Gijs Tuinman

Gijs Pepijn Tuinman
Born	15 November 1979 Heerlen
Allegiance	Netherlands
Service/branch	Royal Netherlands Army
Years of service	1998–2012, 2013–present
Rank	Major
Unit	Korps Commandotroepen
Battles/wars	Afghanistan War
Awards	Bronze Lion Military William Order, Knight 4th class

Major Gijs Pepijn Tuinman RMWO (15 November 1979)^[1] is an officer of Royal Netherlands Army with (as of 2014) the rank of major. He is one of the 4 living knights of the Military William Order.

Life

Gijs Tuinman was born in 1979 in Heerlen, where he attended the Bernadinus from 1992 to 1998. In 1998 he went to the Royal Military Academy in Breda. In 2001 he became a platoon commander in the Korps Commandotroepen to be.^[1] By 2009, he had been on at least five deployments to Afghanistan, several to Africa and other missions.^[2] On 7 October 2009, for a mission in 2006, he was awarded the Bronze Lion, the second highest military decoration awarded by Queen Beatrix^[3]

From 2009 to 2012, he was special operations policy adviser at the Ministry of Defence in The Hague. After this he was a 'citizen' consultant at Deloitte. He returned to military duty in 2013.^[1][4]

Military William Order

On 4 December 2014 at The Binnenhof in The Hague, King Willem-Alexander created Tuinman a Knight of the Military William Order, fourth class. The King referred to Tuinman and Epke Zonderland in his Christmas speech in 2014.

Decorations

• Knight 4th class of the Military William Order (R.M.W.O.)
• Bronze Lion
• Commemorative Medal Peacekeeping Operations
• Four Day Marches Cross
• NATO Medal

References

1. Gijs Tuinman, held tegen wil en dank, de Volkskrant, 20 oktober 2014.
2. Bescheiden maar doeltreffend, Defensiekrant, 24 oktober 2014.
3. Onderscheidingen aan Nederlanders voor deelnames aan internationale Vredesoperaties, Onderscheidingen.nl. Bezocht op 31 oktober 2014.
4. Curriculum vitae majoor Gijs Tuinman, defensie.nl