gen. dr Mieczysław Bieniek was born on 19 June 1951 in Krapkowice in the Opole region. He began his military service in 1969. He graduated from the General Staff Academy named after General Karol Świerczewski in 1981, completed postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom in 1995, and attended the prestigious defence resources management course in Monterey, USA, in 1997, as well as numerous courses in strategy and defence. In 2004, he was awarded a doctorate in national security by the National Defence University in Warsaw. In the autumn of 1999, he was appointed Head of the Training and Exercises Division at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons. General Bieniek was the first Polish officer to hold such a senior command position within NATO.
He is a member of the Euro-Atlantic Association in Warsaw and Washington. He has served as a visiting professor at the NATO Defense College in Rome and the National Defense University in Washington. He is the author of numerous studies and publications on security and defence.
In Poland, he commanded the elite 6th Airborne Brigade and the 25th Air Cavalry Division.
He participated in numerous NATO- and UN-led operations. Among other roles, he commanded the Multinational Division in Iraq in 2003 and advised the Afghan Minister of Defence on the training and equipment of the Afghan armed forces. He also served as Poland’s Military Representative to NATO and the EU in Brussels. To date, he is the only Polish officer to have held the position of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation at NATO’s Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
On 15 August 2004, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, and in November 2010 to the rank of General.
His honours include the Knight’s Cross, Officer’s Cross and Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, as well as the Gold Cross of Merit. He has also been awarded the United States Bronze Star Medal, the Republic of Bulgaria’s Gold Cross for Bravery, medals of the Republic of Hungary and the Slovak Republic, and the Legion of Honour of the Kingdom of Spain.
According to the Polish Ministry of National Defence, he was one of Poland’s most dynamic and highly trained commanders, with major contributions to the integration of the Polish Armed Forces into NATO, an outstanding specialist in airborne and special operations, and an officer with extensive experience of service in international organisations. On 31 January 2014, he concluded 45 years of service in the Polish Armed Forces.