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Chief of the Defence Staff (SMA), General Nicolae Ionel Ciuca, and General Major Marian Sima, Head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, received the Medal of Honor of the United States Special Forces.
The head of the SMA thanked the US partner for the assistance in the transformation process of the Romanian special operation forces - both the US SOCOM commander and the specialists who advised and assisted during the process, informs a release issued by the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) for AGERPRES on Friday.
In his speech, General Ciuca asked the American officials present at the event to convey his thanks to the US SOCOM chief of staff, General Raymond Thomas, for all his support.
"The medal represents the effort of all those who have contributed to this process, especially the operators of special forces, who are not very often mentioned in our speeches, whom I would like to thank for the professionalism and dedication proven daily in the accomplishment of their missions," said General Nicolae Ciuca.
On this occasion, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism Andrew Knaggs said it was a great honor to participate in the event of acknowledging the support that General Ciuca and Major General Sima gave to the transformation of Romania's special operation forces.
According to MApN, the evolution of the global security environment and in Romania's area of strategic interest required the adaptation of the response modalities in order to counteract the risks and threats to the national security and defense. Taking into account the organization and the command and control system of the special operations forces and the human resources, the technology and infrastructure available, this year, on 1 March, the Special Forces Command (CFOS) was established.
During the 15 years since the establishment of the first operational structures of the Special Forces of the Romanian Armed Forces, the troops of these structures participated in missions in theaters of operations and multinational activities and their professionalism and competence were recognized through over 1,000 decorations and national medals and more than 100 medals and decorations received from foreign partners, the press release informed.
