François Lecointre

François Gérard Marie Lecointre (born 6 February 1962) is a French army general serving as Chief of the Defence Staff since 20 July 2017. As a captain, with Lieutenant Bruno Heluin, he was one of the two section chiefs heroes of the Battle of Vrbanja Bridge in 1995, the last Fixed Bayonet Charge combat of the French Armed Forces.

Biography 

François Lecointre was born on 6 February 1962 in Cherbourg, into a family of military traditions. His father, Yves Urbain Marie Lecointre (5 April 1932 - 1985), was a French Naval Officer and Submariner, Commandant of SNLE  Le Redoutable. One of his uncles, Hélie de Roffignac, was a cavalry officer who died in Algeria, at the age of 23.

Military career

Lecointre attended the preparatory classes at the Prytanée National Militaire in La Flèche. He subsequently studied at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (Promotion Général Monclar) from 1984 to 1987, and then at the Infantry School from 1987 to 1988.

Lecointre joined the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment (3e RIMa) where he served from 1988 to 1991. Lieutenant Lecointre was appointed to the rank of Captain in the marine infantry on 1 July 1991.

From 1993 to 1996, he was a combat company commander of the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment (3e RIMa) in Vannes. As a captain, Lecointre was involved in the Opération Turquoise in 1994 in Rwanda: he commanded the 1st company of the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment (3e RIMa), part of the Groupement Nord Turquoise. Captain François Lecointre was engaged with the French forces under the command of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the orders of General Hervé Gobilliard () and Colonel Erik Sandahl, Captain Lecointre together with Lieutenant Bruno Heluin (), part of the French peacekeeping forces, led a « Fix Bayonet Charge » (), which reversed the tides, in the Battle of Vrbanja Bridge on 27 May 1995, while diplomacy was seeking another exclusive diplomatic turning solution. According to Jean Guisnel (), this episode allowed to reverse the sense of war, and led in fine to the victory in the Balkans.

From 1996 to 1999, he was an instructor at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in Coëtquidan, Morbihan where he trained student officers in military tactics. In 1999 - 2001, he was a trainee officer at the Inter-arm Defense College (now École Militaire) and then served in the office of the Chief of Staff of the French Army () in Paris at the crops bureau of system conception forces.

From 2005 to 2007, Colonel Lecointre was the commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment (3e RIMa) in Vannes.

From 2007 to 2008, he followed the courses of the Center of High Military Studies (), and was an auditor at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN) in Paris.

He was promoted to Général de brigade on 1 August 2011, and occupied until 2013 the commandment post of the 9th Marine Infantry Brigade in Poitiers. He later was appointed as commander of the European Union Training Mission in Mali from January to July 2013.

He rejoined the general staff headquarters of the French Army as a chargé de mission, becoming subsequently deputy-chief of the general staff headquarters of the armies « performance-synthèse » from 2014 to 2016. He was promoted to Général de division on 1 January 2015.

Head of the Prime Minister's military cabinet since August 2016, he was elevated by a decree of President François Hollande in the first section of general officers to the rank and title of Général de corps d'armée on 1 March 2017.

General Lecointre was also publishing director of the review of military studies, Inflexions (2015-2017).

On 20 July 2017, he was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff by President Emmanuel Macron, following the resignation of Général d'armée Pierre de Villiers. He took office the day after his appointment and was promoted to the rank and title of Général d'armée.

General Lecointre made his first official visit to the United States in February 2018. He met with his American counterpart Joseph Dunford to discuss the ongoing War on ISIL and the progress of the G5 Sahel.

Military ranks

Honours and decorations

Publications 
 François Lecointre (dir.), Le soldat : XXe – XXIe siècle, Gallimard, coll. « Folio Histoire », 2018. With a foreword by French historian Jean-Pierre Rioux. This book is a collection of articles published in the French review of military studies : Inflexions - Civils et militaires : pouvoir dire, of which general Lecointre was a publishing director in 2015-2017

See also 
Hervé Charpentier
Pierre de Villiers
Battle of Vrbanja Bridge

References

Category:Living people
Category:1962 births
Category:People from Cherbourg-Octeville
Category:École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr alumni
Category:French generals
Category:Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Category:Commanders of the National Order of Mali
Category:Commanders of the National Order of Merit (France)