On Friday, a ceremony was held at the Home of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AS BiH) in Sarajevo on the occasion of the promotion of the 10th class of non-commissioned officers of the AS BiH to professional military service.
The official promotion ceremony of non-commissioned officers of the SBiH was attended by BiH Minister of Defense Zukan Helez with deputies, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of BiH, Lieutenant General Senad Mašović with deputies, commanders of brigades and commands of the Armed Forces of BiH, and representatives of international organizations in BiH, NATO Headquarters Sarajevo and EUFOR.
Helez said that today’s ceremony promoted the 10th class of non-commissioned officers who passed from the rank of soldiers to the rank of non-commissioned officers, thus continuing the training of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“This class of non-commissioned officers has 59 members, of which 50 are men and nine are women, so we also meet that standard, which the representatives of the NATO alliance put before us. This will be improved in the future in favor of women. It is an honor and pleasure that the Armed Forces of BiH they follow the standards of the NATO alliance and every day they are more operational and more capable. Recently, we also have financial support from international organizations, especially when it comes to the defense and security system. At the summit in Madrid, we received help of about 54 million euros, and that slowly is starting to arrive, which will make the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina more ready and able to respond to any task that the generals and politics put before them,” Helez said.
Colonel General Mašović stated that such promotions represent one of the most important needs of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the permanent filling and obtaining of the highest quality personnel for the needs of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“What is most important in all of this is that all these 59 candidates who attended training and successfully completed it are actually members of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina who were accepted into the category of soldiers and who, through their work, professionalism, enthusiasm, and dedication, have actually shown that they are deserved to be transferred from the category of soldiers to the category of non-commissioned officers”, said Mašović.
He pointed out that they want to give new opportunities to the members of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have shown excellent results in their work as soldiers.
“We, within Bosnia and Herzegovina, do not have academies, but we have training centers and through these centers and the improvement of the training centers’ capacity, we create the personnel needed by the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today they are non-commissioned officers, tomorrow they are officers,” Mašović emphasized, adding that until the end this year they expect to receive an additional 140 non-commissioned officers into professional military service.
Sergeant Igor Samardžić, who comes from the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Brigade from Bileća, is one of those who completed non-commissioned officer training in Travnik. As he said, the sergeants have 12 difficult and challenging weeks behind them, in which they invested a lot of effort, work and sacrifice in order to be promoted to NCOs of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“From the previous classes, I had knowledge about the training and the thematic content of the training. I was ready to respond to all the challenges that were set. We have reached the level where we are ready to take care of people, that is, to guide soldiers to the completion of their tasks.” said Samardzic.
Sergeant Sunčica Cernat from Sarajevo, who has been in the army since 2011, told everyone who likes this calling to apply for every competition as soon as possible.
“This is the most beautiful thing I could have chosen in my life and I am proud of myself and the 10th class of these non-commissioned officers who all passed on recommendation. We were, not to sound jargon, in a crunch with age. Our average was ten years of work in service. I would like to thank all the instructors in Travnik for the imparted knowledge, for their willingness to help us at every moment,” said Cernat.
