hendrik gijsbert bernhard henk van den breemen valkenswaard 23 march 1941 is a retired dutch military officer van den breemen started his military career as a midshipsman for the marines in 1960 from june 1987 till june 1998 he served as chief of staff and deputy commander of the royal netherlands marine corps as vice chief of defence staff he was actively involved with the reorganization of the defence staff being responsible for the defence priority papers quality for quantity 19911994 van den breemen ended his military career as chief of defence staff august 1994 june 1998former minister henk kamp said that one of the reasons to appoint van den breemen as cod was his role as commanding officer of the first amphibious combat group 19811982 and the development of the dutchbritish amphibious force which will become a battlegroup between 2006 and 2010van den breemen was appointed as commander of the order of orangenassau with swords and as knight of the order of the netherlands lion he is also decorated as commander in the legion of merit usa and the grosse verdienstkreuz mit stern und schulterband des verdienstordens der bundesrepublik deutschland sweden norway and the czech republic also decorated van den breemenrecently van den breemen together with four former colleagues wrote a pamphlet entitled towards a grand strategy for an uncertain word renewing transatlantic partnership the gang of five as they were called when the pamphlet was presented in washington dc january 2008 consisted of general ret john shalikashvili usa general ret dr klaus naumann germany admiral ret jacques lanxade and field marshal the lord inge ukin the pamphlet an analyses of trends and challenges is given as well as an analyses of the present capabilities of institutions organizations and politics based on this a grand strategy is suggested and an agenda for change is given the whole idea is about restoring certainty by renewing the transatlantic partnership the pamphlet was presented in washington dc and in brussels it was also presented to presidents primeministers ministers and the leadership of the nato and the euvan den breemen nowadays acts among other activities as an advisor eg of the noaber foundation where is chairman of the advisory board the noaber foundation is a dutch venture philanthropist and social ventureron 18 march 2010 the general was named as the source for general john j sheehans claim that the srebrenica massacre was caused because the dutch un troops included gays in a dutch defense ministry statement van den breemen responded that this claim was absolute nonsense sheehan later issued a full retraction and apology to van den breemen by email stating that the failure of dutch un troops was in no way the fault of the individual soldiers