96 military and naval command advisors graduate; women stand out

Mexico City. 96 chiefs and officers graduated from the Higher School of War on Tuesday to serve as advisors to the military and naval command; four were women, who stood out in the ceremony, one for having the best average of the generation and three for moving up to another rank, after being the first graduates of Weapons from the Heroic Military College.

Among the new graduates of the Master’s degrees in Military Administration with a Specialization in General Staff and in Strategic Management with a Specialization in Joint Staff are Walter Daniel Pastor Cosain and Anibal Pastor Cosain, sons of retired General Isidoro Pastor Román, general director of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA).

“Today, 21 chiefs and 60 officers from the second seniority of the Master’s Degree in Military Administration with Staff Specialties are completing their studies at the school. In an unprecedented event, the first three women to graduate from the Heroic Military College’s Weapons Department graduated as Staff officers in this generation.

“Likewise, 15 Army and Air Force chiefs, one Navy chief, and three foreign scholarship chiefs from Brazil, South Korea, and Guatemala have completed their first seniority in the Master’s Degree in Strategic Management with Joint Staff Specialties,” said General Héctor Ávila Alcocer, director of the Higher War School.

The ceremony, held at the facilities of the so-called ‘white walls of San Jerónimo Lídice’, Mexico City, was presided over by the Secretaries of National Defense, General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, and of the Navy, Admiral José Rafael Ojeda.

Major surgeon Patricia Fuentes Castillo spoke on behalf of the class for having obtained first place in the Master’s Degree in Military Administration with Specialization in General Staff. In her speech she called on her colleagues to “act at all times with integrity, firmness and determination, with absolute respect for the law and the fundamental rights of people.” She received gifts from the embassies of Israel, Spain and South Korea in Mexico.

At the end of the ceremony, Fuentes told this newspaper that “the recognition means a great honor for me to belong to this select circle of staff officers, who, above all, contribute to national development every day with their work.”

Second Captain of the Artillery of the General Staff, Karla Janeth Hernández Raymundo, a graduate of the same master’s degree as Fuentes, was part of the first generation of women to graduate from the Weapons Department of the Heroic Military College.

“In 2014, we entered the Military College, into the weapons, which is the first time that the artillery and sapper weapons have been opened to women. And following our professional path, in order to be commanders, unit commanders, and to be able to make better decisions, we decided to enter the Higher War School,” she said in a brief interview.

On the other hand, the first captain of Cavalry of the General Staff, Walter Daniel Pastor Cosain, expressed to The Day feel proud of the two-year professional achievement that culminated on Tuesday and that helps him continue to advance in his military career, and also to carry on his family tradition.

“Today I finish this master’s degree. It makes me feel proud with the support of my family and makes me feel like a better person, a better soldier because this way I am better prepared to serve our country.

-Also following the family path, right? – he was asked.

“Yes, of course. As you can see, my father (General Isidoro Pastor) is also a military man, so we are continuing with the same line. Thank you very much,” he said.