Camp Butmir, Sarajevo today saw the Change of Command for EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion (MNBN). COMEUFOR, Major General Reinhard Trischak, handed the colours of the MNBN from Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Steingress to Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Wilfing to signify the Change of Command.
The outgoing Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Steingress has served at the unit for 7 months and will be returning to Austria to take up a post as the Commander of the 13th armored infantry battalion. He said today about his time working in EUFOR; “I had the unique opportunity to lead companies, soldiers from different nations. They were professional, highly motivated, well trained and equipped for the mission. A highlight was the participation in Exercise Quick Response 2020, together with the BiH Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies. And although my tour of duty faced restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I did not have a single coronavirus infected soldier in the battalion.”
Members of the Multinational Battalion are very often the public face of EUFOR and have primary responsibility on behalf of EUFOR to respond in time of need.
The incoming Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Wilfing serves in Austria as the deputy commander of the 26th mountain infantry battalion and brings experience from four deployments to international peace support operations. He said:
“I am very proud to stand in front of you as the new Commander of the EUFOR Multinational Battalion. Leading a battalion is not only an honour, but comes also with challenges and great responsibility. My aim is to keep up the high standards operating under the motto ‘One Mission, One Team’.”
The change of command of EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion was also the occasion to decorate 130 soldiers with the EU common security and defence policy medal for Operation EUFOR Althea to formally acknowledge the contribution the soldiers on parade made to the success of EUFOR. The medal is engraved with the Latin phrase ‘Pro Pace Unum’, meaning ‘United for Peace’.
