An airman in the deputy command of Operation Atalanta
(BRUSSELS2) It is indeed an aviator... from the navy who arrives at the HQ of Atalanta, the European anti-piracy operation. German Rear-Admiral Thomas Josef Ernst was trained in the German, American, British and French schools (having done the higher school of naval warfare)
Thomas Ernst has taken over from his Spanish counterpart Bartolomé Bauzá as Atalanta's deputy chief. He will work alongside the new leader who takes office in a few days, Major-General Buster Howes from the commandos (read: A green beret will take the lead of EUNAVFOR Atalanta). At sea, the command remains assured by the Swede Jan Thörnqvist aboard the Karlskrona. A very complete trio as well since it illustrates the three military aspects of the operation: the sea, the air, the action.
Born in 1956, Thomas Ernst is a child of Saarland. He grew up in Saarbrücken. And in 1976, at the age of 20, he joined the navy, after training at the Mürwik Navy School (MSM) and on board the “Gorch Fock” and “Deutschland” training ships. In 1980, with a patent in electrical engineering in his pocket, he chose maritime aviation and began pilot training at the US Air Force base in Sheppard. He completed this training at the British RAF base at Cottesmore as a Tornado bomber pilot.
He then began his career as a maritime pilot at Naval Air Wing 1 in 1984 and supervised the introduction at the operational level of the high-speed anti-radar missile (HARM) weapon system, AGM 88. Promoted to Lieutenant-Commander, he followed the courses at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre Navale in Paris. And on his return to Germany in 1993, he commanded the first squadron of Naval Air Wing 1 in Schleswig. The town in northern Germany where he made his home (he has a daughter, Theresia).
After a stint at the Ministry of Defense as a maritime air staff officer, he resumed command in 1998: the Naval Air Wing Group 2 based in Eggebeck, made up of 5 squadrons and 50 Tornado aircraft.
From 2000 to 2002, Ernst returned to the Ministry of Defense as a military assistant to the German CHOD (General Kujat). In 2002, he moved to Norfolk to HQ Saclant as head of political-military affairs. Returning to Germany in 2005, he joined the Ministry of Defense as Director of Naval Personnel and, in 2007, became Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State, Peter Wichert (who resigned from his post in November 2009 following the bombardment murderer of Kunduz in Afghanistan).
Just before leaving for Northwood, he was promoted to Rear Admiral and last March took command of the naval school in Mürwik, a nice return to his roots, in this school which this year celebrates its centenary (it was founded by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910).
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
