Brigadier General Josef Heinrichs, Chief of Staff Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast, together with Chiefs of G-2 and G-3 Divisions visited the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces on 5th February to present the Corps’ experience from Afghanistan. However, it was not the only aim of the trip.
Sharing experiences from ISAF
Since the MNC NE personnel completed a 6-month mission in Afghanistan in 2007, their experiences have been valuable to many. The General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces in Warsaw also wished to get familiarized with them. Therefore a delegation from the Corps took part in a quarterly meeting of branch heads and above to update and coordinate the overall staff work. Our experts briefed on our lessons learned from the ISAF deployment focusing on two areas. A German Col. Klaus Finck presented operational issues and the process of training and preparing for the mission as well as mission-related conclusions. A Polish Col. Jerzy Fela briefed on purely Polish matters concerning among other things Polish regulations. Both presentations were followed by very constructive discussions.
Polish General Staff’s representatives at the Corps Committee
The presence of the Corps’ Chief of Staff BrigGen Heinrichs at the General Staff was related to a change of Polish representation at the Corps Committee, a supervising body for the Headquarters. Previously the Polish Land Forces Command assigned their representatives to Corps Committee meetings. This, however, has been changed and it is now the General Staff of Polish Armed Forces that will send their delegates to attend cyclical meetings of the Corps Committee. The next session with the General Staff being represented will be held in March 2008.
On that occasion BrigGen Heinrichs met Vice Admiral Tomasz Mathea, Deputy Chief of the General Staff. BrigGen Heinrichs stated that the Corps’ delegation was well received and the results of talks were very fruitful. As he said, the meeting with the Admiral “was scheduled for 20 minutes, but it actually lasted 45 minutes, so we could address points like manning, affiliation of troops, support to our exercise Crystal Eagle or our professional development lectures”. BrigGen Heinrichs emphasized that both sides were very pleased with the meeting and that is a good starting point for future cooperation.
