recent odc activities 2008 

Illinois National Guard Adjutant General Visit 

18 August 2008

Maj. Gen. William Enyart, the Adjutant General of Illinois visited Poland to represent the Illinois National Guard during the 2008 Soldiers March to Czestochowa and Armed Forces Day 13-16 August 2008.  General Enyart traveled to Czestochowa were he observed a display of multinational solidarity of soldiers participating in the religious Soldiers March.  General Enyart was present during Armed Forces Day activities on the 15th, which included a tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, a pass and review parade of all major commands from within the Polish Armed Forces and a formal reception at the President of the Republic of Poland’s Belvedere palace. Enyart’s organization, the Illinois National Guard, is comprised of approximately 10,000 Army National Guard and approximately 3200 Air National Guard members.  Gen. Enyart’s trip provided him with possible future training requirements for the Illinois National Guard’s State Partnership Program as the Polish Armed Forces transform their forces to achieve NATO interoperability.  Since 1993, the Illinois National Guard and Polish Armed Forces have participated in a partnership program that provides for the sharing of ideas between two nations.  .Regionally, Poland receives the most U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance funding and is also the sixth largest FMF recipient in the world. To date this includes over $285 million in direct FMF grants and more than $3.9 billion in FMF loans. Additionally, Poland has received more than $31 million dollars under the Combined Education Training Program (CETP) which includes: the International Military Education Training (IMET) Program; Military to Military (M2M) Program; State Partnership Program (SPP) and Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP). Poland utilizes U.S. support to help transform and modernize the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland.