Some of them were chaplains, some of them – teachers, but most of them were Company Sergeant Majors. A one-day visit to the Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (HQ MNC NE) of the German-French group was paid on 18th June 2008.
A group of 31 visitors came from Fassburg in Germany, where an air base is located. Basically speaking, they represented a Technical School of German Air Force, Army Aviation Regiment 10 and a French-German Technical School for a new battle helicopter Tiger.
Visitors took part in a briefing delivered by LtCol. Specht, who in fact served at the Army Aviation Regiment 10. The Corps’ history, structure and main tasks were presented as well as a recent ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The leader of the group Achim Sasse, a catholic military chaplain, emphasized that he was not aware that there are more than three nations contributing to the Corps. It was also interesting to him to listen about the MNC NE participation in the mission in Afghanistan.
The majority of the visitors were Company Sergeant Majors, both active ad retired. Their main task is leading all Non-Commissioned Officers. They are also responsible for among other things training and development. The role of Company Sergeant Majors is especially important for military chaplains because they are the source of knowledge of soldiers’ problems. They are a kind of link enhancing chaplains’ work. Therefore, once a year military chaplains organise a one-week gathering for all Company Sergeant Majors to thank them for help and support. Lead is taken in turns, either by a catholic or a protestant chaplain. This year it is the catholic military chaplain Achim Sasse who chairs the event. It is also important to notice that each year’s meeting is organised under one theme, for example last year it was visiting sites of historical importance in Berlin. This year it is learning about development of Christianity in the area of Baltic Pomern.
