Bidding Farewell to Troops Leaving for Afghanistan

Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, the Chief of the Mod Defence Staff, US Defence Attaché Col. Robert W. Duggleby, Brig.-Gen. János Huszár, the deputy commander of the HDF Joint Force Command and Brig.-Gen. Dr. Gábor Böröndi, the commander of the HDF 5th Bocskai István Infantry Brigade attended the farewell ceremony. 12 soldiers of the Ohio National Guard serve with the 60-man OMLT. The members of the seventh rotation will be deployed in Afghanistan from November 17, 2011 until June 30, 2012.

On behalf of the Ministry of Defence and the Hungarian Defence Forces Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő bid farewell to the troops departing to do their tour of duty abroad. The Chief of Defence stressed the courage of the contingent members to undertake this extraordinarily hard and dangerous mission. Then the US Defence Attaché, Maj. Robert W. Duggleby addressed the troops – he greeted the contingent in Hungarian. In his speech he underlined the exemplary co-operation between the soldiers of the two nations and praised their very high professional standards and excellent spirit of camaraderie. He thanked for the self-sacrifice and participation of the Hungarian Defence Forces in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, and said special thanks to Brig.-Gen. Böröndi for the work done during the mission rehearsal training.

In cooperation with the Ohio National Guard, the OMLT under Hungarian command provides assistance with the trade training and operational mentoring of the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the 209th ANA Corps deployed in Baghlan Province. Its tasks are to participate in the training and mentoring of the ANA units, to keep contact with ISAF and to support the conduct and planning of operations by the unit.