All in Army
Lucie is the only platoon commander in the 1st Hunter Regiment (régiment de chasseurs) in Thierville-sur-Meuse near Verdun in north-east France. The tool she works with weighs some 55 tonnes, is 3m60 wide and 3m06 high. Despite this imposing size, the working space inside the Leclerc battle tank, because this is the tool in question, is extremely tight. Having had the good fortune to ride in a Leclerc a few years ago, I speak from experience…
It’s not because you fail at something once that you shouldn’t persist… and then turn out to be very good at the something in question. In Sam’s case (she prefers Sam to Samantha) it is the British Army where she will take up her rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 31 August. Currently the chief of staff of the Air Safety branch atJoint Helicopter Command, she was rejected the first time she tried to join the Army 17 years ago…
Lieutenant Miléna took command of a combat engineer platoon just six months ago. She’s the only woman in it “but so far I haven't had any problems with my platoon,” she says, having made it clear to her men when she arrived that even ifshe is young, she’s been trained to be platoon commander. If they don't understand her decisions, she's open to dialogue, but it's clear who’s in charge! “You shouldn't expect to be accepted by everyone,” she remarks, lucid beyond her years…
Don’t think that registering with your local job centre is a waste of time. Because this is how Kathleen – somewhat unusually for someone in the military – began her career in the army when she was almost 27 years old. Today she’s an air-traffic controller and instructor in the 3rd Combat Helicopter Regiment of the French Army…
It’s the last few days in November and Astrid’s tan still bears the white marks at the top of her nose imprinted by her sunglasses. The only female instructor at the Chamonix high altitude military school (known by its French acronym EMHM for École militaire de haute montagne), she has just finished the climbing season and is enthusiastically looking forwards to the ski season…
Malia was 18 and looking for adventure. She found it in Valence, at the foot of the French Alps more than 22,000 km, a 36-hour flight and an 11 hour time difference from her home. The young woman, today a radio transmitter and top-performing athlete, was born and raised on Wallis, which, together with the islands of Futuna and Alofi, form a French overseas collectivity in the Pacific Ocean…
