On 15th December 2006 the Change of Command Ceremony at the Baltic Barracks took place. Lieutenant Egon Ramms handed over the command to Lieutenant General Zdzisław Goral.
The ceremony was held in the Pomeranian Square at the Baltic Barracks. Though the weather was not necessarily favorable, the atmosphere was warmed up by the Guard of Honour, which consisted of Danish, German and Polish military bands. There were also colour guards who were holding the Corps’ flag and the flags of the framework nations.
Gen. Ramms delivered an introductory speech, in which he recalled his tour of duty, successes of the Corps and his personal feelings about Szczecin and Poland.
The ceremony was executed by the chairman of the Corps Committee, the Danish Chief of Defence, General Jesper Helsø, the Commander of the Polish Land Forces Command, Lieutenant General Waldemar Skrzypczak and the Chief of the German Army, Lieutenant General Hans Otto Budde. After gen. Helsø’s speech the symbolic change of command took place. Gen. Ramms took the Corps’ flag from the Guard of Honour and handed it over to gen. Helsø. Then gen. Helsø released him from the command of MNC NE and faced gen. Goral. With the words ‘Sir, I take over command of MNC NE’ and with the Corps’ flag in his hands, gen. Goral became the new Commander of Multinational Corps Northeast. This moment was commemorated by two jet fighters Sukhoi SU-22 that flew over the Baltic Barracks. Subsequently the new Commander addressed the Corps with a speech in which he expressed his gratitude for being appointed Commander MNC NE and for the tremendous effort of the whole Corps to achieve Full Operation Capability and prepare for the mission in Afghanistan.
The second part of the ceremony was held in the gym where a reception was given to all guests. Apart from short speeches delivered by both old and new Commander, Voivode of Westpomerania, Robert Krupowicz addressed the audience. During the ceremony gen. Ramms was decorated with the Medal of Multinational Corps Northeast and the medal on behalf of the Polish Minister of Defence. Gen. Ramms also received a sword from the Commander of the Polish Land Forces Command, Lieutenant General Waldemar Skrzypczak.
Lieutenant General Egon Ramms started his tour of duty on 18th February 2004 as the third Commander of Multinational Corps Northeast. During his tour of duty the Corps passed the Full Operation Capability (FOC) test and started to prepare for the mission in Afghanistan. At the moment gen. Ramms is a commanding officer at JFC in Brunssum, Holand. JFC Brunssum is the Operational Command for the Afghanistan mission thus gen. Ramms will be supervising the mission itself and his previous subordinates from MNC NE.
The Command Group of the Corps is to rotate every three years. However, due to the fact that the Corps is preparing for the mission in Afghanistan, the Corps Committee has decided to shorten the Corps Commander and Chief of Staff’s tours of duty 15 and 14 December 2006 respectively to allow the successors to get prepared for the mission. It is important to state that representatives from three framework nations always constitute the Command Group. Therefore, when the Polish Chief of Staff Brigadier General Henryk Skarzynski handed over to German successor Brigadier General Josef Heinrichs on 14th December 2006, the outgoing German Commander was to be succeeded by a Pole.
