Success of Hungarian Reservists in Germany
Szöveg: 1st Lt. Balázs Kiss and Patrick Berthold | 2015. szeptember 17. 13:15Hungarian soldiers recently participated in the law enforcement and national defence festival “Elbebiber 2015”, held in Delitzsch, Germany. The biggest security display in Saxony is organized in a different town of the federal state every year. This year Delitzsch, a town north of Leipzig hosted the event.
Besides the Bundeswehr, the participants of the event included the German police, the fire service, the Red Cross as well as technical recovery and volunteer rescue teams. The armed forces of several NATO member states delegated personnel to take part in the event, where, among others, the state-of-the-art flood relief technology was also introduced. A number of military re-enactors and bandsmen were also present to help create a festival atmosphere.
The highlight of the program was an international military patrol competition for reservists, which was entered by a four-person team of the Hungarian Reservists’ Association. Two of them are war grave care specialist and came to Germany directly from Győr, where they had worked to restore the Nádorváros cemetery on a one-month active duty. The other two team members are military re-enactors who rode on horseback to complete the Limanowa memorial raid in 2014.
While covering a more than 20-km distance, the competitors had to execute tasks such as land navigation, map-reading, first aid, firefighting, shooting, security policy quiz and swimming in uniform. The best German and the best foreign teams were awarded, and the overall winner of the championship was given the trophy, which went to the team of Reservistenkameradschaft Roitzsch. Thanks to its excellent performance, the Hungarian delegation won the prize for the best foreign team.
The award ceremony took place on the parade ground of the Unteroffizierschule des Heeres (Germany’s largest NCO School housing the participants), in the presence of, among others, Col. Helmut Baumgärtner, the commanding officer of Saxony and Col. Peer Luthmer, the commandant of the NCO school. The representatives of the Bundestag and Saxony as well as the mayors of Delitzsch and Meißen were also present at the ceremony. The organizers of the event emphasized that the Hungarian troops excellently represented Hungary and the Hungarian Defence Forces, and handed over their invitation to “Elbebiber 2016", to be hosted by Meißen, a town famous for its porcelain.
The members of the Hungarian delegation were Reservist SFC Béla Szily, Reservist SFC Márk Kardos, Reservist Sgt. Péter Csepin and Reservist PFC Béla Körmendi. The head of delegation was 1st Lt. Balázs Kiss, an officer of the MoD Public Relations and War Memorial Service Department.
