An ''aide-de-camp'' (French for ''camp assistant'') is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state. The first ''aide-de-camp'' is typically the foremost personal aide.

In some countries, the ''aide-de-camp'' is considered to be a title of honor (which confers the post-nominal letters ADC), and participates at ceremonial functions.

The badge of office for an ''aide-de-camp'' is usually the ''aiguillette'', a braided cord in gold or other colors, worn with a uniform on the left (or sometimes right) shoulder.

Argentina

In Argentina, three officers (one from each armed service, of the rank of lieutenant colonel or its equivalent), are appointed as aide-de-camp to the President of the Republic and three others to the Minister of Defense, these six being the only ones to be called "edecán", which is one Spanish translation for aide-de-camp ("ayudante de campo" is another – "edecán" is a phonetic imitation of the French term; "ayudante de campo" is a word-for-word translation of it).

A controversy was raised in 2006, when president Néstor Kirchner decided to promote his Army aide-de-camp, Lt. Col. Graham to colonel, one year ahead of his class.

Upon taking office, current president Cristina Kirchner, decided to have, for the first time, female officers as her aides-de-camp.

In each of the armed forces, the chief of staff and other senior officers have their own adjutants, normally of the rank of major or lieutenant colonel, or its equivalent.

At unit level, the unit S-1 (personnel officer) doubles as the unit commander's adjutant, although in recent times in many units this practice has been left only for ceremonial purposes, while for everyday duties a senior NCO performs the adjutant's activities.

An aiguillette is worn on the right shoulder by aides-de-camp and adjutants as a symbol of their position, the colour of the aiguillette depending of the rank of the person they are serving (there are golden, tan, silver and red aiguillettes, as well as an olive green one for combat uniform).

Commonwealth of Nations

Charles James Esquire's ''Military Dictionary'' (1810) pp 29–30 stated that an aide-de-camp was an officer appointed to attend a general officer and is seldom under the grade of captain: “The King may appoint for himself as many as he pleases, which appointment gives the rank of colonel in the army. Generals being field marshals, have four, lieutenant generals two, major generals one”.

In British colonies and modern-day British Overseas Territories, the aide-de-camp is appointed to serve the governor.

In 1973, the Governor of Bermuda, Sir Richard Sharples, and his aide-de-camp, Captain Hugh Sayers, were murdered on the grounds of Government House.

On the last day of British rule in Hong Kong on 30 June 1997, the police aide-de-camp to Governor Chris Patten presented Patten with the flag at Government House. He then gave the Vice Regal Salute before proceeding, with the Pattens, to leave Government House for the last time.

Prince Charles is a Personal Aide-de-Camp to Queen Elizabeth II.

Australia

Australian Defence Force officers serve as aides-de-camp to specific senior appointments, such as the Queen, Governor-General, state governors, Defence Force Chiefs and other specified Army, Navy and Air Force command appointments. Honorary aides-de-camp to the Governor-General or state governors are entitled to the post-nominal ADC during their appointment. Officers of and above the ranks of Rear Admiral, Major General and Air Vice Marshal in specifically designated command appointments are entitled to an aide de camp with the Army rank of Captain (or equivalent). Within the Navy, an aide-de-camp is called a "Flag Lieutenant" (as senior Naval Officers are "Flag Officers").

Canada

Aides-de-camp in Canada are appointed to the Queen and certain other members of the royal family, the governor general, lieutenant governors, and to certain other appointments (e.g., Minister of National Defence, flag/general officers, Canadian heads of mission, foreign heads of state visiting Canada).

