Officers, Warrant Officers, NCOs, Soldiers, Sailors,
Soldiers, National Guardsmen and Civilian Personnel of the Armed Forces.
Today, when our Church celebrates its Entrances with splendor
Theotokos, the Heroic General and Great Patron of
of Greek Weapons, today is what the Greek State has decided to
celebrate her Armed Forces, celebrate her sleepless Guards
Homeland on land, in the sea and in the air that they guard and
they ensure the integrity of Greece day and night.
And this was done by the Greek State because the offer of the Armed Forces
Forces in the Nation’s struggles for its survival and well-being
it is priceless, enduring and perpetually translated into bloody struggles,
untold sacrifices and moments of greatness and glory that formed a
tradition of martial virtue with unsurpassed historical depth and
majestic size.
A martial virtue praised by Homer in his Iliad.
A virtue that gave birth to Marathon fighters, Salamin fighters and
defenders of Thermopylae and Plataea.
A virtue that gave birth to the heroic Hierolochites of Epaminondas and
of Pelopidas,
and formed the invincible Macedonian phalanxes of the Great
Alexander and the continental armies of King Pyrrhus.
A martial virtue that we will find again unchanged in
soldier Emperors, the great Generals and the haughty
Acrites of Byzantium.
A virtue that was kept alive and unenslaved by them
thieves during the Turkish occupation.
A virtue that reached its peak, its zenith, at
great glorious blast of the Nation with the haughty Agonists
of 1821, the Commanders, Captains, Admirals and
Arsonists who brought to the Nation its much-desired freedom.
The indomitable soul of the Greek warriors did not stop
fighting for the Fatherland for most of the past
century.
Even after the hasty and unprepared 1897, History saw them
to emerge victorious and full of confidence from his battles
Macedonian Struggle and enter the battlefields of
Balkan Wars with unrestrained drive, vigor and faith.
He admired them to outflank the Ottoman forces in the
Saradaporo, to defeat them in the lake of Giannitsa and to enter
triumphant in our Thessaloniki, on the day of Saint Demetrius!
He boasted of them defeating the Turkish fleet in Helles and
in Lemnos and to liberate its islands one after the other
of the Eastern Aegean, imposing the naval power of the Nation!
He saw them advance on Bizani and liberate the
Ioannina together with Northern Epirus.
He saw them put the Bulgarian troops to flight in battle
of Kilkis – Lachana, to achieve a brilliant victory in Doirani and to
they continue non-stop towards the Straits of Kresna.
The hour of universal recognition meant in Skra, according to the First
World War, when the Greeks stunned everyone once again
time with their impetuosity on the battlefield.
A little later they will chase, we will chase the national dream in
opposite shore of the Aegean, in Ionia and Asia Minor,
they will cross the Sangarios river and raise the Greek flag
in the blood-stained Kale Grotto.
We are proud of them, we are proud of the durability, the
bravery, daring, heroism, self-sacrifice, determination and
their great martial virtue, which they confirmed with the most famous
way two decades later, when, defying all predictions,
they repulsed the elite Italian Divisions with unparalleled fighting strength
“up there on our Pindos the peaks”,
to pursue them deep into Albanian territory,
liberating the Northern Continent for the second time.
And they continued to file their credentials of martial worth
but also of their indomitable Greek soul in the Forts of the line
I JOINED in our Macedonia and then in the Battle of Crete, in El
Alamein, Rimini and the glorious ADRIAS Destroyer,
with the Hierolochites of Christodoulos Tsigande and the legendary ones
Locazides of Andreas Kallinskis to build the heroic traditions
of the Greek Special Forces and Special Operations.
The war action of its Expeditionary Corps followed
Greece in distant Korea, where we once again excelled in the cold
heights and in the skies around the 38th Parallel.
While a little later we defended ourselves with our blood, the ‘omaimon, the
homoglosson, homodoxon and omotropon” in martyred Cyprus,
confirming the unbreakable ties that bind Hellenism
of the Metropolis with the Hellenism of Megalonis.
We are proud of them in good times and bad
of history. We are proud of them because of them we exist
today.
Men and Women of the Armed Forces,
We are really lucky, really lucky and blessed all of us
we younger people who come from such people.
We are lucky to be able to look back on such deep strengths
and unshakable roots.
We are blessed to draw on such heroic traditions and
deposits,
that we may drink and quench our thirst from such intoxicants
yarns.
