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Lieutenant General Jouke Eikelboom, Chief of Staff JFC Brunssum
Headquarters and Alderman Richard de Boer of the municipality
of Brunssum. |
Photo by Capt Albert van Dam, JFC HQ Brunssum COS Office
Lieutenant General Jouke Eikelboom, Chief of Staff Joint Force Command (JFC) Headquarters Brunssum, and Alderman Richard de Boer of the municipality of Brunssum, revealed the first out of 14 new signs carrying the logo ‘Host to NATO, home to you’on Wednesday, 9 November, 2011.
The municipality of Brunssum decided to illustrate their commitment by placing special NATO logos along all 14 major access roads to Brunssum below the existing place-name signs.
In this way Brunssum strongly presents itself as hometown of JFC and to the hundreds of families living in the Brunssum area.
Brunssum expects continuation of fruitful exchanges on cultural and social level, but also beneficial effects on the local economy.
The decision to retain Joint Force Command Headquarters for Brunssum was taken in June 2011.
Brunssum and the NATO Allied Joint Force Command
As a result of the French decision in 1966, not to integrate armed forces in the Military structure of NATO anymore, NATO had to relocate its headquarters from France.
The new location for AFCENT (Allied Forces Central Europe) was established in the former Hendrik coal mines in Brunssum, Emma mine in Hoensbroek and the Tapijn barracks in Maastricht. The official inauguration of AFCENT took place 01 June 1967.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall the political and security situation in Europe changed fundamentally. The security focus changed from confrontation to co-operation. Regional Headquarters Allied Forces North Europe (RHQ AFNORTH) was formed in Brunssum on 3 March 2000.
As a consequence of the events in 2001, the regional focus gave way to a worldwide focus of NATO. Subsequently JFC HQ Brunssum was formed on the structure of the former Regional Headquarters AFNORTH and AFCENT. Allied JFC HQ Brunssum was inaugurated on 14 July 2004.