Brigadier General Roland de Jong of the 43 Mechanized Brigade from Havelte couldn’t suppress a smile when he heard about the changes planned at the barracks in Assen and Havelte. “I look at it very positively. I think there is a good development going on, especially because there is a lot of investment in the Havelte barracks.” The fact that a new school battalion is coming to Havelte also suits De Jong well. “That way I can train them right away in the context in which they will soon be working.”
“There are two armored infantry battalions and an airmobile battalion in this region, but you actually see that the region is just a little too thinly populated for such large units,” the brigadier general continues, referring to vacancies in the military bases in Drenthe that are difficult to fill. “In 2013, the 45th Armored Infantry Battalion came here from Ermelo in times of economic recession and there were plenty of people, but now everyone is fighting for personnel and I’m in Havelte with too large units that I can’t get filled.”
With the move of the 45th Armored Infantry Battalion to a more central location in our country, De Jong expects that soldiers living in or near the Randstad will be better served. He partly confirms that the relocation to Ermelo, Havelte and Central Netherlands affects staff turnover. “But it is also part of the military profession that you sit somewhere for a while and you disappear there later. So this change has consequences for a while, but we are going to solve this puzzle. Soldiers who like to work in Havelte must be able to stay there, but who prefer to live in the central Netherlands, can now move with you.”
According to the brigadier, the fact that suitable training grounds in the area are taken into account with this move is a precondition that must be fulfilled absolutely properly. After all, Havelte has a long history of exercises with heavy combat vehicles on the Holtingerveld. De Jong: “It would be inefficient to move to another location, but to continue practicing at Havelte.”