Our predecessors in Arms when the time and the historical moment came
crushed ideologies and revisionisms,
they crushed entire empires,
they amazed mankind with their prowess
and they made the word “Greek” synonymous with self-denial and
of courage and the struggle “for altars and hearths”.
The struggles they gave then clearly illuminate her Avenue
Of Honor and Duty we must and are obliged to walk,
if the call of History defines it so.
Avenue this road is uphill and difficult
impassible from now, from the time of peace, as it includes everything
those required by the harsh “preparation for war”.
It is hard and difficult because it requires constant exercises, marches,
ships, flights, shots, services, shifts, watches and all that
activities that ensure our readiness for immediate and
effective response day and night, 365 days a year, opposite
to any suggestion.
Sleepless Guardians…
Sleepless Guardians…
This uphill road is walked by all of us who belong to
large and honored Armed Forces family, serving
willingly, faithfully, humbly, steadfastly and quietly, with honor and pride
the Homeland.
The work produced by the Armed Forces is insurmountable, it is
unique. It is a project that gives birth to and offers the good of the National Team
Security against external threats. It is a work inextricably linked and
intertwined with freedom, independence, integrity and
dignity of Greece and of every Greek citizen.
With a lot of hard work, toil, sweat, effort, but also with blood
last four years we faced many and very serious crises,
doing what I just said,
while at the same time, operating methodically and with a plan, we shielded
even more the Homeland with the acquisition of new weapons
systems, ensuring and modernizing to the maximum extent possible
degree what we already have,
with the rational reorganization of our structures,
by upgrading our infrastructure in areas of increased
of strategic importance such as Crete and Alexandroupoli with
planning of new naval stations and military airfields
with the recruitment of executives,
by upgrading the existing ones and building new ones
alliances and partnerships at the level of defense diplomacy, with
almost all our Balkan neighbors, but also with important Arab ones
Countries like with Israel, of course and of course with the strategic ones
our partners, the USA and France.
At the same time, and without making any discount at all
our main mission, we stood by its side with unparalleled consistency
Greek society, as the Armed Forces have always done in every
kinds of theomen and natural disasters, in adverse weather conditions
but also in the pandemic. No Greek will forget the friendly and
smiling faces of our frontline staff at
vaccination centers we operated during the COVID period. Wherever
whenever the Motherland needed us, regardless of the difficulties and the nature
of events we were, are and will be there.
For this I want to thank each and every one of them once again
each of you individually.
Thank you, because you perform with absolute faith and unparalleled
devotion to your sacred mission, as is fitting and as it should be
to Greek soldiers,
wherever you serve,
in the guns, in the tanks, in the Operations Centers, in the outposts, in
warships, submarines, cockpits, radars and all
ramparts, your rocks and positions, from the Screens to the
Kastellorizo and from Ormenio to Gavdos.
But I also want to thank you warmly and from the bottom of my heart
me and the members of your families, for the patience and determination that
show against its peculiarities and special requirements
military profession, as well as for the support that you
offer so that you are able to perform consistently and
efficiency your difficult and very demanding mission.
And I want to emphasize with emphasis, that in a long period of time
instability, severe conflicts and intense international realignments,
at a time when the struggle “for altars and hearths”
becomes existential for entire Nations,
the defensive pillar of our Nation, its hard shell
Our country, its Armed Forces, absolutely ensure the national
sovereignty,
erecting walls of powerful deterrence on land, sea and air
against any threat,
being always and forever ready to impose his will
Nations if the occasion calls for it.
We are ready and face our fate head on, with faith but
and with determination, with courage, and with prudence,
remaining steadfast in our positions on the ramparts, ready to
honor the Sacred Weapons,
as History, the Nation and the ancestors expect and demand from us
us, but also the Greek people, so that whenever necessary, we can protect
the Homeland.
This unique Homeland, which is the holiest, the most respected
and the most precious thing we have,
just as Plato wrote it two and a half thousand years ago,
in these places where we also live today:
“Mother and father of the other ancestors of the respondents
more honorable is the Fatherland,
and more modestly and holier
and to a great extent
and by Gods
and for people who have minds”
Officers, Warrant Officers, NCOs, Soldiers, Sailors,
Soldiers, National Guardsmen and Civilian Personnel of the Armed Forces,
this is exactly our legacy,
this is precisely our sacred heritage,
this is exactly our Fate.
Let’s be the Sleepless Guardians of the Country and the Nation!
Happy birthday to all of you!!!
The Virgin Mary with you.
Cheer for the nation!!!
Long live the Greek Armed Forces!!!
General Konstantinos Floros
Head of GEETHA
