In collaboration with French Air Force Base 701 (BA701) of Salon-de-Provence, the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation (F-ASEJ) organised a visit for the adolescents from the Apprentis d’Auteuil youth centres of Meudon and Marseille on Tuesday, 21 February 2012.
General Gilles Modéré, commander of the Écoles d’Officiers de l’Armée de l’Air (French Air Force Officers Schools – EOAA) and the BA701, and our President, François d’Agay, welcomed this delegation of secondary school pupils accompanied by their tutors, Philippe Rose, Regional Director of Apprentis d’Auteuil in Marseille, and General Xavier Laure, head of international development of Apprentis d’Auteuil.
This day of discovery, supervised by Lieutenant-Colonel Hervé de Saint-Exupéry from the EOAA headquarters, aimed to present to disadvantaged youth the various professions proposed by the French Air Force, as well as to introduce them to life on a French Air Force base through meeting with the personnel of the main operational units, including the prestigious Patrouille de France (French Air Force Aerobatic Team), who allowed them to watch a spectacular aerial demonstration.
This concrete action for youth forms part of the framework of the partnership that the F-ASEJ initiated with the French Air Force in 2011, and draws on the social policies of the French Ministry of Defence. Other initiatives have already been undertaken thanks to the F-ASEJ, such as the EOAA students’ patronage of youth from Apprentis d’Auteuil during the air show of Montélimar (May 2011) and the national air show of the “Major Antoine de Saint-Exupéry” French Air Force Base 113 in Saint-Dizier (June 2011), as well as the training of three high school students from Salon-de-Provence for their pilot’s licence, with the support of officers of the BA701, within the framework of the 1st “Saint-Exupéry for Youth Prize” (January 2012).
