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KFOR’s Magazine July 2021 VEHICLES OF KFOR 1 CONTENT PAPA COY - Following A Historic Letter from the Editor 3 14 Tradition Hungary Donates Vaccines to Fight 4 KTRBN BTR-80 16 Against Covid 19 6 “We fix everything that hums” 18 NATO Sec Gen visits KFOR HQ The Toughest Challenge-DANCON Snapshots 8 Jul 21 20 It’s the Experience that Counts - CSM Corner 10 Austrian Contingent in KFOR 22 12 Interview With KTRBN COM 23 HAVE YOUR SAY - KFOR XXV YEARBOOK Commander KFOR XXV Design & Layout Just send your photos to: Major General Mr. Afrim Hajrullahu [email protected] Franco Federici, Italian Army Photographer by the 20th of the month explaining where you took Lazzaro Cutrone the photo and what equipment you used. We will then Chief Public Affairs Office & OR-4 Italian Army COMKFOR Spokesperson select one of the submitted images and publish it in the Lt Col Antonio Minutella, E-mail and Web next edition of the Chronicle. A the Chronicle T-Shirt is Italian Army [email protected] awarded each month to the winning photographer. http://jfcnaples.nato.int/kfor Chief Internal Information & You will be immortalised in the Chronicle! Editor the Chronicle Printed by “Blendi” Is that not something to be proud of? Comdt Aidan Ryan Tel.: 044 149 115 Irish Defence Forces Sincerely, [email protected] The Chronicle Team. NATO (20) Nations within KFOR Albania, Bulgaria, Canada,Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. Non-NATO (8) Nations Armenia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Moldova, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine. The Chronicle is produced and fully funded by HQ KFOR. It is published for KFOR soldiers and civilians in the area of responsibility. The contents are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the coalition governments’ defence departments. Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the Internal Information Section of HQ KFOR’s Public Affairs Office (PAO) in Pristina, Kosovo. PAO HQ KFOR reserves the right to edit content to conform to style and space requirements. Articles are run on a space-available basis. Articles appearing in the Chronicle may be duplicated in official NATO publications subject to KFOR PAO authorisation. 2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR elcome to this month’s edition of the KFOR Chronicle. This month Wour main feature goes to the vehicles of KFOR, the workhorses that propel us on our journey each day, but these vehicles without drivers and maintenance would be wothless. This month we carry articles from those who maintain and use our vehicles on a daily basis, keeping the mission moving. The toughest challenge took place in July, whereby the DANCON march was held in in Camp Nolo Selo. We bring to you an article about the grueling heat, the difficult terrain, but the sense of self satisfaction from all of those who completed it. The main interview for this month is with Lt Col Fekets, the KTRBN COM; here Lt Col Fekets talks about the issues faced when preparing for a deployment during the Covid-19 Pandemic and the challenges that he faces daily in trying to keep the mission Reserve operational on daily basis. July was a special month for KFOR, as Hungary donated thousands of Comdt Aidan RYAN, Chief Internal vaccines to the civilian staff of the mission in order to protect them Information, PAO. against Covid-19. The article featured here outlines the delivery of the vaccines by the Hungarian Minister of Defence for distribution to the civilian staff of the mission. There are also loads more articles and information pieces that took place throughout the last month. Finally this edition asks for your input into the Yearbook, coming out in a couple of months. The theme of this year’s book is – “KFOR XXV in 25 words” and we would like to invite you to submit the words that you feel best represent your experience of KFOR XXV. For more information check out page 23. We really hope you enjoy reading this month’s edition and we look forward to seeing your input into the yearbook. Sincerely Your KFOR HQ PAO team. 3 STORY OF THE MONTH KTRBN BTR-80 THE VEHICLE The BTR-80 can climb a slope with up to 60% gradient and climb a vertical step of 0.5 m. The BTR-80 is an 8×8 wheeled, amphibious, Armoured THE CREW Personnel Carrier (APC). It has a single 260hp V-8 turbocharged, water-cooled diesel engine. The rear The driver portion of the hull accommodates the single engine. Standard equipment includes TNPO vision blocks, My name