Chief of the Army Staff, Major General Dan Ghica Radu and chief of Doctrine and Training Directorate from General Staff, Major General Mihai Chirita together with a delegation of officers paid a working visit on Wednesday, December 23, in the theater of operations in Kosovo, occasioned by the winter celebrations and the New Year.
During the first part of the visit the delegation met the staff personnel and the militaries from the intelligence structures in mission in Pristine and the two Generals had a short meeting with Lieutenant General Markus Bentler, KFOR commander and his deputy, Major General Antonio Satta.
The second part of the visit was dedicated to the meeting with the soldiers from the 498th Parachutist Battalion "Smaranda Braescu" in mission since August, in Peck, in Camp Villagio. Major Cristian Calenciuc, commander of the Parachutist Detachment made
a short presentation of the military actions they had performed, the environment of security, risks and threats in their area of responsibility and spoke about the subordinates' moral condition and the cooperation with the other soldiers from different nations.
Major General Dan Ghica Radu congratulated in the name of the chief of General Staff the soldiers from Bacau for their professionalism and abnegation in performing the missions. The chief of the Army Staff wished them success in their future missions and transmitted them the best thoughts from home, wished them Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
At the end of the visit, the two Romanian officials had a meeting with Brigade General Roberto D'Alessandro, the MNTF-W commander.


The 498th Parachutist Battalion was established on November 30, 1990 based on the Minister's approval of the report made by the General Staff and it was subordinated to the 3rd Paratrooper Brigade, Bacau garrison. As an elite unit of the Romanian Land Forces, the militaries from Bacau had performed more than 40, 000landings with no major incidents, had trained about 3,300 soldiers/ volunteer NCOs and had participated in tactical exercises with the entire personnel or with specialized subunits in different regions from the country and had exercises or common training activities with similar troops from France and Sweden (1997), Greece (1998), Germany (2001), Poland (2002), Turkey (2007). The militaries from the 498th Battalion had performed missions under NATO and UN aegis in the theaters of operations. Since August 2009 a detachment is participating in ROFND XIX mission in Kosovo.

MoND Press Office