Attachés’ Visit to Szentendre and the HDF Augmentation and Central Registry Command

On February 5 – the first day of their two-day program – the military attachés were received at the HDF NCO Academy in Szentendre. Brig.-Gen. Tibor Bozó, the commandant of the academy informed the guests about the history of the unit and the range of ongoing (international) training events. Maj. Filipp Bánki, Branch Leader, HDF NCO Academy International Training Branch C-IED Training Group introduced the members of the BMAC to the international training programs available at the Szentendre base. In his presentation, he revealed that the HDF NCO Academy – in addition to the HDF personnel regularly posted to individual positions on foreign missions – has a special international training capability as well. The generation of the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) capability started in Hungary in 2008, and currently the C-IED training is provided by the HDF C-IED Training Group of the International Training Branch operating within the HDF NCO Academy Mecséri János Training Department.

In April 2012 – following the completion of courses which had been running successfully for three years – the NATO Selected Course accreditation was granted to the HDF NCO Academy C-IED Train the Trainer (T3) course. This accreditation implies that the Academy can independently organize T3 international courses in the field of Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices. These courses basically train C-IED specialist for the armed forces of NATO member countries and partner nations.

On February 6 the visitors’ program continued at the HDF Augmentation and Central Registry Command (HDF ACRC) – the military administration and central ADP organization of the Hungarian Defence Forces with national scope of authority – which is responsible for general registering, recruitment, equal employment opportunities and military funeral honors. Col. Tibor Vanyur, the commander of the unit gave the attachés a general overview of the history and functional structure of the Budapest-based organization. Afterwards, Maj. András Mák held a presentation on the HDF Volunteer Reserve System. In what followed, the attachés were given an interactive introduction to the military document management office, which issues military ID cards and ID discs (dog tags), and also to the equal employment opportunity section of the HDF ACRC 1st Military Administration Center, and they tried out the flight simulator at a recruitment point as well.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi