Pierre-François Forissier

Pierre-François Forissier (born 29 December 1951, in Lorient) is a notable French Admiral Submariner and former Chief of Staff of the French Navy, a post which he took up, on February 4, 2008 and left on September 12, 2011.

Biography
After studying his secondary education in Nice, Marseille and Toulon, he then attended a Lycée naval at Brest (1968–1971).

He married Brigitte Desbrest on 24 June 1978 at Bonnetan, and have four children.

Military career
Pierre-François entered the École Navale (1971–1974). Upon completing his chartered course, he graduated as an enseigne de vaisseau de première classe and rallied to the French Submarine Forces FSM in 1975. He served on all types of operational submarines, notably commanding the nuclear attack submarine SNA Rubis and the ballistic missile submarine SNLE Tonnant.

In 1974, he served on the 20th minesweepers surface division and the minesweeper Glycine as second officer in command, then in 1990 as a manoeuvring-officer of the carrier Foch.

In 1993, he was designated as second in command of the Brest Naval Training Centre.

He served also at the general staff headquarters of the French Navy (état-major de la marine) in the « Material » division, the a couple years later in the « Plans » division and was promoted to Contre-Amiral (Counter-Admiral) in 2001.

He then occupied the functions of territorial assistant (adjoint) to the commandant of the coded maritime region « Atlantic ».

Vice-Amiral (Vice-Admiral), he commanded the Submarines Forces FSM and Force Océanique Stratégique FOST before being designated as a Vice-Amiral d'Escadre (Squadron Vice-Admiral) deputy in 2005 at the post of Major Général de La Marine (major général de la marine).

On November 4, 2008, he was elevated to the rank of Amiral (Admiral) and designated as Chief of Staff of the French Navy (Chef d'état-major de la Marine). He left that command function on September 12, 2011 and was replaced by Amiral Bernard Rogel.



Decorations and medals

 * Grand Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour
 * Knight of the National Order of Merit
 * Commander of the Order of Maritime Merit
 * Medaille de la Défense Nationale (silver echelon)
 * Gold Honor Cross of the Bundeswehr (Germany)
 * Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States)
 * Grand Cross with Swords pro Merito Melitensi (Order of Malta)
 * Grand Officer of the Order of Naval Merit (Brazil)
 * Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco (Brazil)