NCOs Thinking in Community

Senior Warrant Officer Tamás Zsiros, Commander, HDF NCO Academy NCO Training Centre, said that the conference primarily tries to create an opportunity for sharing the lessons learned among NATO member states. He recalled that the success of the first conference held in the Hungarian capital last July made it clear that the unit should also organize the International Conference of NCO Academies for a second time.

“Last year, representatives arrived from five countries, while this year, from thirteen countries. Our series of events is developing; an increasing number of foreign NCOs become interested. Additionally, now leading NCOs are present such as the senior enlisted leaders of the United States Army in Europe, the Royal Air Force, the command sergeant majors of the NATO school and those of the neighbouring countries, including the V4 countries” – he said.

“We introduce them to our modern and powerful armed forces with the new capabilities, which we integrate into the courses at the NCO Academy” – said Senior Warrant Officer Zsiros, who also told us that the delegations visited the Bálna Defence Centre, the HDF 1st EOD and Riverine Guard Regiment and participated in the NCO graduation ceremony in Heroes Square, among other programs.

“I find it important that our international guests see the graduation ceremony of the Hungarian NCOs because nothing can show more complexly what a great honour it is to our young NCOs that they can graduate at the heart of the capital before an audience of thousands of civilians” – he added, underlining that the series of events of the next summer will also be adjusted to the date of the NCO graduation ceremony.

Spanish Chief Warrant Officer Angel Peiró did not represent the Spanish Army alone. “The most important thing in my perspective is to know each other and to learn from each other because we do not have a unique system in NATO doing things” – he said. According to Sergeant First Class Peiró, the most significant is that the NCOs of the partner states strive to understand each other and get the best out of each other, especially in periods filled with war and conflicts such as this one. “In the end, what we have to achieve is interoperability. So, the way to achieve interoperability is knowing and learning from each other” – he added.

According to Sergeant First Class Sara Catterall, serving with the Strategic Command of the British Armed Forces, the International Conference of NCO Academies is fundamental because “it helps us better understand each other and helps us see what our strengths and weaknesses are”. She said that later, during the joint work under the aegis of NATO, the knowledge acquired here will definitely promote not only development but also growing trust. “It is great to be here with everybody, and that particularly how many international people are here” – she concluded.