Lieutenant General Krzysztof Król was born on 1st of December 1968 in Ciechanów, Poland. He began his military career as an officer cadet in 1987 at the Military College of Engineering, Wrocław, and was commissioned in 1991 as a Combat Engineer.
From 1991 to 1997 he served in a variety of command positions in the Command Support Battalion in the Ministry of Interior and the 1st Engineering Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division. It was during this period that he deployed to Lebanon where he served as both the Deputy and the Commander of the Engineering Company seconded to United Nation Interim Forces.
By 1999, he had graduated from the Academy of National Defence, Warsaw, and successfully completed postgraduate study at the Security and European Integrity in Humanistic Academy, Pułtusk. This was followed by a short tour as the Military Assistant in the office of the Commander of the Polish Land Forces.
In 2000, he was assigned within the first group of Polish officers to take up posts across NATO. He was appointed as the Senior Staff Officer at the Training and Exercise Division G7 in the Joint Headquarters Centre, Heidelberg, Germany. In 2001, he was re-directed to Regional Headquarters South, in Naples, Italy, where he filled the post of Senior Staff Officer-Kosovo in the Political Adviser’s Office and spent part of his tour deployed in the KFOR mission.
From 2003 to 2005 he was assigned to the Training and Exercise Branch within the G3 Division of the Polish Land Forces Command in which he was the specialist, and then senior specialist, for operational work-up training at corps, divisional and brigade level. In 2005, he deployed to Iraq as Chief of G3 Operations in Multinational Division Central South, in Ad Diwaniyah. This was followed by a 4-year tour as Executive Officer of the Commander of the Polish Land Forces, until 2009.
In 2010, he completed the National Security Programme at the Canadian Forces College, Toronto. From this, he was appointed as Chief G5 in the 2nd Polish Corps Headquarters, in Kraków. In 2012, he was appointed as the Commander of the Command Support Brigade Multinational Corps North-East, Stargard, Poland. In 2016, he was then appointed as Deputy Commander of Multinational Corps North-East, in Szczecin, Poland, where he was able to defend his PhD thesis on the Process of achieving operational capabilities in the Polish Armed Forces, earned at the University of National Defence.
In August 2018, the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Poland appointed him to the position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. On June 29, 2020, Major General Krzysztof KRÓL was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and, on 1st September 2020, took up his current appointment as the Chief of Staff of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum.
His decorations include the Cross of Merit in Gold (Polish), the Army Commendation Medal (US), the Joint Service Commendation Medal (US) and Medal of Respect (Ukraine).
He is married to Donata and blessed with two adult sons, Mateusz and Filip, along with the fifth member of the family – their Maltese dog, Luna.
Awards and Decorations:
Golden Cross of Merit
Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service for the Fatherland – Silver Class
Medal of Merit for Country Defence – Golden Class
Medal for Long Meritorious Service – Silver Class
Joint Service Commendation Medal (US) Iraq Star
Medal of Multinational Division CS Iraq
The Army Commendation Medal (US)
Iraq Star
Medal for the Mission in Kosovo (KFOR)
UN Peacekeeping Medal for Lebanon 2 (UNIFIL)
Medal of Recognition of the UA Ministry of Defence
United Nations Official 25th Anniversary Commemorative Medal