Gaëtan Clin was born on April 10, 1979, in Tübingen, Germany, where his father was stationed at the time. In 2000, he joined the Army at the Military Academy Saint-Cyr, which he left in 2003 to join the Engineer School in Angers where he was trained as a military engineering officer. Upon graduation, he chose to serve with the 19th Engineer Regiment in Besançon, where he took on the position of platoon leader in August 2004. In 2007, after promotion to captain, he became deputy company commander for two years and company commander in July 2009. In August 2011, after his company command, he joined the Army Logistics and Maintenance School, in Bourges, as an SME in military engineering and an instructor in combined arms tactics, training NCOs, lieutenants, and captains. After selection for the general staff course, he volunteered for the German general staff course at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr in Hamburg, which he attended as an international attendee from 2013 to 2015, being promoted to major in 2013. He joined the military engineering office of the Land Forces Command in Lille in the summer of 2015, where he was in charge of training & exercises and later plans cell chief. He contributed to redesigning the engineer support to corps and division HQs. He also contributed to planning engineer deployments abroad and overseas. In August 2017 he transferred back to the 19th Engineer Regiment, as head of operations, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. In 2019, he returned to the Land Forces Command in Lille, where he took on the role of military assistant to the lieutenant-general, commanding the French land forces. In 2021, he was assigned to the Army Staff in Paris, as a project manager for a resource management software being deployed across the Army. In July 2022, he was promoted to colonel and as such, was assigned for the third time to Besançon where he took over command of the 19th Engineer Regiment, a unit with 9 subordinate companies and over 1,300 active duty and 300 reserve soldiers. In June 2024, after two years as regimental commanding officer, he was assigned to Angers as chief of staff of the newly created Engineer Brigade. He participated in several deployments: as platoon leader in Lebanon (2004), French Guyana (2006), and Côte d’Ivoire (2007); as engineer reconnaissance and liaison team leader in Lebanon (2010); as deputy CO to the TF ATLAS (with CJTF Inherent Resolve) in Kuwait (2017); and deputy J35 chief in the French joint HQ for operation BARKHANE in Chad (2019). He is a recipient of the French order of the Légion d’honneur and the Order of Merit. He is married and has two sons (12 and 10). He enjoys cycling (both mountain bikes and road bikes) and hiking in the Jura Mountains in eastern France, where he lives.
