Honourable Commander,
Today is a big day for the Combat Support and Supply Centre and the whole Latvian army. Combat Support and Supply Training Centre has received its own flag.
A unit is complete only when it receives its flag. Flags have always been essential for Latvian soldiers. And you will receive yours in a moment.
Dear troops of the Combat Supply and Support Training Centre,
Your Centre provides adult education services and offer individual training to local personnel of the National Armed Forces (NAF) and soldiers from other countries. What does it entail? It means that you are training combat experts for most complicated and often most dangerous tasks.
All these experts play an invaluable role in making our combat units stronger. Many specific units, such as explosives ordinance disposal teams, do important job on daily basis, especially here in our war-ravaged homeland, and in other countries where our and allied troops need protection during complex international missions.
Today, I have the honour of presenting you your own unique flag with two important dates on it: the 2002, when the explosives ordinance disposal school was established, and the 2017, when the school became the Combat Support and Supply Training Centre.
Flag is emblazoned with your symbols: half-moons, which represent the guardian of soldiers and orphans in Latvian symbolic folklore, a torch, which represents knowledge and enlightenment, an oak-leaf crown, which symbolises continuity, passage of time, and a Latvian ornament of an adder painted on the corners, representing wisdom, mind and energy.
Left side of the flag carries an image of the traditional silver cockade of the Explosives Ordinance Disposal School and motto of the Combat Support and Supply Training Centre, with the same moon figures at the corners. This section of the flag pays special tribute to National Armed Force Explosive Ordinance Unit troops and honours EOD soldiers who had lost their lives.
Flag has been made by the same artist who made all the other NAF flags, the exceptional textile artist Ausma Apša. Thank you Mrs Apša for putting all your heart into this wonderful flag!
Flag is the binding element of any army unit. Flag embodies the pride of the unit. I hope this flag will encourage you to seek knowledge and skills that will lift you to unprecedented professional heights. I hope it will become synonymous with your fighting spirit and loyalty to Latvia.
God Bless Latvia!