SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Three top Polish officials visited Illinois Army National Guard and Polish Land Forces Soldiers of Task Force White Eagle in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on Aug. 1.
Tomasz Siemoniak, the Polish Minister of National Defense, Lt. Gen. Mieczyslaw Gocul, the Chief of General Staff for Polish Armed Forces and Maj. Gen. Marek Tomaszycki commander of Polish Operations Command, visited unit commanders and Soldiers while receiving updates on the status of operations and the progress of security development and retrograde planning in Ghazni.
His visit marked the 69th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, but there was something different in the formation.
Sixteen Illinois National Guard Soldiers with the Bilateral Embedded Staff Team (BEST) A11, in Springfield Ill., who serve as members of the Polish Military Contingency, Task Force White Eagle, were there.
"It was an amazing honor to stand in formation with my Polish brothers on such a historical and important day," said Maj. Darren Horton of Springfield, Ill., deputy engineering and retrograde operations officer with Task Force White Eagle. "It was even more awe inspiring to realize that we were meeting the equivalents of our Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the combined equivalent of our combatant commanders."
The Illinois National Guard has co-deployed with Polish forces to Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade.
"Illinois' partnership is so strong with Poland that there has not been one day in the last 10 years, when Poland has been in combat that an Illinois National Guardsman has not been by their side," said Sgt. 1st Class Ellie Warren of Chicago, Ill., with BEST A11.
The Illinois National Guard entered the partnership in 1993 as a part of the National Guard Bureau and European Command State Partnership Program and it has been going strong ever since.
Polish Land Forces Brig. Gen. Marek Sokolowski, Commander of Task Force White Eagle, said, "These are my Illinois Soldiers and I have a great team. We have trained together for over a year and I am not sure what I will do without them at the end of the mission. They have become family."
The team from Illinois was the first group of non-Polish service members to be awarded the 25th Air Calvary Brigade distinguished unit insignia and welcomed as true members of the unit.
"Poland is a key allied nation that can interlock those countries seeking independence with those that are tenured democracies in the 21st century," said Illinois Army National Guard Col. Christopher Lawson of Springfield, deputy U.S. commander of Task Force White Eagle. "They (Poland) have fresh experiences, understand the challenges of forging a new democracy, and are approachable from countries with democratic interests."
Lawson said it is their approachability that makes Poland unique; a former communist-oppressed country that achieved independence and economic prosperity in less than 20 years.
"Poland forged a democracy without a civil war and created the conditions for prosperity in less than two decades," said Lawson. "Their insight and assistance in Afghanistan has been critical to our success in Ghazni Province."