A Spanish general will take the helm of EUTM RCA
(B2 - exclusive) The General (two stars) Spanish Fernando Garcia Blazquez will take command of the European training mission for the Central African armed forces (EUTM RCA), on July 24, according to our information, thus taking over from the Belgian general Herman Ruys. A command he will assume for six months, as number 3 of the Eurocorps (chief of staff).
Third rotation for Eurocorps
With 66 personnel (out of the 170 making up the mission), the Belgian, French, Spanish and Romanian soldiers (the liaison officer present in Strasbourg) from the Eurocorps will form the core of the mission's staff. This is the third time that Eurocorps will assume command of the European Central African Armed Forces Training Mission (EUTM RCA). Once is not custom. General García Blázquez (with whom B2 spoke), speaks very good French as well as English.
A helicopter pilot graduated from the general staff
Born in 1962, Fernando entered the Spanish military academy in 1979. In 1984, he became an artillery lieutenant and was sent to the 12th Self-Propelled Artillery Group (M109). In 1986, he became a helicopter pilot. Assigned to the Canary Islands, he flies Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) helicopters or Bölkow Bo 105, within the 4th battalion of maneuver helicopters (BHELMA) in the Canary Islands. After a stint in Madrid, in 1988, at the military aviation staff, he continued his training in helicopter maintenance, became an instructor pilot and test pilot, and in 1991 took the lead of the battalion utility helicopters (BHELMA) of La Rioja, for five years. Fernando García Blazquez continues to fly, accumulating mountain flight hours and night flights. In 1997, graduating as a staff officer, he became commander and appointed chief of staff (COS) for transport, within the direction of the logistics command of the army, in Madrid.
Strong international experience: Verona, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Strasbourg...
The Spaniard has international experience mainly oriented towards NATO. In 2000, he was deployed within the HQ of the French operation Salamander deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and whose HQ is located on the air base of Mostar-Ortiješ. It was also deployed between 2002 and 2004 in Verona, within the Joint Command South of NATO. He continues with a first post in Strasbourg, within the Eurocorps, in charge of the planning of the exercises. A position he left in 2005 to join the army staff in Madrid, where he assumed the post of Spanish director of the Multinational Experiment 5 (1).
... and Afghanistan
In September 2007, he took command of the 3rd Exercise Helicopter Battalion in Logroño (Spain). It was with this title that he was deployed to Herat (Afghanistan) as commander of the Spanish army helicopter group (Aspuhel XVII). He himself counts more than 200 hours of flight in the combat zone. He returned there in 2013, as Chief of General Staff ISAF Western Regional Command. His two main tasks were then to supervise the Afghan presidential elections and to organize the relay between ISAF and the mission. Resolute Support.
Head of Spanish Airmobile Forces (FAMET)
In 2014, he was placed in charge of the NH90 Caiman helicopter program and took over as head of the Air Mobile Forces of the Army (FAMET) in June 2015, whose main base is located in a suburb of Madrid, in Colmenar Viejo. Married, he is the father of two boys... including a helicopter pilot.
(Leonor Hubaut)
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(1) A multinational MNE 5 program aimed at filling capability gaps andexpand pre-crisis and crisis management by involving military and non-military, governmental and non-governmental as well as private organizations.
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ping: A Spanish general will take the helm of EUTM RCA – APV