Excellent Cooperation

The preparation of the contingent – consisting of some 50 Hungarian as well as 21 Czech and 21 Slovak troops and supported with technical equipment by Poland – started on 15 October with the arrival in Kaposvár of a Czech logistic unit, whose members unloaded from the train transport vehicles, mobile field kitchens as well as an excavators and recovery vehicles, then redeployed to Hódmezővásárhely. For two weeks, they were conducting joint training with Hungarian logisticians, practicing mainly transport operations and teaching the use of mobile field kitchens. Afterwards, on 1 November the Slovak logisticians also joined the exercise, bringing transport vehicles to Hungary.

During the training event, the foreign soldiers were not assigned any border security duties, they were involved only in logistic tasks. At the same time, they assisted the preparation of border security forces by constructing a temporary security barrier proving ground. This proving ground enabled the non-stop practice of earthworks, the phases of installing the temporary security barrier, the building of service roads and the logistic support of the tasks.

In the last few weeks, some phases of the contingent’s training were observed by Hungarian Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó, Czech Minister of Defence Martin Stropnicky, Hungarian Chief of Defence Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, Czech Deputy Chief of Defence Lt.-Gen. Frantisek Maleninsky, Slovak Chief of Defence Gen. Milan Maxim and the defence, military and air attachés accredited to Budapest. They all held the contingent members’ preparedness level exemplary. They were also given proof of the interoperability level of the troops of the three nations, which is a guarantee of their ability to execute such a task in real-world situations anywhere and anytime.

“Dear Slovak, Czech and Hungarian soldiers! I am proud of you, and you can be proud of yourselves as you have fully attained the objective. Besides training, during the exercise you have driven tens of thousands of kilometres, transported hundreds of tons of materiel and provided supplies for thousands of troops. With this, you have significantly contributed to the successful execution of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ tasks related to the handling of the crisis caused by mass migration" – this was how Col. László Drót said farewell to the members of the contingent, and then he said thanks for the joint work and presented memorial certificates and plaquettes to Hungarian Lt. Máté Bajusz, Czech Lt. Ondřej Prokop and Lt. Jozef Jaššo representing the Slovak unit. During a staff meeting held in the afternoon, the members of the contingent were presented with tokens of appreciation for their participation in the joint training Balaton 2015.

Photos by the author