Owe Wiktorin

Owe Erik Axel Wiktorin (born 7 May 1940), is a Swedish Air Force General. General Wiktorin was Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces from 1994 to 2000. His time as Supreme Commander was marked by major cutbacks of the Swedish defense.

Wiktorin was born in Motala, Sweden and is the son of chief accountant Erik wiktorin and Esther Johnson. He passed his studentexamen in 1961 and was trained as a pilot at the Royal Air Force Flight Academy in Ljungbyhed from 1961 to 1962 eventually becoming an officer in the Air Force in 1964. Wiktorin studied at the Military Academy from 1971 to 1973 and at the Air Command and Staff College in the United States from 1979 to 1980. He served as a pilot 1964-69 and was Head of Division 1969-71.

He was head of the planning department at the Defence Staff 1980-83, deputy wing commander at F 4 Frösön 1983-84 and head of Section 1 of the Air Staff 1983-84. In 1986 he was promoted to major general and was appointed head of the planning management at the Defence Staff. In 1991 he became lieutenant general and chief of the Defence Staff and in 1992 he was appointed military commander of the Southern Military District. In 1994 he was promoted to general and became Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces. He stayed in that position until 2000.

In 1985 he became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. On 2 October 1998, Wiktorin became honorary member number 20 of the Lund Academic Officer Society (Lunds Akademiska Officerssällskap). On 6 June 2000 he was awarded the H. M. The King's Medal of the 12th size in gold with chain "for outstanding work for the Swedish defense." Wiktorin was chairman of the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management (Svenska Jägareförbundet) from 2003 to 2007 and then became an honorary member.

In 1965, Wiktorin married in Cajs Gårding (born 1943), the daughter of engineer Folke Gårding and Signe (née Domeij). Together they have two sons.

• H. M. The King's Medal, 12th size gold medal worn around the neck on a chain of gold (2000)

• "Sök medaljförläning" (in Swedish). Royal Court of Sweden. Retrieved 21 July 2016.