Newcomers integration during exercise Common Tenacity 06.

Strasbourg (France), 22nd October 2006.

One of the main objectives of Common Tenacity 2006 is to integrate the newcomers who have joined the Eurocorps in the second half of 2006, and are now committed with their elder colleagues in the NRF stand-by period. Who are these newcomers, what was their first impression when they started working in the Eurocorps, and how is their integration going?

Since April 2006, 101 new Belgian, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Turkish soldiers have joined the Eurocorps (HQ SPT BN included, but NSDs excluded). In order to get their feeling about their new working environment, we went through the LCC CP and interviewed some of them.

The general impression that came out of the talks with them was that they had initially had mixed feelings when they had heard of their new assignment. They had all heard of the Eurocorps before, but they did not know what they could expect from working in this multinational major unit, and some even had some kind of apprehension. But OR-8 Semmler (GE), who is assigned to the G2 Branch and works in the EXCON during the exercise, stated that he had been thrilled by this assignment, because he would never have missed any opportunity to work in a multinational environment.

A common acknowledgement of the interviewed newcomers was that they have generally been assigned to positions they had been trained and are qualified for, even if, as OF-2 (SP) Sierra Diaz (G6 InfoSec) puts it, there were many documents he had to become familiar with, even if he needed to place many phone calls in order to seek help to get the necessary information.

As far as the responsibility level in their new position is concerned, the newcomers’ individual feelings are quite different: while OR-9 (BE) Keymolen (G9 Info Manager) has the impression that his new level of responsibility is not as high as during his previous assignment in the Belgian Defence Ministry, OF-2 (PL) Rózycki (G4 Mvt&Tpt) stated that his new position enabled him to increase his working level from brigade-level movements to the strategic deployment level.

To express their feelings about their current integration, all newcomers unanimously stressed that they were able to start feeling comfortable in their new position quite quickly. In particular, OF-3 (TU) Gunduz (G5 Policy), who is assigned to G3 Plans in the NRF manning, insisted on the valuable assistance he receives from his Belgian colleague and his French section chief, who are always available to answer his frequent questions. He also said he felt he was still in a transition period, but meeting after meeting, task after task, he was getting a clearer and clearer picture of the Eurocorps world. This was also confirmed by OF-4 (FR) Sénétaire (JOC Director), who stressed the advantage of arriving at the Eurocorps during the NRF stand-by period, when everything was already on the move and all future milestones were already planned in a logical sequence.

OF-2 Rózycki concluded on the newcomers’ overall common opinion on the integration process when he underlined the open-mindedness of his section chief and the constant support he can count on inside his branch, even outside work in his everyday life in Strasbourg.

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