Norfolk: France on Wednesday took over a top NATO post, the first time in the military alliance’s 60-year history that one of its supreme commanders is from a country other than the United States.
French Air Force General Stephane Abrial took over from James Mattis, a Marine General who heads US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and is the outgoing Supreme Allied Commander Transformation for NATO.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the move as “a significant milestone for the Atlantic alliance” during the change of command ceremony aboard the USS Dwight D Eisenhower in Norfolk, Virginia, where the NATO unit is based.
Mattis, who held the post for a little less than two years, previously served as Commanding General of the I Marine Expeditionary Force and headed US Marine Forces Central Command. He assumed the NATO supreme command assignment on November 9, 2007.
He celebrated the “historic occasion” of Abrial’s appointment, which came after fellow Frenchman General Philippe Stolz was tapped as commander of the Allied Joint Command Lisbon.
The move, Mattis said, meant Paris was returning “lock, stock and barrel” to NATO’s integrated command for the first time since former president Charles de Gaulle pulled out of the transatlantic alliance in 1966.
The historic NATO command change came at a time when the alliance is at a crossroads. Rather than focusing on Cold War security, as it did in its early days, troops from the 26-nation coalition today focus largely on counter-terrorism and peacekeeping.
They are fighting a rising al Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, protecting UN food ships from pirates operating off the Somalia and training police in Iraq.
Last year, NATO forces helped train and airlift African Union troops into Darfur and in 2007 they flew relief supplies to earthquake victims in Pakistan.
The growth of the alliance has become one of its greatest challenges, creating important internal divisions — especially about plans to incorporate Ukraine and Georgia over Moscow’s protests.
Abrial, who turned 55 this week, was born in the village of Condom, France.
He graduated from France’s Air Force Academy in 1973 and earned his fighter pilot wings in 1976. He also had a year-long stint as an exchange cadet at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Much of his career has been spent overseas, including as a flight commander north of Munich, Germany and as a detachment commander in Greece in the 1980s.
He spent time at NATO headquarters in Brussels during the 1990s before ascending to become chief of staff of the French Air Force in July 2006.
He will be based in Norfolk, home to the Norfolk Naval Base, the world’s largest with 78 ships and 133 aircraft.
–Agencies