Commemorating the EOD Technicians in Afghanistan
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2011. október 7. 16:48September 28 is the day of EOD technicians. This year the EOD personnel who have served in the ISAF area of operations for five years now, since 2006, were also celebrated in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan. The Hungarian troops serving in Camp Marmal were present at the commemorative ceremony held by the wall of heroes, and the EOD technicians of the armed forces of Germany and Latvia stationed in Mazar-e Sharif also came to attend the event.
In his speech delivered at the ceremony, Lt.-Col. (Eng.) Dr. Tibor Horváth, the designated Chief Operations Planning Officer (Deputy Chief) of the Operations Directorate at ISAF Regional Command – North (ISAF RC-N) – who is the deputy commander of the HDF 1st Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment in Hungary –, stressed that the EOD memorial establishes a link between the past and the present, which is history for posterity while it remains the reality written in blood for the EOD teams of our age.
“It is hard to imagine the myriad UXOs and hazardous material strewn around the area of the country after World War II, during which Hungary became a theatre of operations for more than six months", Lt.-Col. Horváth said, adding that the EOD teams started working in the interest of Hungary to protect the population on September 28, 1945. This day is the birthday of the unit, too.
The EOD technicians of the regiment have gained international prestige on their tours of duty far from the borders of Hungary in Afghanistan, where they bring their special training, expertise and sense of vocation to meet various challenges on a daily basis in the ISAF area of operations, doing their job very professionally indeed.
“This is a hard, manly game, as the challenger is always death lurking deep inside the explosive devices, and unfortunately these games are not always won by us…", the lieutenant-colonel said.
Following the speech, the attendees of the event bowed to observe a moment of silence for the heroes’ memory, to pay tribute to our comrades who are serving Hungary’s security inside or outside our borders, and to those “eternally present with us" who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.
At the end of the ceremony, led by Col. István Balassa, the commander of the HDF National Support Element, the Hungarian troops held a candlelight memorial by the Heroes’ Wall to commemorate the EOD soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan.
