Rob Bertholee
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank 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 battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 Rob A.C. Bertholee (born 7 August 1955 in Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

) is an officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 of the Royal Netherlands Army
Royal Netherlands Army
The Royal Netherlands Army is the land forces element of the military of the Netherlands.-Short history:The Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, but its origins date back to 1572, when the so-called Staatse Leger was raised...

. He is currently the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army
Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army
The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is the executive commander of the Royal Netherlands Army and reports directly to the Commander of the Armed Forces . The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is statutorily a three-star general...

. He has a wife and one daughter.

Military career

Bertholee enrolled in the Koninklijke Militaire Academie
Koninklijke Militaire Academie
The Royal Military Academy is the service academy for the Dutch Army and the Dutch Air Force. Located in Breda, the Netherlands, the KMA has trained future officers since 1828.-Description:...

 at Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...

 in 1975. Completing the training in 1979 he was posted to his first position with the 44th Field Artillery Group as a lieutenant. He subsequently held a number of different commands in The Netherlands and Germany.

Bertholee continued his military education starting in January 1987, enrolling in the Staff Service and Advanced Military Studies courses. Having completed these by December 1988 he was promoted to the rank of major and posted to the Army Staff. He also attended the US Command and General Staff Officer Course in the United States in 1992, attaining a master's degree in Military Art and Science. Returning to The Netherlands, he was posted to the Instituut Defensie Leergangen in Rijswijk
Rijswijk
Rijswijk is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a suburb of The Hague and covers an area of 14.48 km² ....

 as an instructor. He would later be promoted to head of the Strategy Department.

From 1995 to 1997 Bertholee served as commander of the 41st Field Artillery Group in Seedorf
Seedorf, Lower Saxony
Seedorf is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany....

. Part of his responsibility was to deal with organizational changes due to the suspending of the Dutch draft
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 and the transformation of his Group into a professional unit. Having been promoted a full colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 in 1997 Bertholee was assigned to the Fire Support Training Center as commanding officer. One year later, in 1998, he was assigned Head of the Personal Office of the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army.

Bertholee was deployed to Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

 in 2000 as commander of the Dutch contingent and was responsible for planning and executing their redeployment. After returning to The Netherlands in September he was made head of the International Planning department of the Dutch Defense Staff. He held this position through December 2001, when he was promoted brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 and given the Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...

 position of the First Combined German-Dutch Army Corps
I. German/Dutch Corps
1 German/Netherlands Corps is a multinational formation consisting of units from both the Royal Dutch Army and German Army. It is also part of NATO's Response Force, a military force consisting of approximately 25,000 troops. The Corps' headquarters are situated in Münster , formerly the...

 in Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

. As Chief of Staff of this corps he oversaw the transformation of the corps' headquarters to a High Readiness Force (HRF) headquarters. During his tenure as Chief of Staff the First Combined Corps' Headquarters was assigned command of the ISAF
International Security Assistance Force
The International Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 by Resolution 1386 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement...

 mission in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, which led to a seven-month tour for Bertholee in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

 as Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for ISAF III. He returned to Münster in August 2003 and continued there through 2004, preparing his Corps for NATO certification for the NATO Response Force
NATO Response Force
The NATO Response Force is a "coherent, high-readiness, joint, multinational force package" of up to 25,000 troops that is "technologically advanced, flexible, deployable, interoperable and sustainable"...

.

Two weeks after achieving certification Bertholee ceded the First Corps Chief of Staff position to his successor. He was awarded the Gold Cross of Honour of the German Bundeswehr
Badge of Honour of the Bundeswehr
The Badge of Honour of the German Armed Forces is a series of military decorations of the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany...

 by the German minister of defense
Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Defence is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany...

 at that time.

Effective 1 February 2005 Bertholee was promoted major general
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...

 and assigned Director of the Operational Preparedness Control Board (DOAG). This was followed by promotion on 1 December 2006 to lieutenant general
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank 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 battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 and Deputy Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff
Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff
The Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff is the Dutch Chief of Defence and the highest-ranking officer in the Dutch military.The main role of the CDS is as an intermediary between the Minister of Defence and the Armed Forces of The Netherlands...

. General Bertholee was promoted Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army
Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army
The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is the executive commander of the Royal Netherlands Army and reports directly to the Commander of the Armed Forces . The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is statutorily a three-star general...

on 13 March 2008.
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