PROGRAMS & EVENTS 2009
Strong Partners - at Home and Abroad
On August 17, 2009, senior military and civilian leaders from Hungary and the U.S. officially welcomed the first combined Hungarian-U.S. (Ohio National Guard) Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) on its return from Afghanistan. The team had just completed a year assignment together. The welcome took place in Szolnok in front of a large crowd in the town square.
OMLTs are an important component of the NATO-ISAF strategy in Afghanistan. Their mission is to partner with an Afghan National Army (ANA) unit and share their expertise, while at the same time learning from their ANA counterparts. Many ISAF member nations have deployed OMLTs in Afghanistan, where they are helping the ANA to become a force which builds a secure nation, with effective, legitimate governance and free from the scourge of terrorism.
The Hungarian-U.S. (OHNG) team grew out of a strong partnership in many areas, several of which take place through the State Partnership Program between Hungary and the U.S. state of Ohio. Like a "sister-city" program on a larger scale, this is a set of initiatives in business, education, government, and military fields designed to find and develop mutually beneficial areas of cooperation. As NATO-ISAF developed the concept of OMLTs in recent years, senior Hungarian and US leaders realized that this was a natural "win-win" for both, and so this partnership began, and is continuing.
At the ceremony in Szolnok, senior leaders from both nations congratulated the team on this historic first, and on the high standard of performance they had achieved in this challenging mission. They also noted how the combined OMLT, in which Hungary is the lead nation and the U.S. the supporting partner, grew from the strong and vital Hungarian-U.S. partnership.