Heije Schaper

Rear Admiral Heije Schaper (1949)

Heije Schaper (born September 8, 1906 in Joure , Friesland province , † May 26, 1996 in The Hague ) was a Dutch officer in the Royal Navy and lieutenant general of the Royal Luchtmacht . He was Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Chairman of the United Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces ( Nederlandse Krijgsmacht ) and temporarily State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense ( Ministerie van Defensie ). For many years he was adjutant general and head of the military budget of Queen Juliana .

Life

Training as a naval aviator and World War II

Schaper graduated after attending the Higher public school in Heerenveen from 1926 to May 1929 training as an officer of the Merchant Navy at the Maritime School Amsterdam , and after two years of use as a naval officer from October 1931 to October 1933, a further training as a pilot and weapons system officer in the Naval Aviation ( Marine Luchtvaart Service ) of the Royal Navy. He was then used in the Dutch East Indies , where he was initially a third class officer pilot and, after an interim use in 1934 on the submarine K XIV, was a flight instructor in the Morokrembangan naval air camp between 1937 and 1939 .

After his return to the Netherlands, Schaper was an instructor at the Schellingwoude naval aviation camp between 1939 and 1940 and at the same time a test pilot for the aircraft construction company NV Aviolanda in Papendrecht . After the start of World War II, he flew as a member of Squadron 320 Dutch nationals with a float plane to England before it in May 1942 in German prisoner of war came he until the war ended in May 1945 in the Stalag Luft III in Lower Silesia Sagan spent. For his military services he was awarded the Knight's Cross, Fourth Class of the Military Wilhelms Order on November 15, 1940, and the British Dinstinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on January 10, 1941 .

After the end of the war, Schaper was in September 1945 as a staff officer-aviator, second class, commander of the naval aviation troops in the Dutch East Indies , before he was acting flag officer of the naval aviation associations between 1946 and 1949 after his return and was promoted as such to sea captain in 1947 . After his promotion to Rear Admiral ( Schout-bij-Nacht ) in 1949, he became a flag officer of the Naval Aviation Associations and held this post until 1954. On April 29, 1952, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion .

Chief of Staff, Adjutant General to the Queen and Secretary of State

Between 1954 and 1956, after being promoted to major general on November 1, 1954, he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force, before being promoted to Lieutenant General on November 1, 1956 as successor to Anton Baretta from November 1, 1954 until he was replaced by Hein Zielstra on December 1, 1961 Chief of Staff and thus Commander of the Air Force ( Bevelhebber der Luchtstrijdkrachten ) was.

During this time, Schaper was on January 1, 1958, as the successor to General Ben Hasselman Chief of the United Chiefs of Staff and thus Commander of the Armed Forces. He also held this position until December 1, 1961 and was then replaced by Vice Admiral Henri Herman Lourens Pröpper . For his services there, he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau on November 30, 1961 .

In addition, from August 1961 to January 1962 he initially acted as adjutant and sub-head of the military budget of Queen Juliana and then became first adjutant of the queen in January 1962, before his last adjutant general in the extraordinary service of the queen between October 1963 and June 22, 1966 Juliana was. At the same time he was head of the Queen's military budget from 1963 to June 22, 1966.

On June 22, 1966, Schaper was appointed State Secretary for Air Force Affairs in the Ministry of Defense by Prime Minister Jo Cals in his cabinet and held this office in the government formed by Cals' successor Jelle Zijlstra until April 5, 1967. After his resignation from the Government took place on April 17, 1967, his appointment as commander of the Order of the Dutch Lions.

Then in April 1967 he took over the functions of adjutant general and head of the military household of Queen Juliana and held these two offices for almost nine more years until February 1976. After that, Schaper, who was temporarily chairman of the Royal Aviation Association ( Koninklijke Vereniging van Luchtvaart ), a member of the supervisory board of Hollandse Signaalapparaten NV and the Royal Dutch Aircraft Factory Fokker NV , succeeded Major General Henri Koot between 1976 and was replaced by Major General Cornelis Knulst 1981 Chancellor of the Dutch Order ( Kanselier der Nederlandse Orden ).

Heije Schaper was the father of the diplomat and politician Herman Schaper , who was a member of the Second Chamber of the States General between 1981 and 1982 as a representative of the Democrats and has been Head of the Permanent Mission to NATO in Brussels since 2005 .

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