Speech | 29-06-2024
Veterans, girls and gents,
In the present day we rejoice Veterans Day for the 20 th time. Since 2005 I’ve been capable of expertise all editions. I stand right here with gratitude. What I hoped for has develop into actuality. Veterans Day has develop into ‘established’. The Netherlands has embraced this present day as an annual nationwide second on which we honor our veterans collectively.
A day of recognition in your dedication to peace and safety and to the worldwide rule of regulation.
And a day of recognition. As a result of every of you has a private story, based mostly by yourself experiences and feelings. Your delight and your doubts. Your power and your vulnerability. Your camaraderie. They make you individuals of flesh and blood. They usually make your world of expertise tangible to everybody who’s open to it.
Conferences with you might be very pricey to me. And never simply on Veterans Day.
Ever since my service within the Royal Navy, the direct reference to all components of our armed forces has been a standard thread in my life. We’ve got seen and spoken to one another. Throughout Desert Storm, within the Gulf. In Srebrenica, through the blockade by the Serbs. On the UN mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia. A number of occasions in Uruzgan, Kabul and Kandahar. Off the coast of Somalia, on HNLMS. Rotterdam and HNLMS. Evertsen. At Camp Castor in Mali. On the Snow Metropolis base in Jordan. And in so many different locations.
Throughout all these conferences I listened fastidiously to you.
What’s hanging repeatedly is your aversion to boasting. Many troopers are individuals of few phrases. Particularly troopers in help capabilities ‘contained in the gate’ are sometimes inclined to downplay the significance of their efforts. If you’re a medic on the compound disinfecting medical tools… or as a upkeep technician repairing an armored automobile… or as an ICT individual supporting the logistical planning… then you might be “simply doing all your job”, proper?
A small cog within the huge image? Perhaps. However as a pilot I do know that there aren’t any ‘unimportant cogs’.
The protection of your entire system depends upon the smallest components and their interconnections.
One other factor that strikes me repeatedly is that you simply do your work based mostly on private conviction, with nice dedication and infrequently even idealism.
What you see and expertise throughout your missions tells you what’s at stake.
You already know the fixed worry of the inhabitants in armed conflicts. You already know what menace and destruction do to individuals.
You will have seen the despair when the justice system fails and energy degenerates into terror.
I keep in mind a sergeant I met in Chora, throughout his third deployment to Afghanistan. He advised me what motivated him. “This nation is so extremely lovely,” he stated. “My objective shall be achieved when it’s so secure and peaceable right here that I can take my household on trip and present them how lovely it’s.”
Sadly, his want didn’t develop into actuality, as everyone knows.
And but I keep in mind his phrases. Due to course he was not involved together with his personal vacation pleasure. He was involved with the values and achievements which might be vital for a contented life with out worry. With freedom. Justice. Peace. Safety. Growth alternatives.
Anybody who finds these values and achievements necessary for themselves should dare to assume internationally. In any case, what occurs elsewhere on the planet additionally impacts us, ultimately. Globally, all cogs are linked to one another…
Not each mission has the specified consequence. If the objective just isn’t achieved, it stays a painful reminiscence for all concerned.
Working for peace and safety will be onerous. Bodily and mentally. Lots of you at the moment are pondering of the comrades you may have misplaced, of those that have been wounded, or of the individuals you may have needed to depart behind.
However regardless of the disappointments, the hassle and the ache, your efforts are of important worth.
Anybody who doubts this could check out our personal historical past.
In two and a half months we’ll rejoice in Mesch, South Limburg, that eighty years in the past our allies managed to recapture the very first piece of the Netherlands. The start of a hard-fought liberation after greater than 4 years of horror.
Worldwide solidarity laid the muse for our freedom, our safety and our rule of regulation. We are going to always remember that.
Defending freedom means: taking duty, additionally past our nationwide borders.
As veterans, you stand in that proud custom. And as veterans, chances are you’ll count on – and even demand – that each one establishments in our nation do all the things they will to safeguard peace, safety, human rights and the democratic rule of regulation in your youngsters and grandchildren.
It’s great to see that many individuals, together with younger individuals, really feel impressed by the work of Defence.
Within the listing of Most Favourite Employers within the Netherlands, Protection has now climbed to 3rd place. To present you an thought: that’s above Google, KLM and ASML! Nonetheless not a nasty consequence.
There may be power in you as a veteran group. Additionally in these of you who’re marked by intense experiences and who’re dedicated to serving to comrades in related circumstances.
I’ve the utmost respect for all of you. And I additionally embody your households; the indispensable house entrance.
The Netherlands honors its veterans. In the present day, June 29, we present that explicitly, in a festive method, for the 20 th time. However Veterans Day is, so far as I am involved, every single day of the 12 months.