Time Travel From Hungary Via America To Afghanistan

– What comes to your mind if I say America?

– First and foremost those four wonderful years I spent overseas. It all started when in the summer of 2001, I was enrolled to the national defence university of the United States of America, in Washington. I studied there for a year and following successful graduation, I returned to Hungary in July 2002. I didn’t even dare to think that I would return soon…

– But you did return…

– Yes, and very soon. I was spending my well-earned holiday when the deputy secretary for defence policy and the deputy chief of staff responsible for integration issues, namely State Secretary József Bali and General Dr. Zoltán Szenes called me. I was told that Hungary, as one of the last NATO member states wants to operate a liaison officer, and in case the conditions are provided for, a liaison team in Tampa, at the US Central Command, or as it is known to everybody, CENTCOM. Back then, this command was only responsible for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The leaders had looked around and found that I was the most eligible person with local knowledge to travel to the site and establish a Hungarian liaison office without any preparation. Therefore a mere two months after my arrival, I returned.

– This assignment sounds enormous. Did you know what you were undertaking?

– When I was asked to go abroad and start the operations of the liaison office, my superiors planned that my posting would last for three months only. But I on the other hand reported to the deputy state secretary right in the first meeting that this job cannot be done in a quarter. I requested six months at least. In addition to that, I had three other requests. The first one was that in case we manage to start up the office and I, too, feel good in this assignment, the original six months could be prolonged. The second one was to have proper conditions. Since I was already familiar with the circumstances in America, my third request was a bank card which covers my equipment needs. Fortunately, they fulfilled all these three requests. I was given the bank card as well, which I returned upon my arrival without using a single dollar. But I used it on a number of occasions when I rented a car or ordered an airline ticket. It was always the collateral. You must know that in America, wherever you are paying in cash, you always need a bank card as a guarantee. I had learned during my one-year studies that in the US you simply cannot exist without a bank card.

– Was Florida an unknown territory for you when you arrived?

– Yes, it was, and although during my one-year studies I had been to almost every state, from Hawaii to Boston, Florida was left out somehow. It was my first time there. I still remember: when I arrived to the airport of Tampa, naturally, there was nobody waiting for me – despite the fact that everything had been attended to. I called the duty officer of the central command on a public telephone at the airport and told him I was there. He assured me that somebody would come for me. I waited patiently. Around two o’clock in the morning, a major arrived in a van, he took me to the command dormitory for unmarried troops. Next day I begun to create the necessary conditions: I hired an apartment, a car, started to furnish the office selected for the liaison team, purchased the IT equipment. With some exaggeration: from the twenty thousand dollars I had in my pocket upon arrival, I created proper living and working conditions.

– You did all this alone?

– Yes, in the first six months I was there alone, later I got assistance in the form of Major Géza Boros-Leskó, an experienced air force officer who helped me tremendously in the job. There never were many colleagues in the liaison office, even in the top period there were only three of us.

– What was your task?

– In the beginning, we only attended to the coordination activities related to the operation in Afghanistan, and national representation. Following that – a few weeks after my arrival – the planning of the operation in Iraq started, in which we participated very actively in the first period. It was interesting to see the strategic level steps of the political–military preparation for such an extensive military operation moving hundreds of thousands. How they consult the nations, how the internal decision-making mechanism works in America. I could learn a lot. And of course, the year spent at the American national defense university also helped a lot, since what they were teaching at school was exactly how soldiers have to cooperate with politicians, and various economic factors. And how military decision-making connects to government procedure.

– I assume the superiors checked on your job regularly.

– I had very good relations with the Hungarian ambassador and the embassy in Washington. They required all the information I had got, and they supported me in my work as well. I went to Washington quarterly and updated ambassador András Simonyi on my work. On these occasions, I obviously gave the necessary reports to the military attaché accredited to the American capital, namely lieutenant István Gyenes, who is a brigadier general now and the head of the Department for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Defence. Naturally, they were also checking on me from Hungary and during the three years spent abroad, both the chief of defence staff and the ministry’s secretary of state visited me.

– Were they satisfied with what they had seen?

– I think they were. The Hungarians and the Americans alike. The latter is also proven by the fact that following my return to Hungary, in August 2005 the defence minister awarded the golden Service Merit to me ’as a recognition of my excellent work, on the occasion of completing my service abroad’. Only a few days later, General Abizaid, the commander of CENTCOM awarded ’The Meritorious Service Medal’ decoration to me, but since I had to serve in Afghanistan in the meantime, I could only receive it on October 19, 2006, from April H. Foley, the American ambassador, who personally thanked me for the job I had done in those three years.

– You mentioned that you arrived to Tampa alone. When did your family follow you?

– My wife was with me in Washington when I was studying at the national defence university. When I found out that I had to go back to Florida, we decided that I would go alone and ’scout’ what can be expected there, and how long would I have to stay. A few months later, she came to me to America for a short visit. This was roughly when the defence minister paid an official visit to America. During that period I was also called to the embassy in Washington where I was told that as it had been requested by the ambassador, the status of the liaison officer, fulfilled by me, would change from ’commanded’ to a three-year NATO position. They re-classified the position as of July 1, 2003, and after that date I stayed in this rank for two more years. I was surprised the most when I learned about this re-classification since I was not expecting it. And this was when my wife followed me and moved to America.

– What was different after the re-classification of the position?

– For instance that I was given a non-active status at home, since until then, was sent to the national defence university and later to Florida from my previous position. Soldiers know well what this means: they have to prepare for a situation that their career in Hungary will break and following their return, they are likely to get a different position.

– So your career has also broken. What has changed after your return?

