Arvydas Pocius (officer)

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Arvydas Pocius (2011) as Commander of the Armed Forces

Arvydas Pocius (born May 14, 1957 in Klaipėda ) is a former Lithuanian officer and diplomat. During his service in the Lithuanian Army , he was Commander in Chief of the Lithuanian Army from 2004 to 2007 and Military Commander in Chief of the country's armed forces from 2009 to 2014. He was then the ambassador of his home country to Romania from October 2014 to October 2019.

Life

After graduating from the 18th Klaipėda Middle School in 1975, Arvydas Pocius completed a diploma course at what is now the Sports University of Lithuania . In 1979 he finished his studies and worked as a trainer for freestyle wrestling and judo .

Military career

Promotions

soviet armed forces

Lithuanian Armed Forces

In addition to his sports studies, Arvydas Pocius also attended an officer training course in 1979 and from that time on was a reserve officer in the Soviet Army . After joining the Lithuanian opposition movement against Moscow in the late 1980s, he returned his officer's license in 1990.

In 1991 he joined the newly formed military volunteer association in his home country, where he assumed the position of deputy chief of staff with the rank of major . In the next few years he was promoted to lieutenant colonel (1993), further training in the Bundeswehr (1996) and then promoted to colonel (1997). After working as commander of the volunteer association from 1997 to 2002, he switched to the regular armed forces.

There he was first used as the commander of the Eastern Defense District. In the years 2003 to 2004 another study abroad at the United States Army War College followed . Upon graduation, he was promoted to brigadier general on June 30, 2004 , and appointed commander of the land forces. From autumn 2017 he worked at Allied Command Transformation . On July 24, 2009, Pocius was given the rank of major general as the successor to Valdas Tutkus , commander of the Lithuanian Army . In 2011 he was promoted to lieutenant general . After the usual five-year tenure as Chief of the Armed Forces, he was replaced by Jonas Vytautas Žukas in July 2014 .

Personal

Arvydas Pocius is married and has a son and a daughter. In addition to his mother tongue, he is also proficient in English, Russian, German and Polish.

The former general was very active in sports, especially in his youth. So he succeeded in winning the Lithuanian national championships in judo in the junior as well as in the youth and adult area. He also received the title of Master of Sports of the USSR in judo and freestyle wrestling. Today fishing and hunting are among his hobbies.

After retiring from the military and diplomatic service, Pocius joined the conservative TS-LKD in November 2019 in order to become politically active in his hometown of Klaipėda in the future. In January 2020 he was elected chairman of the party's regional association.

Awards

Arvydas Pocius received the following national and international government awards:

LTU Order of the Cross of Vytis - Officer's Cross BAR.svg 2000: Order of the Vytis Cross (officer)
LVA Order of Viesturs (swords) .png 2013: Westhard Order (Grand Cross)
OPMM-guX.svg 2014: Order of Merit Pro Merito Melitensi (Grand Officer)
LTU Order of the Cross of Vytis - Commander's Grand Cross BAR.svg 2014: Order of the Vytis Cross (Grand Officer)

Web links

Commons : Arvydas Pocius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Internet report from the Lithuanian embassy in Romania of October 8, 2014, accessed on January 27, 2015 (English, Lithuanian)
  2. ↑ Press release of the Lithuanian Armed Forces of July 24, 2014, accessed on July 26, 2014 (English)
  3. ↑ Online report on https://www.lrt.lt from November 6, 2019, accessed on November 24, 2019 (Lithuanian)
  4. ↑ Online report on http://alkas.lt from January 20, 2020, accessed on April 26, 2020 (Lithuanian)
  5. ↑ a b cf. Overview of the medal holders , accessed on January 8, 2016 (Lithuanian)
  6. ↑ List of medal bearers ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Latvian President, accessed on November 12, 2016 (Latvian)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.president.lv
  7. ↑ Press release of the Lithuanian Armed Forces of May 15, 2014, accessed on January 8, 2016 (English)
predecessor Office successor
Valdas tutkus Kariuomenės vadas
2009–2014 		Jonas Vytautas Žukas
personal data
SURNAME Pocius, Arvydas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian lieutenant general and former army commander
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Klaipeda