News

The Joint Force Training Centre’s capabilities and future cooperation were the main topics of the two visits hosted by the Centre recently. On 30 January, Mr. Jan Olsen, the Deputy Director General in the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, accompanied by Colonel Oivind Christensen, the Norwegian Defence Attaché in Poland, met with Major General Pavel Macko, the JFTC Commander and on 31 January and 1 February Major General Bogusław Samol, the new Commander of the Multinational Corps North-East (MNC NE) in Szczecin, Poland, paid his first visit to the JFTC.

Four battalion level Military Advisory Teams (MAT) and five district Police Advisory Teams (PAT) from Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia have just finished preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan. Between 9 and 23 January 2013 the Joint Multinational Readiness Centre (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany conducted the Combined Kandak MAT / District PAT Training Event 13-01.

In Bydgoszcz every January is marked with two significant anniversaries. On 20 January the Joint Force Training Centre’s Host City celebrates the Anniversary of the Return of Bydgoszcz to the Motherland in 1920 and four days later the citizens of Bydgoszcz commemorate the Anniversary of the Liberation of Bydgoszcz from German Occupation in 1945. Traditionally the JFTC representations join the authorities of the City during the municipal ceremonies. So it was this year.

With close to 100 guests, including several members of Polish Parliament, Mrs. Ewa Mes, the Voivode of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province, Mr. Rafał Bruski, the Mayor of Bydgoszcz, numerous representatives of military and civilian organizations, the Joint Force Training Centre inaugurated another busy year.

Close to 100 pupils from the International School of Bydgoszcz (ISOB) accompanied by their parents and teachers closed the year 2012 at the Joint Force Training Centre’s compound. They met there to celebrate Christmas and to express wishes for the New Year. The event took place on 21 December.

Close to 150 children, gathered together with their parents at the JFTC, were impatiently waiting for this message. Finally Santa Claus arrived with a sleigh filled with Christmas gifts. Happily, all the children turned out to be good throughout the year.

The end of 2012 was very busy for the Joint Force Training Centre’s Staff. Apart from the ISAF Regional Command North Training Event that was held in Bydgoszcz during the final weeks of the year, a group of the JFTC members was deployed to the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany, where they supported the Kandak (battalion) level Military Advisory Team (MAT) and Police Advisory Team (PAT) Training Event 12-04. The event was held between 22 November and 13 December 2012.

German, US and other national officers currently taking up command posts in the ISAF mission have benefited from an innovative training conducted by NATO’s centres in Bydgoszcz and Stavanger, enabled by support from the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency.

With the end of the ISAF Regional Command North Training Event (RC N TE) 13-01, the Joint Force Training Centre completed its mission for 2012. The RC N TE was held at the Centre between 26 November and 12 December. It was the third training of this kind conducted by the JFTC this year. This time the RC N TE was an integral part of a wider project - the Unified Endeavour 13-1.

The UE 13-1 was a multi-tiered exercise. It allowed future International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Headquarters (HQ), ISAF Joint Command (IJC) HQ, Regional Command East (RC E) HQ, Regional Command North HQ (RC N) and Sustainment Brigades Staff to train simultaneously from different locations. The JFTC was represented in three of them: in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, USA, where the future RC E HQ members were trained before their deployment to Afghanistan, in Grafenwoehr, Germany, with a group of Liaison Officers as members of the Combined Exercise Control Group (CECG) and in Bydgoszcz, with a team replicating the RC N Response Cell and a link to RC N TE 13/01.