– To make it understandable, I would start with mentioning that until 1995, I was in chemical defence. As they say: I got as far as the top, since in 1993, I was the assigned chemical defence inspector of the Hungarian Defence Forces for a few months. It means that I had no more opportunities to advance in this field. But with the Americans’ deployment to Hungary in 1995, there was another chance. It was the year when the IFOR operation started and I was a member of the operative team that coordinated the Americans’ stay in Hungary. In other words this was when I started to deal with peace support operations, disaster prevention, and crisis management, that is with all the topics which are not included in the basic function of the Hungarian Defence Forces, namely national defence. In 1997, this group, founded in 1995 under the name HDF Operative Team, became a permanent military organization and its first commander was Major General József Bali, the current secretary of state for defence. The new organization was transformed into today’s HDF Operational Centre in several stages. Well, I was already there helping when this organization was born and last year, when I left, I was the last one who participated in the work of every predecessor of the organization as early as its establishment. Perhaps I don’t even have to mention that this is why I consider the centre my own child, and between 1995 an 2001 – until I started my studies in America – all I did was improving its operation. I went to Washington and a year later, to Tampa as the deputy commander of this centre.

– After your return, did you get back to your former workplace?

– Yes, but only for a short period, since between 2005 and 2007, I went to Afghanistan two times on foreign service. I could say: I was lucky enough to see from another dimension how the ideas and political–military decisions born inTampa function in practice, in the theatre of operations.

– What were your duties in Afghanistan?

– While in 2005 I was the highest ranking Hungarian national in Kabul and I was responsible for the relocation of the Hungarian contingent and the construction of its new accomodation facility in the position of responsible nation, in 2007, in an international position as the chief of ISAF northern region I was responsible for the command and security of 3,600 soldiers of 26 nations. In addition to that as the highest ranking Hungarian national, I was the local superior of 250 Hungarian troops serving in four locations at that time. I am very glad that on this assignment I have found true comrades and helpers with the assistance of whom we all returned safe and sound to our loved ones when our mission ended. Moreover, looking back from a year I consider this my greatest success, under the given circumstances. I experienced the whole thing like my postings to Afghanistan were an integral part, so to say a continuation of the years spent in America. Since what one had seen in the USA from ’above’, I could experience in Afghanistan from ’under’. It was an absolute time travel for me because from the Hungarian present I got to the American future, and to Afghanistani past. It was several hundred years of time travel in only a few years for me, where one could compare the conditions, possibilities, and the culture of three countries. Naturally, each trip was very useful from military aspect as well, I learned a lot, mostly as regards the planning of military–civilian cooperation.

– You changed jobs after completing your second mission in Afghanistan and returning to Hungary. Why?

– After my return, I had the feeling that at the operational centre they do not require me the way they had done before and I cannot make use of the skills I had mastered earlier in the organization in the position of deputy commander, deputy branch leader, and during my postings abroad. Before my second mission to Afghanistan, that is in January of 2007, there was a change in command at the operational centre and with the new commander a new approach arrived. In September – when I came home from Afghanistan – I saw that it is for the best for everybody if I change jobs. I got some offers from the leaders of several military organizations, so fortunately I had the opportunity to select. Looking back at the period that has passed since then, I am sure I made a good decision. This is how I joined the defence bureau.

– You have been in the new position for a year now. What is it precisely?

– I am the director of the 2nd regional directorate of the MoD Defence Bureau. The bureau is structured according to two principles. One of them is the territorial principle on the basis of which we divide the country into three regions and the respective directorates are responsible for each region, that is for 6-7 counties. Southeast Hungary belongs to the 2nd regional directorate. The directorate led by me deals with the everyday life of the defence committees operating in this region, and with the coordination of their work. The other principle of the bureau is that directorates have their respective fields of specialization. Regional directorate no. 1 is responsible for legislative codification and operational issues, the set of tasks related to crisis management fall within the scope of responsibility of directorate no. 2, while directorate no. 3 is responsible for logistics-related tasks. These include for instance host nation support, and the issue of IT systems. My job as the director responsible for operational capabilities is very complex, among others I have to deal with various preparations, international liaisoning, training exercises, and give opinion on professional documens.

– Didn’t you regret that you have changed jobs?

– Not at all! At the moment, I have opportunities I could not even dare to dream about earlier. I can perform such an extensive activity where I can utilize all the experiences I have been able to gain during my 35-year career in the military. In the past three and a half decades, I have been to nearly sixty countries, from Haiti to Afghanistan. I had the honour to participate for longer or shorter periods in at least twenty UN, OSCE, and NATO peace support operations. I had the opportunity to make myself familiar with the military structure and decision-making mechanism of the United States of America. I speak English and Russian. I think all the experience I have gained in these 35 years can perhaps be utilized the best here, in the defence bureau. But of course, I do not consider the process finished and I should hope that there are new challenges waiting for me in the remaining part of my military career, and these will be tolerated by my family just like before. Since without their support, I could not have achieved all that we have been talking about now.

– This is when others usually write a book about their experiences…

– I always tell my colleagues ’when I once will be writing about this in my book…’ But switching to a more serious tone, obviously, there are a lot of experiences piled up inside me, I could tell about or write down a great number of things. Unfortunately, I do not have the time for that. My duties fill my days so much that for the time being I don’t think about writing a book. Naturally, I publish my works in professional reviews all the time and try to call attention to the mistakes which shouldn’t be made again. My experiences gained in Tampa were published in the 2006 spring issues of Új Honvédségi Szemle – in three consecutive parts, due to their length – and I have just finished my article on the role civil organizations can play in national defence, due to be published in the November issue of Polgári-védelmi Szemle. But I have not given up my plan either to tell the most exciting events in narrative form with anecdotes sometime in the future.