General de Brigada

Fabián SANCHEZ

08/22/2003 - 09/23/2005

Brigadier General Fabián Sánchez was born on 31 October 1946 in Melilla (Spain) and joined the Spanish Military Academy in 1966.
Graduated in 1970 as First Lieutenant he served as platoon commander in the 1st Cavalry Regiment (Salamanca) and in the Cavalry Squadron of the Spanish Foreign Legion in Villa Cisneros (Sahara).
In 1974 he qualified as a helicopter pilot and, after promotion to Captain in 1975, he served in the Spanish Aviation Brigade from 1975 to 1979.
From 1979 to 1981 joined the Spanish General Staff College and the following years he served as S3 in the XLI Mountain Brigade (Lérida), he commanded the Mechanized Squadron of the 12th Armoured Cavalry Regiment (Valladolid) and was then posted as flight instructor at the Army Helicopter Training Centre (Madrid).
Promoted to Major in 1985 he served as staff officer in the Joint Staff and attended the NATO Defence College in Rome (1987/88). From 1988 to 1992 he was assigned to the Defence Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Defence.
In 1992 was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and assigned to the Spanish Rapid Reaction Division as G2/G3.
From October 1992 to February 1993 he deployed to Bosnia Herzegovina as member of HQ UNPROFOR and served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Forward Command Post in Sarajevo.
In 1995 was assigned to the Current Operations Branch in the Operations Division of the Spanish Joint Staff.
Promoted to Colonel in 1997 was posted as Chief of the Training and Exercises Branch in the Joint Staff.
In 1988 he took command of the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the Spanish Rapid Reaction Division.
In January 2001 he was assigned to the Spanish MILREP of the European Union in Brussels and took over as Spanish Representative in the Military Committee Working Group.
In November 2001 he was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations in the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Spain (NRDC-SP) in Bétera (Valencia).
In July 2003 he was assigned to HQ Eurocorps as Deputy Chief of Staff Operations and took up this post on 22 August 2003.
He is married to Adelina and they have a daughter and a son.