The Most Beautiful Friday

The An-26 transport aircraft of the Hungarian Air Force landed
shortly after 16:00 on Friday afternoon in Szolnok, carrying home aircrews and ground
crews from Eindhoven, the European terminus of the NATO airlift. While the proud family
members and friends were watching them, the deplaning soldiers quickly took up formation
and reported the completion of their mission to the reception committee headed by Brig.-Gen.
Imre Lajos, the base commander.

Gen. Lamos delivered a short speech to thank the personnel for having performed their
duties professionally in the area of operations for four and a half months, for enhancing
the Hungarian troops’ professional reputation, and for the flawless task execution. The
commander knew that the greatest thanks were the children’s embracing arms and the
partners’ teardrops, so he shortly gave the command “Dismiss!"

Lt.-Col. Attila Suszter, the commander of the AMT-8 and Lt.-Col. Miklós Szabó, the
commander of AAT-4 both pointed out that the rotations had learned important lessons during
the flying and training mission which had been conducted in an international environment
in the area of operations. Both teams participated in the training of the air crews and aircraft
maintenance technicians of the Afghan Air Force, as the Afghan partners fly transport and
attack helicopters that are similar to the types used in Hungary.

The Hungarian specialists have decades-long expertise in flying and operating the Mi-24
attack and the Mi-17 transport helicopters, so NATO rightly counted on the Hungarian air and
ground crews’ experience and capabilities, which they have been using for years to assist the
training of the reviving Afghan Air Force.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi