Lieutenant Miléna took command of a combat engineer platoon just six months ago. She’s the only woman in it “but so far I haven't had any problems with my platoon,” she says, explaining that even if she’s young, she’s been trained to be platoon commander. If her men don't understand her decisions, she's open to dialogue, but it's clear who’s in charge! “You shouldn't expect to be accepted by everyone,” she remarks, lucid beyond her years.

And yet she almost threw in the towel during her first year at the Saint-Cyr officer training school in Coëtquidan. “It wasn't all roses,” sighs this serious young woman. “When I arrived in 2016, one of a dozen girls in a class of 145, I had a bit of trouble.” Disheartened, Miléna wondered if the army was really where she wanted to pursue her career.

But at the end of the first year the cadets have to undertake a five-week work placement in a regiment, which they choose in a draw. “I was lucky. I drew the 13th Engineer Regiment. My work placement went extremely well. In the regiment I found a remarkable atmosphere, solidarity amongst the officers, and that made me feel really good. By the end of the work placement I knew I was going to have a career in the army and, if at all possible, in this regiment.”

Cadets pick the regiment they want to serve with according to their final ranking at the end of their studies. So the person at the top of the class can choose amongst all the regiments offering positions whilst the one at the bottom gets whatever is left! So it is in the cadets’ interest to work not only on the “military” aspect of their studies but also on the “academic” side in order to be well ranked. Miléna, who passed a literary baccalaureate, chose the social and political sciences course. This foresightful young cadet also wanted to ensure her future “in case I had an accident that prevented me from being apt for combat,” and so in parallel to her cadet training did a Masters in history at the University of South Brittany, as well as a BA and a Masters in research, history and anthropology of medieval and modern societies at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. 

Spared from any accidents and able to choose her regiment thanks to her ranking at the end of the three years of studies at Saint Cyr, she spent the fourth year, the one when cadets work on their specialisation, at the Military Engineers School (École du Génie) where she was trained to be platoon commander of a combat engineer platoon. 

Miléna knows that, if she wishes, she’ll be able to pursue a career in the military until 2055, “the day after my 59th birthday.” This prospect does not scare her because “there is an extraordinary diversity of jobs in the army.”

But why did she pick the army in the first place? In part thanks to the fun she had during the Defence and Citizenship Day, compulsory for all French youngsters once they turn 18, added to discovering the existence of Saint Cyr during her second year of preparatory class for the “grandes écoles” and the realisation that she was actually “not at all interested” in becoming a researcher or a teacher.

So, without telling her parents, she added Saint-Cyr to the list of schools that she would sit the entrance exam for and did not tell them until she’d been admitted. Even though no one in the family is in the military, her parents were extremely proud - and relieved that their daughter would not have to look for work after graduation! 

What the young lieutenant likes very much about her job today is the human side. “You need to be able to listen and be compassionate. You need to know how to find the best solution when one of your men has family or financial concerns.”

Miléna has not yet been deployed on operations “but I'm pretty excited and anxious to go.” She doesn’t think it will be difficult to find a balance between her professional and personal lives, but for the moment that question hasn’t arisen.