The Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias and the Minister of Shipping and the Aegean Miltiadis Varvitsiotis awarded the Medal for Distinguished Services to 42 cadres of the Armed Forces (Hellenic Navy and Hellenic Air Force) and of the Hellenic Coast Guard who participated, as crew of the Hellenic Navy and of the Hellenic Air Force respectively, in the rescue operation for the passengers on board the F/B “Norman Atlantic” in the Adriatic Sea on December 28-30, in a ceremony held at the Ministry of National Defence.

The ceremony was attended by the Alternate Minister of National Defence Fofi Gennimata and the General Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence Antonis Economou.

The ceremony was also attended by the Chief of HNGS Vice Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the Chief of HAFGS Evangelos Tournas, the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Christos Manolas and the Chief of the Hellenic Coast Guard Vice Admiral Athanasios Athanasopoulos. In the place of the Chief of HNDGS General Michail Kostarakos, who was absent, the ceremony was attended by the  Deputy Chief of HNDGS Vice Admiral Alexandros Theodosiou, as well as by relatives of the crew.

In his address, the Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias stressed the following:

“Minister,
Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces,
Chiefs,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a special honour for me to be here today, with you and award the Medal for Distinguished Services to the 36 crews of the helicopters of the Hellenic Navy, the Hellenic Air Force and the Hellenic Coast Guard who contributed decisively to the rescue operation for the passengers on board F/B “NORMAN ATLANTIC” under extremely adverse weather conditions.

In these operations, the Armed Forces and the Coast Guard proved once more that they have a high level of operational readiness, professionalism, capabilities and sense of duty.

The frigate “NAVARINO” and the flight assets we offered, as the Greek state, responded to the call for help immediately and had an excellent cooperation to a common goal, in a tremendous Search and Rescue operation. In order to save human lives, they ignored any dangers, under unimaginable difficult weather conditions.

I take this chance to make a special reference, as their political superior, to the crew members of the flight assets of all the three branches who flew everyday over our country’s mainland, over our islands, over the Greek seas, in a perfect cooperation with the Coast Guard whenever needed; and who possess an excellent training and special skills. They combine bravery with responsibility and courage with knowledge.

We all take benefit and are encouraged by your example, Ladies and Gentlemen. As I have said many times, Greek people must feel proud of the men and women of the Armed Forces and the Security Corps because when it is needed they respond to their duty with decisiveness, organized plan and loyalty; loyalty to our country and to the ideals they serve.

     Greek people know and realize that, when our society faces a challenge, they will be actively supported by the army, they will have trained personnel, ready to offer valuable services to protect human lives and state-owned property.

The effectiveness of our Armed Forces, through the whole spectrum of their activities, is an indirect message to everybody; a message to our allies and partners, as well as to our potential enemies; it is a message of reliability, cooperation, peace, stability, yet a message of deterrence.

In order to confront all national issues, stability, decisiveness, continuity, mutual understanding and consent are required.

Our country’s interest lies in gathering all powers of the Greek people, in preserving its force and enhancing its deterring and defensive capabilities.

I express here – I am sure of it – also the opinions of the Alternate Minister Ms. Gennimata and of the Deputy Minister Mr. Yannis Lambropoulos when I express these thoughts.  

I stress what I constantly say: the Armed Forces unite us as Greeks. It is a point of reference for the whole nation; it is a level of unity, solidarity and national cohesion.

It is true that it is a difficult moment for our country, amid the difficult financial circumstances we are going through and great difficulties for Greek people.

I personally and the entire political and military leadership, we assist and we try to achieve the proper and necessary level of compensation to the military, to retired officers and their families. As a state, we must compensate them for the services that they have offered and are still offering to the country, which they kept still despite the severe financial problems. They acted and they keep acting beyond any self-interests, beyond any selfishness, despite any salary cuts.

Your may realize that the emotion and the symbolism of our meeting are more intense because in the case of “NORMAN ATLANTIC” we mourned victims, we lost fellow human beings. Of course, we faced for many hours the risk to live a naval tragedy which our country had not lived since 1968, when “HERAKLION” sank. Your actions prevented a tragedy.

On this occasion I wish to convey, once more, my sympathy to the relatives of the victims and I hope that, with the assistance of the Italian authorities, we will soon have a clear description of what really happened.

While addressing to you whom we honour today, to you who served, and still serve and will serve values, I will say that everybody separately and altogether you showed the attention, the readiness, the responsibility which is required by a search and rescue operation of this size.

You gave a battle which symbolizes many things. And this is true for all your missions, especially for missions of operational character.

I also wish at this point to thank your Italian colleagues for the help they offered in this operation. As far as we are concerned, I wish to say that every time I visit you and meet you, where the heart of the Armed Forces beats: on board the ships, in camps, in airports, in training fields, when I come to attend a briefing and support you morally I see your moral values.

As a conclusion, I want once more to congratulate you for your work, for your training and to wish you all and your families who support you in your job, health, long life and prosperity”.

On his part, the Minister of Shipping and the Aegean, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis stated:

“I am particularly pleased and touched today to bestow medal to Greek rescuers who participated in this multinational rescue operation for the passengers of NORMAN ATLANTIC.

Today, along with the warm congratulations to the men and women of the Armed Forces and of the Coast Guard who participated in this difficult mission, our thoughts go to the victims’ relatives, to the relatives of the missing for whom we make any possible effort to find out what happened to their relatives. The search and rescue operation is still conducted, under the guidance of the Italian Authorities and assisted by the Greek aerial and naval assets, because we believe that a clear answer must be given to the relatives of the missing.

Greece, despite the size of the crisis, despite the size of the budget cuts in the Ministries of National Defence and of Shipping and the Aegean kept monitoring with safety the entire space that it has assumed as an international commitment, to monitor the Aegean and the Ionian Seas for search and rescue, as well as the area south of Crete. And Greece achieved this because the people who serve our country have a high sense of self-denial and patriotism, and we would not have been able to save thousands of people at sea, without this everyday contribution of the Armed Forces and the Security Corps’ personnel.

This is why we ought great “thank you” for what you accomplished. And our obligation is to utilize any resources and any capable asset we are attributed by the national or the European budgets to make such operations even more effective, to make your work during such operations easier and, of course, to make finding human beings at sea whose lives are in danger even more feasible.

A great “thank you” and we feel obliged to convey you the gratitude and thanks on behalf of the Greek people and the entire Greek society.”