Paul Flos was born in Tegelen, Netherlands, in 1966. At the age of 18, he started his officer training at the Royal Naval College in Den Helder. After completing his training, operational postings on HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS De Ruyter, including the work-up programme and operational deployment, were alternated with shore-based positions with the Underwater Signatures Department at the Directorate of Materiel of the Royal Netherlands Navy(RNLN) in The Hague and at the RNLN’s Artificer Training Centre in Amsterdam. In the latter position, he was the founder of the Procedures Training Office and one of the initiators of the integration of technical procedure training in the standard work-up programme of ships. His posting as Deputy Head of the Engineering Department on board HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes, the first M frigate to complete Netherlands Operational Sea Training (including a deployment in the Arabian Gulf), was followed by his first deployment abroad, from 1999 to 2002. In Aix-en-Provence (France), he was responsible for the integration of external equipment with the NH-90 helicopter and also made a start with setting up the helicopter's configuration management system. He was also elected President of the NATO Helicopter Management Agency Staff Association. Back in the Netherlands, Paul Flos was posted on board HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst as Head of the Engineering Department, only to be transferred after just one year to HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes, which was in the work-up process. In his role of Head of the Engineering Department, he was responsible for implementing the first project to combine the engineering and weapons departments on board into one materiel department, supported by a new software programme. After being transferred to shore, he joined the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) to take part in the Landing Platform Dock 2 project as a mechanical systems engineer and was closely involved in the implementation of a new type of propulsion for this ship. In 2006-2007, he successfully completed the Advanced Defence Studies course, followed by his second overseas posting as Defence Attaché in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.