Interview with Col. Erik B. Bruhn, an outgoing Chief of G-1 Division, conducted in the last week of his service at the Multinational Corps Northeast.
Anna Gałyga: Sir, is that true that you are a magician?
Col. Bruhn: Yes, it is true. I was almost a professional magician until September 1968 when I went to the barracks in Aarhus starting as a recruit and changed my half-professional magic life into a hobby and it has been a hobby since. But when I close the door in my office on Friday, I will start again in the same branch as a magician and a manager for some of the artists.
Have you been using any elements of this art during your work?
No, I would say it is vice versa. I learnt as an officer to stand in front of an audience, talk to people and be sure that I have their attention – that part of the military training has helped me in how to sell a good magic trick.
I thought you maybe used your skills in dealing with personnel matters…
Unfortunately not. The military life is very non-magic. It is only hard work, no easy solutions whatsoever.
What do you consider your greatest successes as Chief G-1 Division?
I think it was the change of conditions for the Locally Employed Personnel. A very old system has been changed and we have built up the regulations starting with a piece of blank paper. Now we have the system in line with the tendencies and regulations that are outside the fence in the civilian world. Then, another success was that I had responsibility for the personnel matters, e.g. the in-processing, and Press and Information branch when we went to Full Operational Capabilities and it is not a secret that we passed.
What will you remember most from the time spent in Szczecin and the Corps?
The traffic in Szczecin (laughing).
What kind of memories will you take back home?
The first lesson is that people do not do things here as we do it at home. The second lesson is that they succeed anyway…I have learnt that there are a lot of different ways of coming from A to B and it is not always the rule that I know beforehand what the best way is. I also learnt that multinational headquarters have a lot of talents and the art of being a manager or a leader here is to find out where the talents are and make them work in the same direction. I think the headquarters will continue working this way because people can do things that are not possible in national headquarters.
What was the importance of mission in Afghanistan for you?
That was a fine end of my career as a colonel to go to Afghanistan just before my pension and a nice way of looking back on my service. For this Headquarters it was the time when the three Framework Nations had a chance to prove that their idea of creating the Corps like ours was a good idea and that the headquarters is now not only qualified but also experienced. The thing is that now we are looking forward to the next ISAF mission in 2010, and we are not looking any longer at the original good, old article V Operation with two divisions in front and one in reserve. From that perspective, the mission in Afghanistan was a new stepping stone to the new future for the Corps.
Sir, what are you going to do when you finish your service as ACOS G-1?
When I finish my duty here, I will start working back in Denmark as a manager for some magicians and producers of magic articles in a little booking bureau in a big amusement park called Bakken, which is close to Copenhagen.
That is really interesting, what will you be doing there?
I will make sure that the magicians and other artists will get their appointments, I will promote them and work as a booking bureau for them. In so-called show business there is 50% show and 50% business. You might be a big artist but it is not sure that you will be able to do your finance part of the game at the same time. That will be part of my job.
Will you have your own shows?
The first idea was that I was not going to do any shows only to promote the others but it is possible that I will start working as a magician again.
Have you got any kind of message you would like to forward to people staying at the Corps?
Be more multinational and less national and remember that this Corps is a unique chance to do exactly what you want to, because the Framework Nations are very open for new ideas. Invent solutions that tailor exactly to this special place. There is no need to have all solutions copied from Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) from other Corps, some of them are good enough, other need to be refined so it is better to start with a blank piece of paper rather than correct dates and words.
But it is more difficult then…
Much more difficult but if there is a chance, it should be taken.
