Colonel Pintaric assigned as Assistant Chief of KFOR Operations HQ
The CAF first officer who will be assigned to duty in the KFOR Operations HQ in Pristina was sent to the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kosovo (KFOR – Kosovo Force) on Wednesday, November 2. Colonel Darko Pintaric will take office of the Assistant Chief of the KFOR Operations HQ, Commander of KFOR, U.S. Brigadier General Rex Spitler and will be responsible for personnel, logistics and engineering matters.
This is the highest duty held by a Croatian officer in KFOR. Colonel Pintaric will also take over the command over the 8th Croatian contingent in KFOR instead of the current commander Major Marijan Skorija, who will assume duty of a deputy commander.
Colonel Darko Pintaric is a member of the Armed Forces since 1991. He participated in the Homeland war. During service in the Armed Forces, he has been on many duties including as Head of Department for Transport and Head of Department for Development and Integration of the logistics system in the CAF Logistics Directorate. He was the first officer of the Armed Forces, which in June 2004, was sent to the Allied Transformation Command in Norfolk (USA) on duty staff officer for NATO PfP interoperability, as well as the first liaison officer of the Republic of Croatia, for the operation ISAF in 2003 he served in the Allied centre for movement control in the Netherlands, which is part of the Supreme Headquarter Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). He graduated from the Armed Forces War College “Ban Josip Jelacic,” completed several NATO courses in the fields of logistics, standardization and work in NATO committees and the U.S. Army Logistics Management College in Fort Lee (USA). He was awarded with the Homeland War Memorial, Homeland Gratitude Memorial, Order of the Croatian Three-strand Pattern, and with medals “Flash” and “Storm”.
CAF members participate in the KFOR peacekeeping operation in Kosovo since July 2009, when the first Croatian contingent was sent. Currently in the area of operations, from mid-September this year, the eighth CAF contingent with a total of 20 members, mostly from the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence, with two transport helicopters Mi-171 Sh, has been deployed in the Camp Bondsteel in Ferizaj / Urosevac. The fundamental task of the Croatian contingent in the KFOR peacekeeping operation in Kosovo is hauling people and cargo. This is the first NATO operation in the Balkans in which members of the Croatian Armed Forces participate with its own air transport component.