Promotion of 24 Albanian militaries at the New Jersey National Guard

: Published: Thursday, 31 July 2014 09:28

It was held in New Jersey the promotion ceremony of 24 Albanian militaries who studied in the pilot program at Officer Candidates School (OCS) of the New Jersey National Guard.
At the ceremony attended the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, Major General Jeronim Bazo, who is on an official visit to the United States of America. This visit is part of the successful military cooperation of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania with the New Jersey National Guard, as a U.S. partner state of Albania. During the visit, General Bazo held meetings with leaders of the New Jersey National Guard and visited some military bases this Guard.

Addressing the promoted militaries, Major General Jeronim Bazo said: “You have just kindled the “Olympic torch” of change, and you should know that the torch must continue to kindle as long as your Olympic journey continues. Your challenge is to keep the flame kindling and lead change and transformation of all the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania”, said Major General Bazo.

During the meeting with the Director of the Joint Staff of the New Jersey National Guard, Brigadier General Grant praised the successful partnership between the two Armed Forces during these two decades. He also highly assessed the high performance of the Albanian military that attended the program at OCS this Guard. General Grant stated that, “You can teach to a candidate everything is in the books, but you cannot teach “hart and desire”. Your candidates had them already there.”

24 cadets, officer candidates of the “Black Eagle 001”, were selected from the Armed Forces structures and have completed a special training program, for 13 weeks, trained at the Training Centre of the New Jersey National Guard, USA.