IHEDN Mondays are now available in audio format!
Click below to listen:
Born in the poorest region of Franco's Spain, Manuel Alvarez was orphaned at the age of two. Five years later, his mother remarried and they moved to the south-west of France. Young Manuel didn't speak a word of French, and neither his mother nor his stepfather knew much about the school system in their host country.
Just over half a century later, on 1er Last July, Air Force General Manuel Alvarez, the first air force general to be drawn from the corps of mechanic officers, bid farewell to the armed forces in the courtyard of honour of the Hôtel des Invalides, under the chairmanship of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and the Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Forces.
General Alvarez ended his long career in this army of 40,000 airmen and airwomen as one of only three 5-star generals, along with its Chief of Staff, Jérôme Bellanger, and the President of the Republic's Chief of Staff, Fabien Mandon (since appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces).
In his speech, the Minister praised the career of Manuel Alvarez, who was leaving the military as Inspector General of the Armed Forces, beginning with these very strong words:
"In this courtyard of the Invalides, where the Republic honours its most valiant soldiers, time, regimes and men pass, but memory remains. Before you, and for more than three centuries, there have been men and women of all origins united by the choice to serve France's armed forces, sometimes to the point of supreme sacrifice. To this long line of great servants of the nation, you now belong, General.
Like you, they were not all originally French. Like you, they became French by destiny. And to you today, after 45 years of service, France expresses its profound gratitude.
For the IHEDN, where he is an auditor for the national session (2013-2014), General Alvarez looks back on his career and the specific features of training and human resources in the armed forces, where he has in turn learned, taught, commanded and held the position of HRD for the Air and Space Force (AAE).
WHEN YOU JOINED THE ARMY IN 1980, DID YOU HAVE A VOCATION AS A MECHANIC, A SOLDIER OR BOTH?
I arrived in France at the age of 7, and I'm still very grateful to France, and first and foremost to the Ecole de la République, which took me under its wing. Even though I couldn't speak a word of French on the first day of school in CE1, some wonderful teachers put together an individualised programme for me: I started my day by going to the CP class to learn to read French, then I went back to CE1 after the break. And my parents took it upon themselves to instil in me the values I needed to succeed: hard work, a taste for effort, excellence... For example, at the end of the second term of CE2, even though I had the best marks of all my siblings, I was the only one punished because the general assessment on my report card read: "Excellent marks but can still do better".
As I grew up, I realised the opportunities my host country offered me compared to the Franco Spain we had fled. To thank France, I decided to join the army as soon as possible. I was interested in aeronautics and made model planes! So at the age of 15 I joined the Air Force Technical Training School in Saintes as an apprentice mechanic. And I immediately benefited from the social ladder offered by the AAE. Among the 600 apprentices who joined the school every year, a competition allowed 15 of them, including me, to move on to the promotional training section (SIP), as the second scientific section was known. Without that, I would probably have had a very honourable career as a non-commissioned officer.
Then I was able to go to the École des pupilles de l'Air in Grenoble to take my baccalaureate, followed by a preparatory course for the grandes écoles, with the rank of corporal. At the age of 20, I joined the École de l'Air in Salon-de-Provence, the only one of the 15 from the SIP in Saintes.
BEFORE GRADUATING AS VALEDICTORIAN FROM THE AIR FORCE ACADEMY, DID YOU FEEL ANY CONTEMPT FROM YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS, GIVEN YOUR BACKGROUND?
No, no condescension, perhaps rather a little admiration, of the "he's an arpet" type. [Editor's note: apprentice] and has already taken a few steps up the staircase that we didn't have to take". But I didn't mention the 'integration' part of my life: this 'foreigner who integrates' aspect, I never talked about it. I was just another young officer, driven like all the others by the school's motto, which we owe to the aviator Guynemer: "As long as you haven't given everything, you haven't given anything".
AFTER THAT, YOU WENT ON TO TEACH AT, AND THEN COMMAND, A NUMBER OF SCHOOLS: WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT TRAINING IN THE ARMY?
