How do you assess where the active advance has gone in twenty years?
When we set up the backups, we did not expect there to be interest. We have experienced good and bad times and now is a very good time for active backups. To illustrate – 15 people from our unit have now been awarded for twenty years of service.
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Good time? Because the war in Ukraine opened their eyes?
That too, there is definitely a greater societal demand. But the main thing is that both the political and military leadership wants the advance. When we started, we were just an experiment for two years because there was no law under which we could operate. Then a voluntary deposit was created. Then we were with the units, a bit illegally, because military spending was falling. We are now part of the army and it is visible.
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Chief of General Staff Ales Abbot once promised not to distinguish between professionals and midfielders, so he fulfilled it?
Certainly. This has always been the case with our tankers, but some disregard has been seen in other units. It’s not long ago and we’re one big bunch right now.
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How did you get active backups?
Through military history. My friends and I organized Bahna, and in 1999 General Šedivý came to see us that they were preparing a project of voluntary advances and exercises. So I went for it.
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Did you have experience with the army?
As a college student, I graduated from the military department and was a reserve lieutenant, called a twine, and then I was in the war for a year.
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What are you doing in civilian clothes?
I was a civil engineer. But I have been employed by Czechoslovakia for five years. legionary community as managing secretary. It’s great when my hobby at the end of a productive life became my job.
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What do you say that the army leadership counts on missions for missions, specifically to Slovakia?
A few midfielders were already on the mission in Afghanistan. It’s the next step and it’s fine. But let’s not forget that in the past, the midfielders went on missions. E.g. UNPROFOR troops in the countries of the former Yugoslavia had a number of reservists. And I think the young midfielders will welcome it now.
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I know that a lot of people went to the advances to experience adventure and in a way take a break from work and family. Has the war in Ukraine not changed this well-being?
You are right. It can be relaxation, especially when you work mentally. But now we had an exercise and no one said he wanted to quit. Although we all see those tanks stripped of leather, which doesn’t look good.
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It’s not about going somewhere to fight, it’s about defending your homeland. That’s why most of us go for it. Because the Czech nation, when it feels threatened, will come together. Plus, when you’re ready, you’re more likely to survive. Recently, I have felt that the advance service is becoming almost a prestigious affair.
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Young people come to us because they have a relationship with it, and they don’t run away right away, because it takes two years before they go through training and shoot out of a tank. So it’s not to try to be like Rambo, but to relate to it, either to technology or to patriotism.
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