The chief of the General Staff and the heads of the army, navy and air forces were among the 96 people including President Lech Kaczynski, to perish when their Tupolev TU-154 aircraft crashed as it tried to land in western Russia.
"This is the greatest tragedy in the history of the Polish armed forces," Stanislaw Koziej, a retired general and former defence minister, told Reuters.
"There has never been such a case where the top command of the army and its commander-in-chief (Kacynski) all died at the same time."
The crash coincides with the dispatch of an additional 600 troops to reinforce Poland's 2,000-strong contingent in the NATO mission in Afghanistan and with reforms aimed at modernising the military after a decision to scrap conscription.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Polish+army+faces+uncertainty/2791629/story.html#ixzz0kzsJNTdp
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