Two months after signing the Note of Accession, on 11 August 2009 Slovenian Flag Rising Ceremony took place. Since that moment Slovenia officially became eleventh member state of the Multinational Corps Northeast.
After all guests and media’s representatives arrived, at 9:00 a.m. o’clock Flag Rising Ceremony started with speech delivered by Lieutenant General Zdzisław Goral, Commander of Multinational Corps Northeast, who welcomed first Slovenian serviceman - Major Robert Smerdu and in his speech underlined the fact that Szczecin Headquarters offers a unique chance to continue the integration and to bring together all members of NATO – old ones and new ones.
After Commander’s speech a trumpeter announced the raising of the Slovenian flag with a melody typical to such moments. When the flag was run up, it started to flutter among the ten other flags of the Corps’ member states as well as next to the one of NATO and Szczecin – the Corps’ Headquarters garrison city.
Major Robert Smerdu is the first Slovenian representative who starts his service at the Headquarters (HQ). Next week First Sergant Dusan Ivancic is expected to come. Both of them are going to man positions in the Operational (G-3) Division. To strengthen Slovenian group next year third soldier is going to be welcomed in HQ.
Asked for his impressions Maj Smerdu told that he felt happy and also proud to be selected as a first Slovenian officer to come to HQ.
Flag Rising Ceremony is next event which proves that multinational character of the Corps is not only a part of its name but also the fact of everyday service. From the beginning, ambition of the Multinational Corps Northeast was to enrol new countries to its ranks and, as an effect, to enlarge its family. Firstly there were only 3 founding countries – Denmark, Germany and Poland. However, since April 2004 number of flags fluttering in HQ started to rise. Apart from founding countries Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, United States and finally Slovenia are currently the Corps’ member states.
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