Draft:Jean Astier de Villatte

Jean Astier de Villatte (Soturac, November 25, 1900 - Paris 13th, October 6, 1985) was a French engineer and soldier, Companion of the Liberation. Administrator of civil companies, he was mobilized in 1939 and chose to join the Free French forces of General de Gaulle. As an aviator, he took part in Free French air operations in North and East Africa and the Middle East, then he held command positions within the Free French air forces. After the war, he returned to his profession as an engineer in Africa and then in France and held honorary positions in engineering companies and in the French Air Force before passing away in 1985.

Son of an engineering commander who died in 1923 as a result of his wounds in the First World War, Jean Astier de Villatte was born on November 25, 1900 in Soturac in Lot. He is the brother of Louis Astier de Villatte. A student at the École nationale supérieure d'électricité et de mécanique de Nancy, he left in 1922 and did his military service until 1924 in the aviation. He finished as a reserve lieutenant. From 1924 to 1927, he went to Africa, to Brazzaville, where he was an engineer in the Africa and Congo2 company. Then he returned to mainland France and became director of the Röchling Permali company in Nancy until 1938, the year in which he was managing director of the Sampa company in Paris.