Knowledge confirmed outside the borders
In early 2012, Major Zeljko Bosanac from the 250th Air Defence Missile Brigade was one of the SAF candidates for referral to the prestigious German General Staff Academy in Hamburg. After several months of selection, he was chosen to be our only representative at the international command staff education. He did not disappoint us.
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Almost two years or, as his colleagues calculated, 555 days of education abroad and being separated from his family, Major Bosanac used to represent our country in the right way. With his knowledge and expertise he stood out from the start, and acknowledgment for that came on the day of the awarding of diplomas, when he was the one out of 82 officers to receive the Scharnhorst Award as the best student of the 52nd class of the General Staff Academy. The award is named after German General Gerhard von Scharnhorst and is traditionally awarded annually to the best international officer in class.He spent the first eight months of his stay in Germany at the Language Research Center in Hurth, suburb of Cologne, where foreigners of various profiles study the German language, and Germans study other languages. During the first stage of his education, Major Bosanac mastered the second and third level of knowledge of German, and both tests were of selective type, so 20 percent of candidates never even got to Hamburg and the command staff studies.
- Conditions for language learning were fantastic. We had everything we needed. The time spent in Hurth was solely dedicated to language learning, so social gatherings were organized to advance the language knowledge in free time as well – Major Bosanac said, having used the days in Hurth to also explore Bonn, Cologne and the entire North Rhine-Westphalia district.
He spent the second year at the Bundeswehr General Staff Academy in Hamburg, where, with 63 other international officers from 41 countries and 18 German officers, he studied military skills.- Lectures were divided in two stages where the first one was the same for everyone, and, in the other one, we were divided according to our services. During the entire education, we had mentors and tutors who helped us not only improve our technical knowledge, but also the language in everyday conversation – our interlocutor said. Aside from diplomas, he got new friends from 41 countries while he was in Germany. Working in an international environment, as he said, is an experience he will never forget.
The hosts invested great effort for the foreign officers learn as much as possible about Germany, its state and administrative institutions and cultural and historical heritage.
