Lieutenant General Christos Manolas

Date of birth: 19th February 1959 in Athens

Christos Manolas has graduated from the Greek Military Academy in 1980. He has been selected for the Greek Special Forces in 1981 and then served as a Platoon Commander and Company Commanded in the 2nd Para Battalion.

He was then appointed as an instructor to ILRRPS (SOF training) in Weingarten Germany. In 1988 he returns to Greece and is assigned as Chief Instructor to the Greek Unorthodox Warfare Training Centre. He then Commanded a Special Operating Forces Company followed by an Amphibious Special Forces Detachment command (1 993-1 995).

In 1996 he becomes the Commander of the Hellenic Force in Bi-H and he deploys in Bi-H, takes over the Command of the BELUGA Group in the town of Visoko for 2 1/2 years in both IFOR and SFOR missions. In 1998 he graduates from the War College and commands the 1st Para Battalion in 1999.

Starting from 2000-2003 he is assigned to (Joint Command South Centre) JCSC in Tyrnavos Larissa as J3JOC Director and eventually as J3 Branch Chief. In the interim he takes over the command of the Greek Battalion in ISAF I for six months (Dec 01-end of May 2002).

In 2003-2004 he graduates from the Greek National Defence College and he is assigned to the Greek Para Command Brigade as COS. From 2005-2008 he is assigned to SHAPE as ACOS J9 and in 2008 he is promoted to Brigadier General and is assigned to the HNDGS as Head of the Plans and Policy Division. In 2009 he is assigned as Commander of the island of Samos followed by the Command of the Greek NCO Academy in 2010-2011.

In March 2011 he gets promoted to Major General and he assumes Command of the National Guard Division, at Rhodes island. In January 2012 he is assigned as MILREP to the Military Committee of NATO.

In August 2012 he gets promoted to Lieutenant General

He has been awarded with all commemorations and medals of the Greek Army, the NATO Medal and the Belgian Medal for IFOR, since he has commanded Belgian troops in operations (IFOR).

Lieutenant General Christos Manolas speaks fluently English, German, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and has working knowledge of Italian and Spanish.

Married to Maria Sarantakou. They have two daughters, Vasiliki and Theodora at University of Thesaloniki.