Text and photo: Lt (R) Michael Linden-Vørnle

A bus full of people arrives at Eskesgård, but it is obviously not a tourist trip. The bus is escorted by all terrain vehicles manned with armed soldiers and the area around Eskesgård is buzzing with military activity. An evacuation operation is in motion to save citizens from EU and NATO from the critical situation on Bonnie Island. Several warships lying off the coast are reday to take the evacuated on board.

Even though the situation seems very realistic, the evacuation is only an exercise – a part of the annual DANEX naval exercise. An evacuation exercise is on the programme every year. Since the Navy regularly has ships on international naval forces it is important to train evacuation operations. Such a force can be used to conduct an evacuation from a crisis area so it is important to be well prepared.

During the exercise, Eskesgård on Raghammer Odde exercise area on Bornholm is converted into an evacuation center, where the evacuated are checked before they go to the ships. First they are searched to prevent weapons and other unpleasent things to come along. Able Rating Signe Fledelius is one of the persons who search the women arriving at the center.

– We check if they bring along weapons. So far we have only found knives and nothing more serious. Until now everything runs fine, says Signe Fledelius. Normally she works with action information on the corvette PETER TORDENSKIOLD, but during today’s exercise she works together with the Military Police to handle the female “customers”.

At registration peoples identity must  be established. Able Rating Kasper  Schneider interviews an evacuee.

After being searched the evacuees are registered to establish who hwo they are and whether they are at all entitled to be evacuated. Also here the Military Police plays an important role by conducting short interviews to get a hold on each persons identity and their affiliation. Able Rating Kasper Schneider from the Military Police is one of the persons who handles registration.

– It’s our task to find out who people are. We fill out a form with their personal data and check their identification papers – for example their passport. If they don’t have any ID we have to judge whether they seem trustworthy, explains Kasper Schneider.