November 1961 in Plana u Mariánských Lázní ) is an officer of the Czech army and there Chief of General Staff. His promotion to lieutenant general was made on May 8, 2012.

Biography

Pavel attended by 1979 - 1983 the University of the army in Vyškov ( Vysoká Vojenská škola pozemního vojska ve výškové ). In addition, he completed training at the Staff College in Camberley (1995 - 1996) and the Royal College of Defence Studies in London ( 2005).

Petr Pavel was a member of an expert committee, the Czech " White Paper on defense," created in 2011.

He is married and has one daughter and two sons.

Military career

Pavel began his career as the leader of a reconnaissance platoon. After a few years he moved to the news service, where he held the command of the 601 special forces group from 1 November 1997 to 31 March 1999.

From 2003 to 2005, Pavel Deputy Supreme Commander of the Czech armed forces and then to 2007 Head of the Operations Department of the Staff Department for the development of the armed forces. July 1, 2011, he was appointed deputy chief and on 1 July 2012 as the Chief of General Staff. He thus entered the successor of Vlastimil Picek.

In addition, he held a number of foreign assignments. From 1992 to 1993 he worked for UNPROFOR in the Republic of Serbian Krajina. There succeeded the carrier under his command paratroopers, a French unit that was caught in a hopeless situation as a result of a Croatian offensive to evacuate during a week-long action from the danger zone; this he was awarded by Defense Minister Pierre Joxe with the Military Merit Cross with bronze star. From 1993 to 1994 he was deputy to the Czech military and air force attaché in Belgium. From 1999 to 2002 he was a liaison officer at Headquarters AFCENT and as Deputy Commander emerged from AFCENT Regional Command AFNORTH. From 2007 to 2009 he was Deputy Military Representative of the Czech Republic in the EU. From 2010 to 2011, he represented his country at SHAPE.