Jørgen Lyng (born 7 March 1934), is a retired Danish general and a former

Chief of Defence The chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national military position withi ...

of Denmark. As a young soldier Lyng received training from

SAS SAS or Sas may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers * ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series * Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...

, this training among other, enabled him to help establish and complete training for Jægerkorpset. He was made Chief of Defence in 1989, only a week before the fall of the

Berlin wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

. In 1990, he order HDMS Olfert Fischer to the Persian Gulf, in order to participate in the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, thereby starting Denmark's more active foreign policy. This led to the creation of the

Danish International Brigade The Danish International Brigade (), short DIB (also sometimes known as the ''Danish Reaction Brigade'') was a Denmark, Danish military brigade. The political decision to form this brigade was conceived in the Danish Defence agreement 1992–1995 ...

in 1993 and participation in the NATO led in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the

Operation Bøllebank The Operation Bøllebank (English: Operation Hooligan Bashing) is the name given to the military confrontation between Bosnian Serb military forces and Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish combat units composing the United Nations Protection Force (UN ...

became the first combat operation conducted by Danish Armed Forces since World War II. Since his retirement, Lyng received criticism for failing to cut spending of the Danish forces after the fall and the USSR, likewise his retirement party received criticism for its frivolous spending, which featured gun salutes from the navy, overhead flights by the Air Force, and entertainment by the Guard Hussar Regiment Mounted Squadron for the 600 party guests.

Awards and decorations

References

1934 births Danish generals People from Aalborg 20th-century Danish military personnel Living people {{Denmark-mil-bio-stub