Brigadier General Leanne van den Hoek (born 21 August 1958 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

) is an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

of the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army (, KL) is the Ground warfare, land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised making the Dutch standing a ...

. She is the first woman to hold a

flag officer A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command. Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: * ...

rank in the Dutch military.Blikop Nieuws

Article from AP Worldstream August 24, 2005 She is married, but has chosen not to have any children.Het kan dus wel
Interview with Brigadier General Leanne van Hoek in ''

De Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...

'' upon her promotion.

Biography

Van den Hoek originally wanted to be a police officer, which was her childhood dream. However, she was refused for training due to poor eyesight. She therefore applied to the military academy instead, where she passed military physical selection (just; in 1979 the Dutch military still used the same physical criteria for men as for women), despite being slightly short (1.65 meter). Van den Hoek enrolled in the

Koninklijke Militaire Academie The Royal Military Academy ( or ''KMA'') is the service academy for the Dutch Army, the Dutch Air Force and the Royal Marechaussee. Located in Breda, Southern Netherlands, the KMA has trained future officers since 1828. Description The KMA o ...

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

as an

officer cadet Officer cadet is a rank held by military personnel during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by personnel of University Service Units such as the University Officers' Training Corps. Th ...

in 1979. After her graduation in 1983 she held several operational positions in the area of Military Logistics; these positions had her stationed both in the Netherlands and in Germany. Regarding her choice for military logistics rather than primary combat training, Van den Hoek stated that back in 1983 combat positions entailed "sitting around all day waiting for the Russians to invade", a possibility she had thought was unlikely to happen. She chose logistics since "an army must always eat – be it in peacetime or at war". She continued her military education in 1993, enrolling in the Hogere Militaire Vorming. Completing the training in 1994, she was assigned her first command position with the 41st Mechanized Brigade in Seedorf. She held this command until 1996, when she enrolled in the German Führungsakademie. Following this general staff training, she was assigned to the Army Staff in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. Van den Hoek set a first on 17 July 2001 when she became the first female

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

in the

. She commanded the 200th Supply and Transport Battalion at

Nunspeet Nunspeet () is a municipality and town in the central Netherlands. It has been an agricultural site since prehistoric times. The municipality contains a number of villages, namely Hulshorst, Elspeet, and Vierhouten. Nunspeet has a vivid historica ...

and 't Harde. Promoted to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

, she later became Director of the Defense Institute for Medical Screening and Selection. On 1 November 2005 the Dutch State Secretary of

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

Cees van der Knaap Cornelis (Cees) van der Knaap (born 27 January 1951) is a Dutch politician. He was State Secretary for Defence for the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Biography After attending a MULO school, Van der Knaap worked for Vroom & Dreesmann. ...

promoted Van den Hoek to the rank of brigadier general. This made General Van den Hoek the first female flag officer of the Dutch military. She has been

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of the Army Personnel Department since.

Outside the military

Van den Hoek is an enthusiastic athlete. Prior to 2000 she was an avid

skydiver Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

; she was part of the Dutch national team and participated in the precision skydiving world championships. She made a total of 1540 jumps before a

kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance ...

ing accident in 2000 caused her a whiplash injury. This forced her to give up parachuting. She now plays golf instead.

Anecdotes

Upon being promoted battalion commander in 2001, Van den Hoek was interviewed on the radio. When asked whether she, as a woman in the military, was hampered by the

glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Ful ...

, she got slightly irritated and responded "What's a glass ceiling?"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoek, Leanne van den 1958 births Living people Royal Netherlands Army generals Dutch female military personnel Military personnel from Rotterdam Skydivers Graduates of the Koninklijke Militaire Academie Bundeswehr Command and Staff College alumni