“It is a very important day for every aspirant who wants to be an official”. This is how lieutenant colonel Blázquez defines Thursday’s day at the General Military Academy (AGM) in Zaragoza, where everything is ready for Princess Elionor to begin the first of her three years of military training.
Elionor de Borbó y Ortiz joins today as one more cadet of the 612 (140 women) who will be part of the LXXXII promotion of this training center of the Spanish Land Army. The Princess of Asturias is the first woman in the royal family to receive military training and thus emulates her father, Felipe VI, and her grandfather, the emeritus Juan Carlos I, who passed through these facilities in 1985 and in 1955 respectively.
The heir to the throne of Spain is expected to enter around noon accompanied by her parents. As long as she fulfills the first requirements – handing over her ID card, passing through the tailor’s and hairdresser’s – the Kings will be able to take part in the guided tour of the grounds that is offered to the relatives of the new students. In total, more than 70 hectares equipped with bedrooms, classrooms, dining rooms, chapel, laundry, a shop with basic products and all kinds of sports equipment. “It’s a small city”, sums up a military officer in charge of the visit.
During the first two weeks, the Princess will address the “welcome, orientation and adaptation” phase, which all students go through, in which they are explained what military life consists of, are given the ‘basic equipment and receive the first sessions of instruction and parade. Then begins the period of military instruction and training proper. In accordance with the program designed specifically for her, Eli honor will take first-year subjects until she swears in the flag on October 7, at which point she will regroup with her second-year classmates. Likewise, this year he will study subjects from the Infantry specialty, the same one that his father chose back in the day.
Life at the General Military Academy, where she will share a room with other classmates, will demand discipline, dedication and a lot of dedication to her studies. On a normal day, they get up at 6.30am, have breakfast and have class from 7.45am to 2.00pm. The afternoons are dedicated to study and to the activities that the instructors have scheduled. They have dinner between 8.00pm and 9.00pm, go to bed at 10.30pm and it’s quiet at 11.00pm.
The Princess will finish her studies in the Aragonese capital in July 2024 with her appointment as a cadet ensign. He will then continue his military training at the Marín Navy Academy (Pontevedra) and, the following year, at the San Javier Air Academy (Murcia).
