Cooperation between BALTDEFCOL and NCOs of the Estonian Defence Forces

The Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL) and the Non-Commissioned Officer’s School (NCO School) of the Estonian National Defence College (ENDC) have been partners for last few years. The practical dimension of the cooperation was the students of the Senior Staff NCOs Course support for the Joint Command and General Staff Course (JCGSC) during annual exercise Collaborative Effort.

To facilitate contribution the NCOs participated in theoretical lectures within the pre-exercise phase related to basics of operational planning and the exercise scenario. It allowed them to support effectively officer students of JCGSC during the whole exercise. Senior NCOs have appreciated the opportunity greatly. BALTDEFCOL also appreciates such the support as it creates more realistic situation inside an international joint staff since it is similar to headquarters where NCOs are important constituent of tactical and operational level headquarters.

The Senior Staff NCOs Course is conducted biennially and as there is no course this year, the NCO School gathered NCOs on an ad-hoc basis. As an effect, the NCOs participating in the exercise Collaborative Effort 2017 are from different subunits of the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF). Represented are EDF HQ, ENDC and 1st and 2nd Infantry Brigades.

Sergeant Major Meelis Koger (NCO School), who was the coordinator of the NCO School contribution to the exercise, has expressed his gratitude on behalf of the NCOs. He hopes that the cooperation will continue in the future. He would like to thank especially WgCdr (ret.) Geoffrey Yapp, Col (ret.) Dr Clirim Toci, Cdr Ivo Värk, LtCol Maris Gavrilko, LtCol Ervin Kool and Mr Hannes Möllits for their contribution to the theoretical part of the course.