At Home Again After Six Months

Nearly 40 Hungarian soldiers did their tour of duty with the fifth HDF OMLT rotation in ISAF, Afghanistan during the last six months. The contingent led by Lt.-Col. Béla Oszlánszki has recently returned from the area of operations. Although the majority of the troops serve with the HDF 25/88th Airmobile Battalion in Szolnok, they had their mission-specific training in Tata so the “Welcome Home" ceremony took place in the barracks of the HDF 25th ‘Klapka György’ Infantry Brigade on June 30.

The event started with the strains of the Hungarian and the American national anthems played by the Tata garrison band, and continued with the presentation of commendations. In recognition of their exemplary courage and outstanding performance during a firefight in the line of duty on the ISAF peacekeeping mission, the Defence Minister of the Republic of Hungary presented Captain Gergely Kozsik and First Lieutenant Ákos Megyeri with the Gold Grade of the Service Medal Decorated with Swords.

The Defence Minister and Gen. Tibor Benkő, Chief of the MoD Defence Staff presented each service member with the “Peacekeeping" Service Medal. In what followed, the Chief of Defence and the Commander of the HDF Joint Force Command handed over tokens of appreciation.

“Soldiers! Welcome home. You have accomplished a difficult mission. You have been in the war zone!" – Csaba Hende began his speech, adding that “In the last six months your life has been terribly hard and intensive, and during this period you have executed several important tasks! You have taken part in two major operations and been in contact with the enemy five times." The Defence Minister stressed that the most important thing is that everyone has returned from the mission safe and sound.

“Do not ever forget: everything you did was done for this country and within that, for your homes! We have dedicated ourselves to renewing the whole system of national defence. We are working in times of need, especially in terms of finance. Therefore I am inviting you to do a hard job. What we are asking of you is to take part in this work, each one of you in your own position. We are asking you to carry on with your service. Continue serving the cause of the nation, the Hungarian homeland, in the community of the Hungarian Defence Forces" – said Dr. Csaba Hende.

Lt.-Col. Darla L. Stencavage, the Assistant Army Attaché for the Defense Attaché Office, US Embassy, Budapest underlined in her speech that the Hungarian troops should be very proud of the work they had done in the past half year together with the personnel of the Ohio National Guard.

The lieutenant-colonel added that the relations between the Ohio National Guard and the Hungarian Defence Forces had been uninterrupted since 1993.

“The OMLT has been carrying out a vitally important mission in Afghanistan: it trains the Afghan forces and prepares them for taking over security tasks. Without a properly trained Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghanistan could never put up resistance against the Taliban insurgency"  said Lt-Col. Stencavage.

In his speech made at the standing reception after the “Welcome Home" ceremony, Gen. Tibor Benkő said: “Be proud of what you have accomplished in Afghanistan and of your successes! We are proud of them! The purpose of your work is in accordance with the general objective in Afghanistan, which is to achieve that Afghans are capable of delivering security and peace for themselves as soon as possible."

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Photo: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky