Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak has taken up the post of Chief of Staff of Allied Joint Force Command in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

Photo: mon.gov

The post is one of two operational level commands in the NATO command structure.

The Pole takes over from the French Major General Michel Yakovleff, who will become first deputy of the Chief of Staff of SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), based in Brussels.

Joint Force Command Brunssum also serves as the NATO higher headquarters for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

After graduating from the Armoured Officer College in Poznan, fifty year-old General Adamczak completed the Advanced Course at the US Army Armour Centre, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and continued his military education at the National Defence University in Warsaw.

In 2003, he was deployed with the first rotation of the Polish Military Contingent in Iraq, where he led the planning branch of the Headquarters Multinational Division - Centre-South.

A year later, he was assigned as the Chief of the Command and Staff Training Branch in the Land Operations Directorate of the Army Staff.

In 2006, he began his studies at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.Two years later he was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as the Deputy Commanding General for the Coalition in Headquarters Regional Command East.

Last month he was promoted to Lieutenant-General.

General Adamczak is married, with three children. (mk/nh)