Patrick Gauchat Explained

Patrick Gauchat (22 May 1968) is a Swiss General Officer.^[1] He is the first Swiss to lead a UN Mission.^[2]

Military career

Training and first command

Promotions

• 1997 Captain
• 2004 Major
• 2006 Lieutenant Colonel
• 2009 Colonel
• 2017 Major General

After training, Gauchat took command of a mountain fusilier company (1997).

Service as a staff officer

As a staff officer, he performed various commanding duties, including commander of a mountain infantry battalion (from 2006), deputy commander of the Tenth Mountain Infantry Brigade 10 (2014–2015) and deputy commander of Territorial Division 1 (2016–2017).

Service in the rank of general

In 2017, he was appointed head of the Swiss delegation to the Neutral Monitoring Commission for the Armistice between the Two Koreas (NNSC).

Overseas assignments

• 2000 UN Military Observer, UNTSO, Middle East
• 2004 Deputy Head of the Swiss Delegation NNSC, Korea
• 2009 Head of Peacebuilding MONUSCO, later: MONUSCO, Congo und Somalia
• 2011 Deputy Head of Mission UNTSO in Jerusalem
• 2013 Commander Sector North (JRD-N) at NATO's KFOR-Mission in Kosovo
• 2014 Senior Officer Middle EAst and Asia, HQ at UN, New York
• 2017 Head of the Swiss delegation to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) (Korea)
• 2021 Head of Mission/Chief of Staff UNTSO

Private life

Gauchat holds and engineering degree from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne^[3] and is fluent in German, English, French, and Spanish.

References

1. https://www.vtg.admin.ch/content/vtg-internet/de/die-schweizer-armee/hoehere-stabsoffiziere/hso/gauchat-patrick/_jcr_content/infotabs/items/downloads/tabPar/downloadlist/downloadItems/159_1461155026523.download/180101%20Gauchat_d.pdf Divisionär Patrick Gauchat. Chef der Schweizer Delegation NNSC.
2. https://www.tagblatt.ch/news-service/inland-schweiz/armee-ein-schweizer-uebernimmt-erstmals-das-kommando-ueber-uno-friedensmission-ld.2207641 Erstmals übernimmt ein Schweizer das Kommando über eine UNO-Friedensmission.
3. https://www.un.org/sg/en/node/260390 Major General Patrick Gauchat of Switzerland – Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization.