This paper provides a reconstruction of the process of identity formation in Mandate Syria through a detailed analysis of the day-to-day life of a Syrian military officer. A fundamental argument of this paper is that the French Mandate system, despite the flowery language provided by the League of Nations, actually helped foster a supranational identity that superseded and outperformed any construction of ‘Syrian’ or ‘French’ identity under the Mandate, as evidenced by the repeated military coups that plagued post-1948 Syrian society. To argue this point, the paper constructs the biography of this individual who served diligently in the Ottoman Army during both the Balkan Wars and World War I before entering into service under Faysal’s army in the brief period of ‘independence’ from 1918-1920. Following his time in the forces Arabes, this individual was recruited into the French Mandate troupes du Levant where he participated in military schooling, and even fought against the Syrian revolt in Jebal Druze in 1925. The paper takes this remarkably flexible military career as a starting point from which to question exactly how individual Syrians under the French Mandate conceived identity and nationalism. While significant studies exist in the historiography of the Hapsburg Monarchy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, relatively little exploration into the mindset and lives of career military officers has been made concerning Syria. This research is especially pertinent, as scholars have begun to question simplistic narratives of majority and minority in Syrian and Middle Eastern history. Drawing on diplomatic sources, ranging from League of Nations reports on military and civil education under the Mandate to British documents on French policy in Syria, this paper reconstructs the institutions that were, at least theoretically, intended to create an identity ‘fit’ for representation in the international community. These sources, when coupled with the personal papers of a Syrian military officer, provide us with a more nuanced understanding of how identity and nationalism were conceived in French Mandate Syria. Furthermore, this paper represents a shift in Syrian history that is representative of the changing nature of possible research. Archival research, despite its benefits, appears to be less of an option for emerging historians of Syria. Thus, this paper is a move towards a social history that incorporates the lives of individuals into already existing narratives, in an attempt to provide nuance and personality to what may often be seen as ‘traditional’ diplomatic history.