December
16, 2005 will mark the tenth anniversary of U.S. troop presence at the
military air base near the southwestern Hungarian village of Taszár.
The Taszár airfield, NATO's first military base in former Warsaw Pact
territory, was offered as a staging area and training center to the U.S.
military and NATO by the Hungarian Government in 1995, prior to the
peacemaking efforts in Bosnia.
At
the time Hungary was not yet a member of the North Atlantic alliance and
the Government took on no small risk when a retaliatory strike by the
Yugoslav military against the country, or against ethnic Hungarians
living in the Voivodina province of Serbia, could not be excluded.
The
former Soviet air base was chosen by NATO and the U.S. military
because of its ideal location as a transportation hub, its first-rate
facilities, and its closeness to the Yugoslav border. The base had
a dual role as a staging point and a recreational area for American
forces in the Balkans. The first commander of the air base
was General George W. Casey, currently the Commanding General of
the Multi-National Force Iraq.
The
U.S. military kept up its presence at Taszár throughout Hungary’s
entry into NATO in 1999. Immediately afterwards the base was used
as a launching pad for American aircraft during the Kosovo air campaign.
In
December 2002, the air base became the site for Task Force Warrior under
the command of General David Barno, marking the third time in eight
years that American forces had used Taszár for a military mission.
Taszár served as a training facility for the Free Iraqi Forces (FIF)
– Iraqi opposition volunteers – prior and during the military
operations against Saddam Hussein's Iraq by Coalition forces, of which
Hungary was a part. The Free Iraqi Forces trained at Taszár
joined U.S. forces in April 2003 to act as liaison officers between the
Army and the locals and to help international humanitarian efforts in
Iraq. The training of the Iraqi opposition volunteers highlighted
Hungarian-U.S. cooperation in the War on Terrorism.
The
American presence at the air base came to an end in June 2004, marking
not only the overall success of the peacekeeping missions in Bosnia
and Kosovo, but also the end of an era. More than 100,000 U.S.
troops passed through Taszár during the active years. U.S. forces
spent over $10 million upgrading the airfield and were one of the
area’s largest employers. General Barno went on to become Commander of
the Combined Forces Command, Afghanistan, the top U.S. military
commander in that country.
Ambassador
András Simonyi, who was the ambassador of Hungary to NATO at the time
of the Taszár operation, would like to extend his thanks and gratitude
to the citizens of this great town. Taszár has become a symbol of
what a difference courageous communities can make.
