SVK CSELs assess the Training Year 2019 (TY19) results

In the presence of Chief of Defence Gen Daniel Zmeko, the SVK MOD Club in Bratislava hosted a meeting of SVK Command Senior Enlisted Leaders (CSELs), chaired by CSEL of the Slovak Armed Forces Sgt Maj Marcel Kaniak. In his speech, he assessed the Training Year 2019 (TY19) results of the NCO Corps and Other Ranks and set out the priorities that lie ahead this year.

In his address to CSELs, Gen Zmeko emphasised: “The NCO Corps forms not only the backbone of the armed forces, but also their hands and legs, because it carries the burden of the armed forces’ activity. Whether carrying out tasks at home or serving on missions and operations abroad. Personally speaking, I perceive the Training Year 2019 to be a success story and credit for this can, in large part, be attributed to NCOs. Take the 75th SNP Anniversary Parade in Banská Bystrica or Ex Slovak Shield, for example. This year, too, they will undertake a range of challenging tasks, whereas training will culminate with Ex Slovak Shield in November 2020.”

As part of the meeting’s programme, the Training and Mobilisation Manning Base Martin’s senior enlisted leader Sgt Maj Miroslav Dulaj, the first NCO from the Eastern Bloc to have served as CSEL of the NATO School in Oberammergau (NSO) last year, delivered a presentation on modern education and the possibilities of implementing it within the armed forces. Our current representative at the NATO School, Sgt Maj Jozef Antolík, introduced the courses and educational opportunities on offer for SVK NCOs. And Deputy Commandant of the NCO Academy Martin Sgt Maj Ján Čmelík briefed on the OR-5 and OR-6 NCO courses. In the follow-up discussion, they focused on the efficiency of basic military training (BMT) and the said career development courses.

Highlighting the opportunities this specialist gathering with the participation of all CSELs from across the Slovak Armed Forces offers, CSEL of the Slovak Armed Forces Sgt Maj Marcel Kaniak said: “It is a welcome forum for sharing knowledge and expertise. As well as new practices so that they can be applied throughout their home units. That is why we have adopted a new modern educational form of an assignment. Our aim is not to resolve all the problems that we have within the NCO Corps at once, but to widen the horizons of NCOs to put at least some of the knowledge they have gained into real-life practice. And to learn to seek solutions to problems within their capacities and not to wait for someone else to offer solutions to their problems in the unit.”