Issue Nr. 1 March 2006 - NATO School

NATO School
Kofel Golf Society trip to Italy
By Sjon Selles
KGS Secretary
There are members of the Kofel Golf Society
(KGS) who cannot wait until the end of the winter
season to play golf. One of the Italian members of
the KGS, Mario Ive, offered to set up a golf
expedition. He drafted an operation order for this
mission and got it approved by the Board of the
KGS. The aim of the expedition was to go across
the German border, find a golf course not too far
away, and play golf. The mission area was
located not too far away from Milan, Italy. Two
training areas were defined to be used by the
KGS to play golf, one was the Golf Club “Robinie”
which is located just outside Solbiate Olana,
where the NATO School conducted Mobile
Education and Training Teams in the past. The
other mission area was found close to the lake
‘Lago Maggiore’, the “Bogugno Golf Club”.
And so it came that on Friday, 03 March 2006
members of the Kofel Golf Society and some of
their partners departed for Italy. All arrived safely
at the mission area and were accommodated in a
nice hotel. Everyone was ready for a good meal
and, after we checked in to the hotel, we deployed
to the local mess hall for dinner. This ended up to
be a 2 star Michelin restaurant where our mission
leader, Mario Ive, had arranged a table for all of
us. There are too many words to describe how
good the food was. (see picture below)
NATO School
Community Bulletin March 2006 Edition
On Saturday we deployed to the first training area
where non-golfers moved on to explore Milan. It
was strange to see a ‘land without snow’ and the
mild temperatures (12 degrees Celcius) felt very
good. All participants in the golf expedition went to
the driving range with enough ammunition to
warm up. Some had a good time, others were
trying to get rid of a ‘hook’ or a ‘slice’. At 1210 hrs
we were deployed in the mission area. There
were a lot of (wet) hazards around this mission
area and some of our missiles fired away never
made it to the target area. Both Mike Merryman
and Mario Ive had a tremendous launch from a
bunker right onto the target area, close to the flag.
After a five hour exercise on this mission area we
met the ‘Milan explorers’ and went back to the
hotel, followed by an excellent dinner in a local
(no stars, but very good) restaurant.
Sunday mission area with all terrain golf vehicles
On Sunday we deployed to the second training
area, the “Bogugno Golf Club”. After we were
dropped off at the training area, the rest of the
expedition participants drove on to ‘Lago
Maggiore”, to explore the surrounding area over
there. The participants of the golf expedition
picked up their all terrain golf vehicles and went to
the training area. The temperatures were even
warmer than the day before, 14 to 15 degrees
Celcius, and we saw sunshine during the entire
training. The training area had even more (water)
hazards but it was no problem to do an all terrain
reconnaissance and complete the mission of the
day.
In the end we can say that the expedition was a
successful one and all participants are now
warmed up for the coming golf season……