In addition to the military officers appointed as full-time aides-de-camp to the governor general, several other flag/general and senior officers are appointed ''ex officio'' as honorary aides-de-camp to the governor general including:

The Chief of the Defence Staff;

The commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada;

A senior officer of the Quebec-based Royal 22^e Régiment;

Commanding officer, The Governor General's Horse Guards;

Commanding officer, Governor General's Foot Guards;

Commanding officer, The Canadian Grenadier Guards; and

The commanding officers of Naval Reserve divisions;

Aides-de-camp wear a gold pattern aiguillette when acting in their official capacity and may also wear the cypher or badge of the principal to whom they are appointed. Honorary appointees to the Queen (royal cypher), to the Duke of Edinburgh, or the Prince of Wales, wear the appropriate cypher on their uniform epaulet. Aides-de-camp to the governor general wear the governor general's badge (crest of the arms of Canada) and aides-de-camp to a lieutenant governor wear the lieutenant governor's badge (shield of the province surmounted by the crown).

Aides-de-camp to the governor general are appointed from officers of the Canadian Forces. Aides-de-camp to lieutenant governors are appointed from officers of the Canadian Forces, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and, depending on the province, aides may also be appointed from other civilian uniformed organizations (e.g., municipal or provincial police and emergency services) and in certain cases, even civilians. Non-uniformed civilians do not wear the aiguillette, but all may wear their lieutenant governor's badge as a symbol of their appointment and use the post-nominal AdeC.

Aides-de-camp to royal and vice-regal personages wear the aiguillette on the right shoulder. Aides-de-camp to all others wear their aiguillette on the left shoulder.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, junior officers serve as aides-de-camp to certain senior officers. Flag Lieutenant is the Royal Navy's equivalent. Equerries are equivalents to aides-de-camp in the Royal Household, in which ADCs are restricted to senior officers with a primarily honorific role.

There are several categories of these senior aides de camp to the Queen. Most are serving military, naval and RAF officers, usually of colonel or brigadier rank or equivalent. There are also specific posts for very senior officers, such as First and Principal Naval Aide de Camp, Flag Aide de Camp, Aides de Camp General, and Air Aides de Camp. Analogous offices include the Lieutenant of the Admiralty, the Rear Admiral of the United Kingdom, and the Gold Stick and Silver Stick.

Certain members of the Royal Family with military rank may be appointed Personal Aides de Camp to The Queen. Those currently holding this appointment are Field Marshal HRH The Duke of Kent; Admiral HRH The Prince of Wales; Captain Mark Phillips, 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards; Rear Admiral HRH The Duke of York; and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.

India

In India, officers of the rank of Major General and equivalent and above in the sister services who are in command of divisions or of peacetime commands like Area HQ have ADCs who usually belong to their general's parent regiment/battalion. There have been instances where the sons have served a tenure of ADC to their fathers. The service chiefs (Chief of the Army/Air/Navy Staff) usually have three ADCs and the President of India has five ADCs (three from the army and one each from the navy and the air force). There is also one honorary ADC from the Territorial Army (The army reserve). The Governor of the states has two ADCs, one each from the army and the state police service.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Police Force, the Fire Services Department, the Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department, the Government Flying Service, the Civil Aid Service, the Hong Kong Auxillary Police Force, the Auxiliary Medical Service, the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, and the Correctional Services Department each sends an aide-de-camp to the territory's Chief Executive, which replaced the Governor in 1997.

Pakistan

In Pakistan the President, Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Governor have their own aide-de-camp. The ADC can be from any one of the three Armed Forces and typically are of the rank of Captain (Army), Lieutenant (Navy) or Flight Lieutenant (Air Force). Interestingly, the ADC to Justice Khan Habibullah Khan, while he was Chief Minister/Leader of the House of West Pakistan was his son, a senior bureaucrat Captain (r) Akhtar Munir Marwat and Captain (r) Gohar Ayub Khan was to his father, President General Ayub Khan. The Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee and all the three Services Chiefs' (Army, Navy and Air Force) are authorized to have an ADC.

Imperial Russia

In the 18th-Century, under Catherine the Great of Russia, favorites of the Empress were frequently appointed as her Aides-de-camp.

