Six soldiers of 5th “Bocskai” Rifle Brigade swam across Lake Balaton in a unique way; they were keeping a special military underwater formation. Altogether forty-two soldiers accomplished the five kilometres.
Almost every military unit of the country participated at the “Swimming Fort” (Úszó Erőd) competition. In total they were 306, out of which the soldiers of “Bocskai” Rifle Brigade were the most. For this a trophy was given to them as a sign of recognition by Lajos Fodor, secretary of state of Defence Ministry and by Dr Zoltán Orosz Lieutenant, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff.
The six divers already participated at this competition last year moreover they won the trophy. Thus, this time they were more confident and fulfilled the expectations set up by them.
Béla Horváth captain and physical education officer, Bence Miklós ensign; Krisztián Papp sergeant major; Dániel Saxinger sergeant major, Zsolt Molnár master-sergeant and Péter Hollós lance corporal swam across the lake in a V-shape formation, with outstretched arms and with the use of flipper, mask and snorkel. They accomplished the distance between Révfülöp and Balatonboglár in two hours and seven minutes.
Bence Miklós team-commander was pleased to tell us that they managed to keep the formation throughout the five kilometres by keeping a 2-metres distance between each other, still without disturbing civil swimmers.
– The width of the formation was about ten metres, so I had to decide very quickly which way to go and in what pace in order to preserve the unity of the team and to avoid the interruption of other participants at the same time. I was constantly watching the bank of the lake, the divers behind and beside me with whom we were communicating by hand signals.
– The team could not practice together, however daily workload, physical training, regular sport activities, and the participants’ excellent endurance allowed them to swim across the lake without any problem – said Bence Miklós.
We received the same diver training and we were -and some of us still are- in same kind of diver troops, so swimming together came naturally. It was a honour to lead this group, in which current and former military divers swim together as fellows, working for a common goal – concluded the team commander.
The soldiers of the “Bocskai” brigade will participate again at this competition next year with another special stunt, about which they did not tell us anything yet.
Révészné dr. Markovics Zita hadnagy
Fotó: Tóth László/Zrínyi Média
