Poland

official website of the Polish Navy

Chief of Naval Staff:
Fleet Admiral Tomasz Mathea

Fleet Admiral Tomasz Mathea was born on April 30, 1955 in Warsaw. In 1974 he joined the Naval Academy. After graduation, he served as commander of the department of underwater warfare onboard submarine ORP ‘SOKOL’. In 1984 he was promoted to the position of executive officer of the submarine ORP ‘BIELIK’. From 1988, he was serving as Chief of Staff and later on as Commander of Submarine Squadron. In 1996 he became deputy commander of the 3rd Ships Flotilla in Gdynia, and two years later he was appointed as Chief of the Maritime Training Command of the Polish Navy. In June 2000 he became Commander of the 9th Coast Defense Flotilla in Hel. In 2002 he was sent to study at the National Defense University in Washington. After returning to the country he served in the Polish Army General Staff as Chief of General Department of Strategic Planning. Between 2004 and 2006 he was the head of the Polish Navy Logistics. In June 2006 he was appointed as Deputy Chief of General Staff. On 25th of June he was nominated to Commander in Chief of The Polish Navy.

Fleet Admiral Thomas Mathea is a graduate of postgraduate studies at the former Soviet Union Naval Academy, the Royal British Staff Academy and Polish Academy of National Defense. He graduated from the operational and strategic studies at the National Defense University in Washington, the most important and most prestigious military university of the United States. Repeatedly awarded, inter alia, the Gold Cross of Merit and the Gold Medal of Merit for National Defense.