Danish Brigadier General Morten Danielsson started his tour of duty as the Chief of Staff of Multinational Corps Northeast after the military ceremony held in Baltic Barracks on 26 May 2010.
The personnel of the Garrison Headquarters, National Support Elements, Headquarters Company as well as the Commander of the Command Support Brigade gathered in Baltic Barracks to bid farewell to the outgoing acting Chief of Staff Colonel Peter Steinert, deputizing Brigadier General Josef Heinrichs who has gone on the ISAF mission to Afghanistan, and greet the new Chief of Staff of Multinational Corps Northeast Danish Brigadier General Morten Danielsson.“I’d like to thank all those of you who supported and helped me throughout the last four months,” Colonel Peter Steinert said to all the gathered. “I enjoyed very much cooperating with all of you regardless to rank, service, skills, background, education or nation,” he added. He also explained that he would continue his tour of duty at the Headquarters at another post.
“Brigadier General Danielsson is a man of profound military experience,” the Commander of Multinational Corps Northeast Lieutenant General Rainer Korff introduced the new Chief of Staff to the personnel presenting facts about his military career. The Commander emphasized General Danielsson’s previous relations to the Corps: “He became experienced in the complexities of staff work in the MNC NE as Chief Military Assistant between 2001 and 2004. So he is familiar with the Baltic Barracks, the procedures and also with the city of Szczecin. (…) Besides Copenhagen, Szczecin is the city he knows best,” General Korff said. The Commander also addressed Colonel Steinert and thanked him for being a good coordinator, a loyal staff worker and a very good interpreter of Commander’s intentions.
After the military ceremonial of taking over the duties and responsibilities, General Danielsson took the floor as the new Chief of Staff. “I feel at home here,” he said referring to his previous experiences with the Headquarters and Szczecin. He also touched upon his new tasks as Chief of Staff and said: “I have learnt that it is very wise to put your fingers into the ground and wait some time to find out how the machine is working. And a good old saying is: ‘if the machine ain’t broken, don’t fix it’ and this is the principle I will follow, at least at the beginning.” He added that he will present his visions and changes to be implemented at the Corps as soon as all staff procedures can be felt “under the skin”.
General Danielsson admitted that coming back to Szczecin and Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast was his big dream. “What I really love about this Headquarters is its multinational environment,” he said and explained that dealing with different ideas representatives of various countries have, makes you wiser. Referring to his personal expectations related to the new post he said: “My expectations are that I will be more experienced and more open to other cultures, and perhaps I will learn the Polish language a little bit."
