Hungarian and Serbian Troops Make History
Szöveg: UNFICYP | 2014. december 9. 9:00On December 3, for the first time in the history of UNFICYP, a Hungarian team won the top-ranking contest of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), the Military Skills Competition. The members of the team were Capt. Levente Szilágyi, Lt. Nándor Major, WO Adam Leontijevic, WO Branco Drinic, SFC Milinko Kuzmanovic, Cpl. Gábor Szigeti, PFC Anita Arnót and PFC Tamás Turcsics. Throughout the day, they were giving a superhuman performance, which earned them the long-desired trophy.
The competition was preceded by a long period of training, during which the team prepared both mentally and physically. This period was not easy for the team members, since they often had to prepare while off duty, besides performing their routine everyday tasks and services. The competition tested those skills of the soldiers which they may need in their peacekeeping mission. The tasks included driving, weapon handling and marksmanship, map-reading, knowledge of opposing forces, incident reaction, commander’s mission and a 6.2 km land navigation run and an assault course. Out of the maximally attainable score of 800, the Hungarian team got 710 after the completion of all eight tasks.
The key to the Serbian and Hungarian troops’ success was their perfectly planned and executed teamwork. They always had a member with the best abilities to complete a given individual task, and when every of them needed to carry out a given task, all members were competing as one team. The jointly attained result repeatedly shows the success of Serbian–Hungarian military cooperation. The best result of the Hungarian team has so far been a fourth placing – this time, the soldiers wanted to get among the first three, but didn’t even dream of being the winning team.
To a great extent, the success of the team depended on its leader, Capt. Szilágyi, who was congratulated personally by UNFICYP Chief of Staff Col. Angus Loudon. In her address, UNFICYP Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Kristin Lund pointed out that the winning team was the only one which had a servicewoman among its members. Without a doubt, this day was the day of Hungarian soldiers, since the runner-up team of the Mobile Force Reserve (MFR) included Hungarian Cpl. Ádám Kővári, while the third-placed HQ team Hungarian Maj. Péter Nagy. At the end of the day, the team of the Hungarian contingent returned to the bases in Athienou and Famagusta, where their comrades – who were supporting the team all along the training period and rooted for it throughout the day of the competition – received the members of the winning team as real heroes.
Photo: UNFICYP
