Training Command – Military Academy

The First Graduation of the Students of the Officer Course in the new form of training

On Monday 30^th November 2009 a graduation of the students of the Officers` Course took place in a Social Club of Dědice Barracks. At the ceremony assisted important representatives from political, military and social life as well as family members of the students of the course.

New officials are the graduates from public universities who decided voluntarily to serve in the Czech Armed Forces in the officer corps. Their military training at Training Command – Military Academy (TC – MA) in Vyškov took from 12 to 14 months depending on the specialization of the students. It is the first graduation in this organizational form of training representing a new and prospective way of recruitment of the Czech officer corps.

Colonel GS Jaromír Zůna, TC – MA Commander, said on this occasion: “The graduation of new officers is always an exceptional event and red-letter day for all military schools as well as for the whole Army. This very act symbolizes military values and traditions which the Czech Armed Forces profess and a role of the officer corps which is their main bearer.” Furthermore in this context he recalled Military Academy in Hranice, a prestigious military school whose officers` training traditions are followed with honour by Military Academy in Vyškov, which bears the title of the “Hranice Academicians.

The ceremony was attended by Luboš Dobrovský, ex-minister of Defence of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic, Major General Rostislav Mazurek, Advisor of the GS Chief of the ACR for NATO and the European Union, Michael Hrbata, MP of the Czech Parliament, Colonel Bruno Bucherie, French Attaché of Defence, Ignác Hoza, Rector of Tomáš Baťa University and other important guests. During the ceremony graduated officers of the career course made a solemn oath on the graduation sword, symbol of graduation of Military Academy officers in Hranice. The graduates were awarded not only a certificate of attendance, but also aureate graduate badges. Colonel Zůna pointed out: “They are the same badges that your predecessors at Military Academy in Hranice were awarded at their graduation in 1930 and wore them proudly during their military career. Wear them with the same pride as your predecessors.”

At the end of a graduation ceremony the graduated officers were greeted by Retired Colonel Jiří Šrámek, Confederation of Political Prisoners representative and one of the post-war graduates of Military Academy in Hranice, and Colonel Bruno Bucherie, French Attaché of Defence, who remembered with pride a share of France in training of the officer corps founded at Military Academy in Hranice with the help of French military mission.

Text: Capt. Monika Nováková, TC – MA humanistic service officer
Photo: Olga Karaffová
English translation: Mgr. Katarína Murínová