is OR-4 Henrik Molnár-Annus, I am serving TNP-B and TKN-3 optical devices for the driver and in the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF) 25th Infantry commander, an OU-3GA2M infrared search light, Brigade, 1st Infantry Battalion, 1st Infantry Company. six 81 mm smoke grenade launchers 902V “Tucha”, My role since 2016 is as an APC driver in the 1st a radioset (R-173 or R-163-50U), an intercom, and Platoon. It’s my 2nd deployment to KFOR. Currently hydrojets for amphibious propulsion. I’m a driver in B COY, 2nd Platoon. My primary tasks are patrolling and participating in my company’s The cone turret allows for the 14.5 mm (0.57 in) KPVT training exercises. On patrol duties I drive the squad and coaxial 7.62 mm (0.3 in) PKT machine guns to commander’s vehicle, in CRC exercises I’m a member be elevated to a maximum of 60 degrees. This high of the detaining team. The biggest challenge is angle of fire is useful in engaging targets on steep not just the responsibility for my vehicle’s combat slopes, in urban fighting, and for engaging low, slow readiness but also for the safety of the soldiers that flying air targets. The turret also includes firing ports, I carry inside. the forward firing ports sit in angled recesses, which allows infantry to fire to the front of the vehicle. The vehicle commander The side doors are split horizontally with the upper My name is OR-4 József Kocsis, I’m serving at Tata 25th portion opening forward; this gives dismounting Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Battalion, 1st Infantry troops some protection against small arms fire from Company. In my home unit I’m an APC gunner on the front of the vehicle. The lower portion opens the BTR-80/A. This is my 2nd deployment to KFOR down, forming a step. Six smoke grenade projectors as a deputy squad leader. My primary tasks in this are mounted on the rear of the turret. deployment is to look after my fire team, their fighting capability, their motivation and the maintenance of their equipment. OR-4 MOLNÁR-ANNUS & OR-4 KOCSIS 4 KTRBN BTR-80 The gunner My name is OR-2 Kirill Sejlinger, I serve as a BTR-80 gunner in the KTRBN A Coy. My training was 6 weeks long at Tata. We provide fire support for the Infantry Squad. At home, in the HDF 25th Infantry Brigade we use 2 types of mounted guns, the 14,5 mm KPVT heavy machine gun and the 30 mm 2A72 auto cannon. It’s good to be in KFOR and to develop my skills, as our APCs are here and I can train almost every day. The technician My name is OR-8 Zoltán Vass, I’m the technician in the KTRBN A OR-2 EJLINGER Coy. I started my military career in 1996 as a company technician NCO in the 25th Mechanised Infantry Brigade. My task here is to maintain the HMMWVs, trucks and APCs in my company. Every week I have to make a thorough inspection of our vehicles. I like my job, because it’s interesting and I can learn something new each day. Linda SZÖKE OF-1 HUN-A KTRBN PAO OR-8 VASS 5 STORY OF THE MONTH “We fix everything that hums„ SWISSCOY’s maintenance group is responsible for ensuring that around 250 pieces of equipment, including all vehicles, are in working order. In Kosovo, the ten mechanics are on their own when it comes to repairs. That’s why they can use their mechanic skills all the more in military operations. our mechanics work diligently on various vehicles. well as new work experience. “Because we don’t FIn the large workshop halls, in mid summer it repair normal passenger cars, but especially off-road becomes exceptionally hot. There are two off-road vehicles, and we can only work with the tools we vehicles and a truck in the hall, the radio is playing have, I’m learning some new things.” pop music in the background. It’s a snapshot of what you’d see in a car garage. You would think you were Greater independence in Switzerland if the vehicles were not prominently Sergeant Marek Schär is the supervisor of the labelled “KFOR” and if the men were not wearing maintenance group as well as workshop chief. He Swiss army uniforms. quickly summarised what work falls within their remit: “Everything that has an engine and breaks Mechanics in uniform down has to work again afterwards.” A typical job, he On one of the two off-road vehicles, Soldier Pascal says, is repairing chassis damage, because the road Hauser was replacing the shock absorber bearing. conditions in Kosovo are worse than in Switzerland, As a trained car mechanic he flew to Kosovo with the or overhauling the drives. That may sound simple, 44th SWISSCOY contingent in April.