He grew up next to the Zuid-Willemsvaart in Veghel, already dreamed of shipping as a child and eventually made it a vice-admiral at the Royal Navy. Boudewijn Boots is now Inspector General of the Armed Forces, one of the highest military functions in our country. “I don’t deny my Brabant descent. A piece of my heart is always Brabant.”
The grand adventure of vice-admiral Boudewijn Boots did not start somewhere on a ship or by the sea, but on April 1, 1964 in Veghel. “Veghel-Zuid to be precise. I was the seventh resident of that neighborhood there.”
The Zuid-Willemsvaart was not far from his house. “I think it woke something up in me. I saw all those beautiful inland vessels and I already wondered as a small child how Sinterklaas managed to get all the way from Madrid to the port of Veghel.”
After high school, Boots went to the nautical school in Vlissingen. He became a mate on the big trade, but had to be employed not much later. “I ended up with the navy and didn’t really know what I was doing. Even if it was a great experience in a time of the Cold War. Doing important work with young people. That attracted me.”
His passion for life and working at sea remained and so he decided to stay with the navy. In the years that followed, he experienced many adventures. “I remember that as a young officer, after a long journey, I came in for the first time in a harbor in Cape Town, in South Africa. I thought that was such a great moment. But there are a lot.”
“As a military you always look for the limits,” he says about that time. “I have also been to Afghanistan for half a year. Then you drove through a country that was broken from the war and the Taliban that made everyone miserable. You occasionally come to situations that it cannot and should not go wrong, while you have no chance. You learn to keep your head cool there.”
In the meantime Boots has been with the Navy for over 35 years and he has had quite a few different functions. Where he once started as a guard officer on a ship, he later got a totally new role within the Ministry of Defense. “First I planned all types of missions of Defense as a department head at the Operations Directorate. After that I used NATO and eventually I became deputy commander of the armed forces, the second highest soldier in the country.”
The Vice Admiral has had a new position as Inspector General of the Armed Forces (IGK) for six months. “I am no longer just the navy, but of all of defense. I talk to many people and I bring that knowledge to the minister. It is a kind of bridge function.”
“And in addition I help people who have problems. I am also the military ombudsman,” he adds his position. “It takes some getting used to, but you like it. You can mean a lot in this time full of changes. The military world is changing. It is challenging.”
After years of cutbacks, the Ministry of Defense is now expanding. Boots therefore regularly visits different partners. One of those working visits is De Haas Shipyards in Rotterdam. “They build ships for defense. It’s nice to talk to them about how that goes and look ahead to how we can work together if there were a crisis or a conflict.”
The work as IGK brings Boots to many different places, although his birthplace always remains extra special. “I still have family and friends in the neighborhood, so I still come there regularly. I don’t deny my origins. A piece of my heart is always Brabant. It’s a piece of myself.”
Boudewijn Boots intervenes, just like Marco Kroon, during protest May 5
On Liberation Day, demonstrators disrupted a speech by Defense Minister Brekelmans. Several people intervened, including Major Marco Kroon. Although few people know that Vice-Admiral Boudewijn also intervened. “I was in the front row in the stands and at one point I saw people climb over the fence.”
“Our Minister of Defense was between me, Marco and that fence. To guarantee his safety, Marco and I immediately took action. It is a kind of instinct, because you don’t know what they are planning. There is a time of commemorating and a time of demonstrating.”