United States

Within the United States Army, aides-de-camp are specifically appointed to general-grade officers (NATO Code OF-6 through OF-10), the Secretary of the Army, Secretary of Defense, Vice President, and President of the United States; rank and number determined by the grade. For those general officers with more than one aide, the senior-ranking aide is usually considered to be the senior aide and serves in the capacity of coordinating the other aides and the others of the general's personal staff such as the driver, orderlies, et al. For the majority officers, the maximum tour of duty for aides is generally two years. The following is a listing of the accepted number of aides allotted a general officer:

:Brigadier General: 1 First Lieutenant :Major General: 1 Captain; 1 Lieutenant :Lieutenant General: 1 Major; 1 Captain :General: 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 1 Major, 1 Captain :General of the Army (or Chief of Staff, USA): 1 Colonel, 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 1 Major

Lieutenant colonels and colonels commanding units (battalions and brigades, respectively) do not have aides, but it is generally accepted that the unit's adjutant – called the S-1 – also serves the commanding officer as an aide.

At the brigadier general level it is not uncommon to have a captain as aide-de-camp.

U.S. Army aides-de-camp wear a special device in place of the branch-of-service (i.e., infantry, artillery, quartermaster, et al.) insignia they would otherwise wear on the lapels of their service uniform. The rank of the official whom the aide serves is indicated on the device, as shown below. Although the Chief of Staff of the Army is a four-star general and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a four-star general or admiral, their aides-de-camp wear devices specific to those offices, vice the normal four-star aide device. See below. An aide-de-camp wears a special aiguillette on the shoulder of his dress uniforms.

Variations

Air Aide-de-Camp

First and Principal Naval Aide de Camp

Flag Aide de Camp

Naval Aide-de-Camp

Aides de Camp General

Galloper is the obsolete term

Aide-de-camp to the Emperor of Japan

Aide-de-Camp Extraordinary

Notes

Further reading

Crocker, Lawrence P. [1977]. ''Army Officer's Guide''. 47th ed. Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1996. ISBN 0-8117-2665-7.

''Australian Army Protocol Manual 1999''. Defence Publishing Service DPS: 31568/99.

External links

Category:Armies of Napoleonic Wars Category:Combat occupations Category:Command staff occupations Category:French words and phrases Category:Government occupations Category:Positions within the British Royal Household

ca:Ajudant de camp de:Aide-de-camp es:Ayudante de campo (milicia) fr:Aide de camp io:Adjuntanto it:Aiutante di campo ms:Adikung nl:Adjudant (functie) pt:Ajudante de ordens scn:Aiutanti tr:Yaver

name	Simone Gbagbo
birth date	June 20, 1949
birth place	Moossou, Grand-Bassam
order1	First Lady of Côte d'Ivoire
term start1	October 26, 2000
term end1	April 11,2011
predecessor1	Rose Doudou Guéï
successor1	Dominique Folloroux-Ouattara
party	Ivorian Popular Front
religion	Evangelical Christian
spouse	Laurent Gbagbo
children	5
signature	}}

Simone Ehivet Gbagbo (born 20 June 1949) is an Ivorian politician. She is the President of the Parliamentary Group of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) and is a Vice-President of the FPI. As the wife of Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2011, she was also first lady prior to their arrest by pro-Ouattara forces.

Biography

Born in 1949 in the Moossou neighborhood of Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire, her parents are Jean Ehivet, a local police officer, and Marie Djaha. Simone Gbagbo trained as an historian and earned a third cycle doctorate in oral literature. She worked in applied linguistics, as a Marxist labor union leader, and is an Evangelical Christian in a church with close ties to the United States. She is the mother of five daughters, the last two with her current husband Laurent Gbagbo. She has been nicknamed in the Ivorian press the ''Hillary Clinton des tropiques.''

Ehivet Gbagbo participated in the teachers strike movement of 1982, and helped found, with her future husband, the clandestine political group which became the FPI. An active trades union militant in the 1970s, she was imprisoned a number of times during the struggle for multiparty elections.

Following the introduction of multiparty elections, Gbagbo and her husband were arrested for allegedly inciting violence in February 1992 and spent six months in prison. In 1996, she became an FPI Deputy from Abobo (part of Abidjan) in the National Assembly; she and her husband were also seriously injured in a car accident around that time.

