Army General (ret) Ion Tutoveanu, chief of General Staff of the Romanian Armed Forces between 1954 and 1965 was celebrated yesterday, December 10 at the 95th anniversary, in a touching ceremony held in the Marble Hall of the National Military Club Palace.
State Secretary Viorel Oancea, Generals (res. and ret.) Ion Coman, Vasile Ionel, Dumitru Cioflina, Constantin Degeratu, Mircea Chelaru, Mihail Popescu and Eugen Badalan, former chiefs of General Staff, relatives, Generals, officers and NCOs and the civilian personnel from the MoND have participated in the celebration moment.
This occasion, General (ret) Ion Tutoveanu was offered the Emblem of Honor of the Romanian Armed Force from the Ministry of National Defense and the Diploma of Excellence and the Homage Plaque from the chief of General Staff and the Emblems of Honor from the chiefs of services.


Army General (ret) Ion Tutoveanu was born in December 26, 1914 in Liesti village, Tutova/Galati County. He graduated elementary school and high school "Unirea" in Focsani. In 1932 he started the School of Law in Iasi, but due to the financial constrains in 1934 he was forced to quite it. Between 1935 and 1938 he was student of the Infantry Military School and at the end of it he was appointed the platoon commander in the 10th Mountain Regiment.
During the Stalingrad battle he was appointed Lieutenant and promoted as the Company commander, but shortly after he was taken prisoner.
He enlisted the Division "Tudor Vladimirescu" and in March 1944 he left for the Western front as the Battalion deputy commander. After the war he was appointed in different military command positions and in 1953 was appointed Major General. In 1954 became first deputy of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and chief of General Staff, till 1965. In 1964 he was appointed in Army General Rank. Between 1965 and 1981 he was the commander of the Military Academy. In 1981 after a 46 years of military career and 4 years on the Western and Eastern front he retires. In June 2009 he was granted the title of Member of Honor of the Senate of the National Defense University. He was married and had two sons.
General Tutoveanu, the 36th chief of General Staff, had the longest mandate to lead this important military institution. He managed the technical process of evacuation of the soviet troops from the Romanian territory and the military attitude in "missile crisis" and "Berlin crisis". He was member of the Romanian governmental delegates to end the process of establishment of the Warsaw Treaty.

MoND Press Office