Lieutenant Lucie

Lucie during a firing exercise in France. Photo credit: Regimental Sergeant Major Morgane/French Army

Lucie is the only female platoon commander in the 1st Hunter Regiment (régiment de chasseurs) in Thierville-sur-Meuse near Verdun in north-east France. The tool she works with weighs some 55 tonnes, is 3m60 wide and 3m06 high. Despite this imposing size, the working space inside the Leclerc battle tank, because this is the tool in question, is extremely tight. Having had the good fortune to ride in a Leclerc a few years ago, I speak from experience!

There are no windows in a Leclerc tank. The pilot’s perception of the outside environment is via episcopes. It feels a bit like being in a sealed sardine tin. Lucie concedes that this is not a working environment suited to those who suffer from claustrophobia “which I don’t.”

““I wanted to be in the melee, be in contact, in combat, and that enormously narrowed the choice of jobs and regiments I had””

Born into a military family and having always wanted to join the armed forces because “I really admire them,” she nevertheless waited until she was 28 before joining up as a contract officer. “I wanted to be certain I was making the right choice.” So she did a baccalaureate in management, followed by a number of odd jobs, and then did a BA and an MA in mediaeval history.
In 2018 she was admitted to the 4th battalion Saint Cyr Military Academy (renamed on 18th February: Cadets’ Military Academy of Coëtquidan), one of the three military academies at Saint Cyr Coëtquidan in Britanny. The two others are the Saint Cyr Military Academy for career army officers and the Joint Military Academy for rank and file personnel recruited internally to become career officers. The specificity of the one where Lucie was trained is that students must have three or five years of higher education and can apply up to the age of 32. They are admitted based on their application not on an exam. According to Lucie the majority of the students have five years of higher education under their belts. 

Did the dozen or so young women in her class of 140 find life as hard as those who are recruited in a post-baccalaureate competitive exam to the Special Military Academy at Saint Cyr? “No, because the student body is very different,” Lucie replies immediately. “The students are older; they generally have some work experience in the civilian sector and so training is not impacted by human relationship issues,” she says.

Knowing that she would have to be physically fit Lucie undertook, prior to her application, a severe training programme: running and CrossFit (very fashionable over the past few years, CrossFit combines several physical and sporting activities, notably bodybuilding, gymnastics and weightlifting enabling the practitioner to work on endurance, strength and aerobics). But for Lucie “it's not only physical strength that counts but mental strength. It's a question of willpower. During a 20 km march carrying heavy equipment, the person at the end of their physical strength but strong mentally will be in better shape than the person who is in better physical shape but weaker mentally.” I gather from her attitude that Lucie belongs to the first group, particularly when she adds that “surpassing oneself is as important today as it’s always been.”

Lucie’s vehicle: the Leclerc battle tank. Photo credit: French Army

Following the year of basic military training at Coëtquidan and at the Cavalry Academy in Saumur (on the banks of the river Loire in central France) where she was trained to become commander of an armed platoon, Lucie joined the regiment that had recruited her, which was also her regiment of choice, a few months ago. “I wanted to be in the melee, be in contact, in combat, and that enormously narrowed the choice of jobs and regiments I had,” she explains.

She commands a squadron of three Leclerc tanks and four VBL light armoured vehicles. There are three people in each tank including the tank commander. “My job is the same as that of the other tank commanders,” she explains, except that in addition she commands the whole squadron and puts into action the commands of her own hierarchy. Tank personnel, just like their combat aircraft colleagues, spend an enormous amount of time upstream of a sortie preparing not only the exercise or the mission but the tank itself. “And in addition we train the young soldiers,” Lucie adds.

With a hint of regret in her voice she says that “an officer’s career path means I’m destined to become a Major. The more I advance in my career the further I will be from tanks because my command will be broader.”

Lucie believes there should be no concessions made to women in the army. She stresses the point that “the day I’ll be in a combat situation, I'll not be a woman I'll just be a soldier.” She proudly points to her army fatigues: “This is unisex.” And the idea that a mother should not be sent to combat repels her. “A man gives life as much as a woman does,” she emphasizes.