Aleš Opata

Aleš Opata (2014)

Aleš Opata (born September 9, 1964 in Hranice ) is a Czech officer with the rank of general . Since May 2018 he has been the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Army .

Life

Aleš Opata was born in 1964 in Hranice in the Moravia part of what was then Czechoslovakia .

Military career

The current general attended the Army College in Vyškov from 1983 to 1987 (Vysoká vojenská škola pozemního vojska ve Vyškově). He also completed training at the Command and Staff College of Marine Corps University in Virginia (1998–1999) and at the Royal College of Defense Studies in London (2004).

Opata's military career is closely linked to the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade (4th brigáda rychlého nasazení), which was established on July 1, 1994 and in whose ranks he served a total of 14 years. First he trained paratroopers . He was then given command of the brigade's 43rd Paratrooper Battalion stationed in Chrudim in 1999 , before becoming the brigade's commander in 2003.

In addition, he went through several assignments abroad. In 1993 he worked for UNPROFOR in the Republic of Serbian Krajina ; He was awarded the Military Merit Cross by Defense Minister Pierre Joxe for his commitment to the liberation of a French unit that had gotten into a life-threatening situation as a result of a Croatian offensive . In January 1996 he served in Bosnia and Herzegovina , where the 3rd Mechanized Company of the Czech IFOR contingent, under his command, was participating in Operation Joint Endeavor . In 2000, the 43rd Paratrooper Battalion under the command of Opata, a complete unit as part of SFOR - Operation Joint Forge, took part in a peace mission for the first time. From 2002 to 2003 he was subordinate to the Czech KFOR contingent in Kosovo , and in 2007 he was chief of staff of the Provincial Reconstruction Team under the command of ISAF in Faizabad, Afghanistan .

In connection with the promotion to brigadier general, he moved to the General Staff in 2008 , where he took over the management of the armed forces development department in 2009 and later the management of the cross-armed operations center of the Ministry of Defense . At the same time he was appointed deputy chief of staff on January 1, 2010. He was promoted to major general on October 28, 2011. From 2014 to 2017 he was the representative of the Czech armed forces at the NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe . In August 2017 he took over the post of Chief of Staff of the Czech Armed Forces and was promoted to Lieutenant General in October of the same year . He has been Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Army since May 1, 2018, replacing Josef Bečvář as the highest military representative of the armed forces. On October 28, 2018, he was promoted to General ( Armádní generál ).

Private

Aleš Opata is married and has three children. In addition to his mother tongue, he speaks English. His hobbies include fishing, literature and motorcycling.

Web links

Commons : Aleš Opata  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography of Josef Bečvář on the Czech Army website.
• Activity report on the occasion of Opata's transfer to the General Staff (Czech)