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Blue Cord Exercise with the 44th Painfbat Battalion.

Havelte, 9 july 2025

The Blue Cord exercise starts in the morning at the parade ground of 44 Painfbat, in the Dutch town of Havelte, in the province of Drenthe.

Preparations are made well in advance to ensure everything runs smoothly, which is no easy task for an understaffed battalion with many training and deployment duties, especially with 162 participants.

On Wednesday, the BA (A BA is the officer in charge of security on a military base) reads out the names of the soldiers one by one and allocates them to one of the 14 teams.
Often, the youngest soldier is assigned as commander. This is an extra challenge that the team must solve together.
They then walk to the starting position, just outside the gate, and the exercise begins.

Some groups are dropped into the field from a truck.
The veterans either choose a group to run the course with or are assigned to one of the twelve posts set up in the area.

This time, the veterans are well prepared, with a good mix of beginners and experienced participants. Their preparation sometimes depends on the barracks. This time, there is a dormitory containing two bunk beds and ten sleeping spaces. It's a bit like the old days. So, there's this thing in the battalion bar, right? You can have a drink or two and have a chat with the battalion adjutant, and it can go on late into the night. But that doesn't mean you can be hungover the next morning.

After an intensive day, some veterans won't stay up too late, as they have to wake up the soldiers sleeping in a bivouac in the field at 5:45 the next morning. Then, with a Nekaf jeep and a YP408 armoured personnel carrier at the front, they march in formation to the assembly point.

There, after a few words from the BC (Battalion Commander), we, the Lebanon veterans hand out the blue cords to the soldiers who have just joined the regiment.
After a toast with the regimental drink, '44, ALWAYS IN FRONT!, everyone disperses - the soldiers to work and us to enjoy a cup of coffee before heading home.