Its real specificity, its real wealth, is that it is multidimensional. Firstly, military training, with its values of respect, integrity, service and excellence, summed up in the acronym RISE. It's no coincidence that the verb "rise" means "to rise up". This military dimension also includes, of course, the possibility of giving death, and suffering it if necessary.
Then, academic training: for me, it was telecoms. [Manuel Alvarez is also an engineer from Télécom Paris.]Others are involved in aircraft maintenance, for example.
And finally, training as a citizen: in the army, you are given a combination of knowledge, know-how and interpersonal skills, whereas in civilian engineering schools, the emphasis is on academics, whether theoretical or practical. With us, engineering training is at the same level as that of the officer and future chief.
I would add, to quote General de Gaulle, that "the true school of command is general culture".
AS A FORMER DRH AT THE AAE, WOULD YOU SAY THAT TRAINING IS THE GLUE THAT HOLDS THE SOCIAL LADDER TOGETHER?
Absolutely, to an extraordinary degree. That's why the social ladder has become a pillar of my human resources policy. I wanted to widen the opportunities, to make it easier for non-commissioned officers to become non-commissioned officers, and for non-commissioned officers to become officers.
When I became HRD in September 2020, only 200 to 250 non-commissioned officers in the Air Force and Space Force were being promoted to NCO each year. By the time I left in August 2024, we had reached 450-500. To become an officer, I have also made more room for the internal Air Force School at the start of my career and increased recruitment to the ranks, which takes place later, around the age of 40.
Whatever your place in the scheme, you have opportunities. But to seize them, you have to pass competitive examinations, work hard and earn it: your past record must show that you are capable of exercising higher responsibilities. Opportunities exist in the army, it's a statutory requirement. As HRD, the Staff Regulations give you the framework, and within that framework you have opportunities to manage the 'flow' according to the budget. That's why we have officers who have graduated from the academy or come from the ranks. I've also set up a "recognition gateway" for non-commissioned members at the end of their service: after 23 years, a master corporal can now become a sergeant.
WHY DID YOU BECOME THE FIRST 5-STAR GENERAL FROM THE MECHANICS CORPS?
Historically, the leaders of the Air Force have been pilots, which can be explained by their operational experience.
When I became a colonel in 2006, we were still classified by corps. Since General Mercier [Chief of Staff of the French Air Force from 2012 to 2015, editor's note].As a result, colonels are assessed as a group: we no longer look only at the job, but above all at the intrinsic value of the individual. This is how mechanics came to command air bases housing fighter or transport squadrons that used to be reserved for pilots. After all, the word "general" is related to "generalist"! Over the last ten years or so, things have become more open, with more and more non-pilots reaching positions of command.
It became possible for a mechanic to be 5 stars. It happened to me because I was already 4 stars as DRHAAE and the Minister of the Armed Forces chose me to be his Inspector General of the Armed Forces - Air and Space.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A YOUNG PERSON WHO IS HESITATING ABOUT JOINING THE ARMY?
That the army will offer them a hectic life, requiring a strong commitment, but for a mission that makes sense! I'd advise them to follow three principles that I've always applied to myself, and which have worked well for me. First of all, humility, because there's always something to learn, and above all you're working for the team. Then confidence: they need to have confidence in themselves, because the army will train them throughout their career so that they can always cope. And they need to have confidence in the institution. And finally, enthusiasm: because they are young and the future of the army depends on them. Enthusiasm is also the state of mind that enables us to progress.
For me, every stage of my career was a bonus, I was already happy to have got this far. And one thing led to another and I reached the very top. I went the full length of the social staircase: from aviator 2e 5-star general class. But I worked really hard! And I've also been lucky.
And on 24 July this year, things came full circle when I had the honour of presiding over the awards ceremony at the Saintes school. I finished where it all began 45 years ago. It was my last activity and it ended with the young surveyors forming a guard of honour. It was very moving to leave the stage for good like that and I sincerely thank them.
