MFO Force Skills Competition – Hungarian Success

The competition is aimed at testing core military skills. It consists of five separate events – Armored Fighting Vehicle and aircraft recognition, Combat Life Saver lane, MFO General Knowledge, Skill at Arms, and a physical endurance test (obstacle course, three-kilometer run and range shoot). The day of this year’s MFO Force Skills in March was preceded by several weeks of physical and academic training. At the opening ceremony, Maj.-Gen. Denis Thompson, the new commander of MFO greeted the members of the 22 competing teams who entered the competition from the Camp North and Camp South alike.

The weather favored the day of the Hungarian team, when the team members started to tackle the course at noon. They completed the events one after the other, but the greatest challenge was the obstacle course. The award ceremony took place on the following day, so until then the placing of the team was anybody’s guess. However, based on the preliminary assessment of chances and their performance, the word in the MFO camp was that the Hungarian team would earn a very high placing.

It was a huge surprise to learn that the Hungarian team was the runner-up in the “minor contingents" category, following the team of the organizer New Zealand. The Hungarians came in third in the “all countries – obstacle course" category, following New Zealand and the United States, while in the overall category of “all countries – all stations" they came in third behind New Zealand and the United States. No one would have thought that the Hungarian boys would give such a good performance.

Finally, here are the names of those we are proud of. The members of the Hungarian team were Police 1st Lt. Gábor Z. Kovács, Lt. Dávid Kálmán, Lt. Balázs Lovász, WO Róbert Kovács, Police SFC Krisztián Jakab and, as a reserve, SFC Tibor Bánhalmi. The team manager was Police SFC Dr. Melinda Majoros.