Army Scouts Celebrate their Patron Saint’s Day

11 November is the Day of Army Scouts. On this day, we commemorate Bishop St. Martin, who served as a soldier in the 4th century and typified, both in his acts and personality, all the virtues that earned him – as man and as soldier – very great respect and recognition from his fellow humans. His courage, fortitude, self-sacrifice, his search for truth and goodness made him special already in his lifetime, and his exceptional deeds were not forgotten after his death.

The spirit of St. Martin represents all the values that motivate army scouts to fulfil their duties, so it is no accident that they chose him the patron saint of their branch.

Like their predecessors, every year on St. Martin’s Day, the soldiers of the HDF 5/24th “Bornemissza Gergely" Reconnaissance Battalion parade under their unit colours, conducting a ceremony to ask God’s blessing, so that their luck can hold in doing their work next year.

In a departure from tradition, this special event took place in Kosovo this year, as the personnel of the battalion are currently serving with the KFOR-13 Hungarian contingent. In Camp Novo Selo, on 11 November Military Chaplain Lt. Ferenc Dudás greeted and blessed the army scouts by saying a short prayer.

Of course, there also was a physical challenge related to the TOE number of the battalion, the number 24. The scouts serving with the mission set themselves the goal of performing altogether 24,000 repetitions of exercises, including sit-ups, press-ups, pull-ups and dips as PT workout norms. This meant some 250-300 repetitions for each person, and eventually they managed to complete almost 40,000 in under four hours.

At the end of the day, the Hungarian soldiers closed the celebration with eating a stew. Although not made of the traditional goose, but, adapted to the local circumstances, it was a really delicious meal.