École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr
Which school did François Lecointre go to from 1984 to 1987?
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 ( platoon leader ) , as the company commanding officer , one of the two 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 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 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 ( 3 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 Joint 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 in Vannes . From 2007 to 2008 , he followed the courses of the Center of High Military Studies ( CHEM ) , and was an auditor at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale ( IHEDN ) in Paris . He was promoted to brigade general 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 defence staff for « performance-synthèse » from 2014 to 2016 . He was promoted to division general on 1 January 2015 . Head of the Prime Ministers 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 corps general on 1 March 2017 . On 20 July 2017 , he was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff by President Emmanuel Macron , following the resignation of General Pierre de Villiers . He took office the day after his appointment and was promoted to the rank and title of Général darmée . 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 . 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 .