„Your Casket Is Covered with the Flag of the Nation”

At 10 a.m. sharp, an AN-26 transport aircraft landed on the tarmac of the Szentgyörgyi Dezsõ Air Base, carrying the mortal remains of Judit Ábrahám Pappné, a Hungarian servicewoman who died a heroine in Afghanistan on August 23. The casket was received with military honors in the presence of mourning relatives and next of kin as well as several MoD and HDF leaders in Kecskemét.

The honor guard detail included those service personnel who had been doing their tour of duty together with the war heroine in Afghanistan. Also in attendance were the troops of the HDF 25th Klapka György Infantry Brigade of Tata, the former comrades of posthumous Second-Lieutenant Judit Ábrahám Pappné in the Transdanubian outfit.

The fellow servicemembers of the war heroine acted as pall-bearers bringing the flag-draped coffin out of the plane. Col. Zsolt Sándor, the Commanding Officer of the Tata brigade reported to Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende that the body of posthumous Second-Lieutenant Judit Ábrahám Pappné had been transported to Hungary.

“Dear Second-Lieutenant, Dear Judit! We are welcoming you home with great pain in our hearts. We are welcoming you, although you are now so far away from us! You have entered that undiscovered province from which no one returns", this was how Dr. Csaba Hende started his speech, adding that a soldier’s life consists in the service of the homeland – which means service to the death if necessary. This is more than just a phrase, as this is reality itself which we must come to terms with again.

“This vocation takes a whole person and requires complete dedication. When you joined the army you learnt this much. You undertook to experience soldiering, throwing in your lot with our troops. You became a member in a community of soldiers who are committed to serving their country and living their life in the military. Now that your life has come to an end, they are gathering around you to carry you", the Minister said.

“Your casket is covered with the flag of the nation. This is the flag of a nation for which you made the supreme sacrifice in the end. This community and this nation will remember you. You have joined the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian troops who were going ahead of you, treading the millennia-old path of our common history. You have joined those soldiers who lived their life and died for the homeland", Dr. Csaba Hende said.

“The whole country is in mourning", the Defence Minister stressed. “The Hungarian Defence Forces and all Hungarian citizens are standing by your husband and family. During the pitch-black night hours of shock and grief, each of us is seeking solace in what he or she believes, in God’s mercy or the power of a sense of vocation, being aware that you have lived a meaningful, beautiful life…A Hungarian servicewoman died in the line of duty, and another takes her place. We must keep moving on because the eternal law of military life dictates our mission, which is to carry on with our duties and to serve our homeland. We are moving on, but we will never forget you’, Dr. Csaba Hende said in his speech delivered in Kecskemét.

Posthumous Second-Lieutenant Judit Ábrahám Pappné, the war heroine of the Hungarian Defence Forces killed in action was buried at her native village Alacska, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in the afternoon of August 30.

Text: László Szûcs
Photo: Tünde Rácz