Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Curt Ove Leonard Sjöö (born 16 March 1937) is a retired

Swedish Army The Swedish Army ( sv, svenska armén) is the land force of the Swedish Armed Forces. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1521, when the men of Dalarna chose 16 young able men as body guards for the insurgent nobleman Gusta ...

officer. Sjöö's senior commands include Chief of the Army Staff (1988–1990) and military commander of the

Upper Norrland Military District Upper Norrland Military District ( sv, Övre Norrlands militärområde, Milo ÖN), originally VI Military District ( sv, VI. militärområdet) was a Swedish military district, a command of the Swedish Armed Forces that had operational control ove ...

(1990–1992) and of the Northern Military District (1993–1996). He also served as Chief of His Majesty's Military Staff from 1997 to 2003.

Early life

Sjöö was born on 16 March 1937 in

Eksjö Eksjö is a locality and the seat of Eksjö Municipality in Jönköping County, Sweden, with 9,701 inhabitants in 2010. History The city of Eksjö most likely appeared sometime in the Middle Ages when it was the centre for the ''thing'', a regi ...

Parish,

Jönköping County Jönköping County ( sv, Jönköpings län) is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The total county population was 356,291 inhabitants in Sept ...

, Sweden, the son of Ernst Sjöö and his wife Ester (née Isaksson). He passed ''

studentexamen Studentexamen (Swedish for "students' examination" or "students' degree"), earlier also ''mogenhetsexamen'' ("maturity examination") was the name of the university entrance examination in Sweden from the 17th century to 1968. From 1862 to 1968, ...

'' in Eksjö in 1955. He finished third is his class at the

Military Academy Karlberg Military Academy Karlberg ( sv, Militärhögskolan Karlberg, MHS K) is a Swedish military academy, since its inauguration in 1792 in oper