Re-elected to the National Assembly as an FPI Deputy from Abobo in the December 2000 parliamentary election, Gbagbo is also President of the FPI Parliamentary Group. At the FPI's Third Extraordinary Congress, held from 20 to 22 July 2001, she was elected as the Second Vice-President of the FPI.

Controversy

Simone Gbagbo is a controversial figure in Côte d'Ivoire. Involved in nationalist politics surrounding the Ivorian Civil War, in 2005 Radio France International reported that she was being investigated by the United Nations for human rights abuses, including organising death squads.

The Kieffer Affair

In July 2008 she was formally called for questioning by a French investigative judge, examining the April 2004 disappearance and presumed death in Abidjan of French-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer. Mr. Kieffer was in Abidjan at the time, researching a story on political corruption and government involvement in the Ivorian Cocoa industry. He was last seen on the way to a meeting with Michel Legré, the brother-in-law of Simone Gbagbo. French judicial officials have arrested and are investigating Jean-Tony Oulaï, a former member of the Ivorian Secret Services, whom they detained in Paris in 2006. Jean-Tony Oulaï's driver at the time Berté Seydou, as well as Mr Kieffer's brother, have alleged that Ms. Gbagbo and former Ivorian Minister of Planning and Development Paul-Antoine Bohoun Bouabré have knowledge of the events Mr Kieffer's death, and that Oulaï is responsible. Legré was arrested in Abidjan in 2004 on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, but was provisionally released in 2005 and has since fled the country—or is in an unknown location. In April 2009, Ms. Gbagbo was interviewed by two French magistrates concerning the Kieffer case. The AFP reported that the magistrates consider Legré, who they have in custody, their "chief suspect" and that neither the President nor Gbagbo "are suspected of being directly linked with Kieffer's disappearance." The French also planned interviews with Gbagbo's security chief Seka Yapo Anselme and Planning Minister Paul-Antoine Bohoun Bouabre. Gbagbo has filed a defamation lawsuit against Jean-Tony Oulai regarding his charges against her.

Political activity since 2008

In September 2008, Gbagbo engaged in a two-week tour of the central part of the country, concluding the tour on 14 September in the city of Bouaké. She rallied support for her husband's candidacy in the forthcoming presidential election during this tour and urged participation in the voter identification process.

References

This article was first created from a translation of the French Wikipedia article :fr:Simone Gbagbo, 2008-02-22.

"Paroles d?honneur"" : Ou quand Simone Gbagbo dénonce la collusion entre Alassane Ouattara, Blaise Compaoré et Jacques Chirac. Jean-Pierre BEJOT, La Dépêche Diplomatique. 21 March 2007.

Simone Gbagbo, Femme fatale: Vincent Hugeux, L'Express 20 February 2003.

RETOUR SUR Affaire Kieffer : un témoin implique Simone Gbagbo. THOMAS HOFNUNG, liberation 19 February 2008.

La dame d'ivoire, Thomas HOFNUNG: Liberation, 22 May 2007.

Committee to Protect Journalists Ivory Coast 2006.

Régime FPI: L'influence de Simone Gbagbo, Soir Info (Côte d'Ivoire), 12 December 2006.

Journalists sued after revealing Ivory Coast 'billionnaires list', fairreporters.org.

Ivory Coast First Lady Leads Death Squad, Report Alleges UN Panel Says Both Sides Are Committing War Crimes. Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer, 29 January 2005; Page A21 .

External links

Simone Gbagbo et son livre Le site officiel de la Première Dame de Côte d'Ivoire

Category:1949 births Category:First Ladies of Côte d'Ivoire Category:Members of the National Assembly of Côte d'Ivoire Category:Ivorian evangelicals Category:Living people Category:Ivorian prisoners and detainees Category:Prisoners and detainees of Côte d'Ivoire Category:Ivorian Popular Front politicians Category:Ivorian women in politics

de:Simone Gbagbo fr:Simone Gbagbo pt:Simone Gbagbo