Captain Eugen Ispas, PR officer of the 281st Bold Eagles Infantry Battalion in mission in Afghanistan transmitted:

A short ceremony marking the leave for home of a 62 militaries after six months of missions performed within the ENDURING FREEDOM operation was organized Friday, January 7, 05 in Kandahar.

This occasion, the 3rd Bronco Brigade, Colonel Richard Pedersen handed the great unit medal to the Romanian militaries and Lieutenant Colonel Constantin Caramidariu, the Battalion commander gave them certificates of appreciation for their professionalism in fulfilling the trusted missions.

Colonel Pedersen thanked for the Romanians contribution in the success of missions: our countries are now allied and friends making history here, in Afghanistan contributing to the democratization and normalization of the local population life. Every time you are looking to this medal with the signs of every units of the Brigade, including the Romanian tricolor and your detachment badge you should be proud you are Bronco militaries. At the end of the activity, the Brigade chief chaplain Captain Siffer and the Detachment priest Captain Ionel Vrinceanu said together a prier for travel and wellbeing.

The same day the Romanian camp was visited by Major General Eric Olson CJTF 76 to whom all the military forces in the South East of Afghanistan are subordinated to and at his turn he thanked to the Bold Eagles for the way they acted under the US command. The Romanians gave a very nice Romanian popular costume to the US General.

Till now about 100 militaries from Ramnic returned home from the theaters of operations and by the end of January the entire force will be replaced by the militaries from 300th Infantry Battalion from Galati.


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During the six months of activity in the Afghani theater of operations, the 812th Infantry Battalion fulfilled more then 75 patrol missions in the area of responsibility, 20 missions of VIP and humanitarian convoys escort, 20 missions of persons and traffic control performed on the main ways of communications (especially those connecting Kandahar to Kabul and Pakistan) and secured 20 missions of C-MAX crews that ensured first medical assistance for more then 4800 locals.

During the 55 Romanian-American TEAM EAGLE type missions developed for the increase of trust of the Afghani population in the coalition forces they identified the problems the local communities had and together with their leaders they identified the necessary solutions. Also they developed 46 actions for making contacts with the local leaders where the coalition forces were not present.

Due to the fact the area of responsibility was 15 times larger then the moment they received their mission the motor equipment run more then 180,000 kms, that is four times round the Earth.

During the six months, the Romanian militaries permanently secured the camp and the Kandahar International Airport. In the military camp they checked and escorted more then 3,800 trucks with food and more then 2,000 fuel tanks, the missions being very risky due to the possibility of explosive materials existence in the loading. For 25 days during the presidential ellection, our militaries ensured the security of a US command point in Kandahar and for a week the security of a French military base at about six kms. faraway of the Pakistani border and being appreciated by the commander for the way they acted in all the situations.

Bold Eagles discovered two depots of armament and ammunition with a 100mm gun, three recoilless guns, four launchers of reactive grenades, ninety-one 100 mm launchers, two 82 mm launchers, 15 rockets for AG9 launcher, six 107mm rockets, sixteen 115 mm projectiles, eleven 100 mm rounds, 31 fuses, two 12.7 mm machine guns, nine AK 72 guns, and more then 10 tones of ammunition for light infantry armament. The depots were near the place were an Afghani military person was arrested because he was making explosive devices and sold them to the anti-coalition forces.
Till the end of the month together with their brothers of arms from the 30th Infantry Battalion the militaries from Ramnic will continue to fulfill the missions they have within the ENDURING FREEDOM V operation.

MoND Press Office