She has 34 years, laughing eyes. On his warship, she leads 90 men whom they took off Somalia and the Arabian Gulf to take part in the Afghanistan war.
Commander Bouan is a true warship. A sloop built for the Cold War. The ceilings are low, narrow alleyways cut through watertight doors closed by large flywheels.
Every available space is occupied by a weapon, 100 guns and 20 mm guns, missiles, sea-sea and sea-air torpedo tubes. Boat men. There are more than 90 on board. And a woman. Is the commander. This August 11, the building returned to its home port. The wind blows at 25 knots on the bay of Toulon. We’ll have to use tugs to flatten the cutter against the wharf. On the bridge, winds hair as usual, Lieutenant Commander Christine Allain gave specific orders. The latest in a campaign started April 27 and led her to hunt pirates off Somalia in the framework of the European force Atalanta, then in the Arabian Gulf to take part in the war of Afghanistan.
Christine Allain was one of two women commanding a ship of the Navy. At 34, an early age for this kind of responsibility. As it commands a unit, it is called “commander.” Not to say “Comandante. Anyway, the crew does not seem to make a difference. “For a week, they saw the woman, then they no longer saw the officer.”
The captain did nothing of a tomboy. The eye is laughing, femininity alone. In his small cabin office, a panther plush is crouched on the bunk, remember his first command, the Panther, building schools. A guitar case in one corner, easier to carry than a piano at sea, his favorite instrument, on which she plays classical and Beatles songs. The environment is more maritime with engravings of old boats. In larger buildings, crews are mixed, but the sloops are too narrow to stall spaces for girls. Coeducation is reserved for officers, the only ones to have individual cabins or two. Christine Allain did not found there by chance. “For fifteen years I have been shipped. Is a choice. I do not think I could order an aviso if I were a mother. “None of the three other girls in his class from the Naval Academy did not sail. Family reasons, marriages, children. Christine Allain thinks. Hopes to soon put groceries down to make a baby. His companion was waiting in the square in jeans, over a bottle of pink champagne. His eyes are laughing as she. He also is an officer on a ship of the Navy. Met random missions, after a divorce – to another sailor. Navy, middle deemed more “traditional” may follow the rest of society. At any change requires the pioneers.
When Christine Allain naval integration in 1994 at age 19 is only the second year that the prestigious school of officers accepting girls. Four out of 75. At the time, the boys have not yet made this novelty. “I had the impression of a set aside. It really was not easy. But it builds character. “Today, all men in the building are under him, and she can not help but see” a little revenge. ” But things have changed, says she. “Now, women in the Navy, it has become commonplace.” In 1994, she held out because she wants to follow a path she has traced one. Neither Breton or descendant of a family of sailors, she was born far from the waves in 93, at Epinay-sur-Seine. Engineer father, like his brother. Homemaker. The future commander is good pupil school Franco-German tank to 17 years, prepared for Janson de Sailly. She first wants to become a helicopter pilot, and naval aviator seemed the best framework. A military “for the discipline, to serve his country, to make a trade like no other.”
Her parents are leaving with a little anxiety. At 19, she admits, there is still a vision rather childish things. “For me it was a school that wears a uniform, as we emerge with a degree in engineering, where they make a world tour on the Jeanne d’Arc … She discovers a world . “The responsibilities of human experience, the true side of relationships. When they saw four months every day with the same people you do not play a character. The masks are falling. “No other option, you must be yourself. “I did not try to be a man. Besides, when someone says that this is not woman’s work, I say that this is not necessarily a male profession in general.
There are many who could not do that. “Conversely, there are many others who are made for the Navy, says she,” including women, but they do not know “. The style of command “depends mostly on experience. It refers rather to a particular officer whom we admire. “Leaving the school, Christine Allain chooses sea. Embark on frigates, got his first command at 26, the school building, but return at 28 operations officer on the corvette Commandant Birot. Deployment in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific exercise with the Marines Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Singaporean and Australian vessels hunting drug traffickers. Key moments, like that day when a window of the bridge explodes in a storm. In 2005 at age 30, she is Head of anti-submarine, then deputy commander of operations on the frigate Jean de Vienne. It organizes the construction sector to the sea, is responsible for the weapon system. In summer 2006, the building is sent off the coast of Lebanon. The area is not easy. Lebanese Hezbollah has struck an Israeli patrol boat missile launchers. Israelis are nervous. The Jean de Vienne collects Lebanese refugees. “I was very young for the job, I had to establish my credibility.”
This has been successful since given command of the Commander Bouan in June 2008 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. A small sensation in the Navy. Six decorations serve as its calling card with his new crew. But despite everything, remains an issue that must be evacuated. His rapid promotion has anything to do with the fact she is a woman, the Navy would she have ulterior motives in terms of communication? She confided to a manager. The answer comes quickly: “You think we can afford to assign a boat to someone who does not deserve it?”
Campaign antipirates bring its share of challenges. One day we must give the order to fire. “There was not a breath on the bridge.” The circumstances remain matters of confidential-defense. Just can say that Commander Bouan foiled two attacks against cargo ships and gathered refugees. Mission accomplished, return to Toulon, and permission for one months for the crew. Commander Allain and his companion go to spend part arranged the apartment bought at Toulon, at the heart of the naval war. The Charles de Gaulle is anchored, waiting to leave soon, his damages repaired. Other massive silhouettes looming, those enormous ships to do anything that can carry troops or carry a staff. The stay on land desired by the commander Allain will last perhaps forever. Meanwhile, Christine is planning a trip to Mount Etna, to satisfy his passion for volcanoes, and visit Australia, because of the great outdoors.
Commander Bouan him, is set to rejuvenate. The Cold War is over. We will remove her torpedoes and Exocet missiles, to equip it with sophisticated communications equipment. More talk of demolishing Soviet aircraft carrier. The threat is more diffuse. The last mission of the cutter and its commander 34 years foreshadows a new era.
