Who am i:

My name is René Spaan, citizen of The Netherlands. I was born in 1971 in the city of Utrecht. My current job is within the Royal Netherlands Air Force, where i'm an officer in the Flight Operations Support branch.

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My background in the military:

I started my military career as a conscript in the Royal Netherlands Army artillery in 1991.

In 1993 i submitted an application for a NCO job in the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF).

Since then i gained very deep knowledge of world wide armed forces (all branches), navigational skills, leadership skills, doctrine as well as advanced equipment recognition skills and how this equipment interacts/works.

I gained combat experience in Bosnia-Hercegovina (UNPROFOR/IFOR/ICTY), Kosovo (Operation Allied Force) and Afghanistan (OEF & ISAF) during peace-keeping, peace enforcing and wartime missions, within UN, NATO and Coalition organisations.

While deployed with IFOR (Bosnia-Hercegovina) i was embedded in a (U.S.) Combat Camera team (both land and airborne), besides other combat duty's.

During my (still lasting) career within the RNLAF i was granted my commission, and currently i'm directing a Mission Support and Mapping (GIS-specialized) department. 

One of my lifetime side-interests have been military history (Sea, Land and Air), as well as colonial history regarding all Western nations.

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Other interests:

Besides military advice i also test, repaint and program (AI) aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX).

Please find some of my products released as freeware at the WWW below:

AVSIM
Flightsim.com (search for spaan)