Meet The New Commander of The Dutch Armed Forces

Day 2,954, 13:17 • Published in Netherlands Poland • by Shawtyl0w

Dear citizens of the Netherlands,

In this article I'll tell you a little something about the new commander of the Dutch Armed Forces also known as DAF.

In the past few weeks our president Odan has ordered our old commander to step down and hand over his command to the current Minister of Defense, Tim Veltkamp. Due to several reasons which I don't want to talk about to much our at the time commander Weekstrom refused to hand over command before the intentions of the president had been made clear to him. It came down to a vote of our congress members, resulting in the appointment of a new commander.

As second commander of DAF I feel an obligation to my fellow soldiers and eNL, but also to our new commander. I'll support him the best way I can. DAF (being the top MU in eNL) should be a place where new and old players can fight for our country knowing they don't have to worry about any political or personal issues between others who hold a powerful position.


I'd like to present to you, Tim Veltkamp!

Who is Tim Veltkamp?
Well in Real Life I live in Australia, we immigrated here when was I was 10 or 11. I still speak and read Dutch just fine, though the writing it a bit of a problem.
I joined eRep early 2009, v1, which was completely different game back then. Got involved in MoFA as Ambassador, then later on in MoD. I stayed in MoD consecutively for a year if not more, as General which handed out most of the supplies etc. Secretary and Minister.

What kind of commander would you like to be?
I'll try to be there as much as possible for all of the soldiers, whether that be for support or simply orders. I may not have all the ins and outs on everything MU related yet but with continued support from everyone it will be fine, we are all in this together regardless of political alignment.

Have you had any captain, 2nd commander, commander experience in the past? What roles did you perform back then?
Other than Private MUs, no. Back in v1/Rising I did a lot of stuff, handing out supplies daily/multiple times a day to reorganising our armed forces. Most of the oldies will remember hopefully!

Do you have a personal message for the soldiers of DAF?
Well first of all I would like to thank Weekstrom for his continued contribution to DAF. Secondly, I know it might take some people some time to accept me and that's fine, but DAF is the heart of our eCountry and we need to keep it strong together. There will also be a couple different changes here and there but most things should remain the same.

Tim, Thank you very much for answering these questions. I believe that the people that didn't know you before you became MoD this month will have more confidence in you as commander.


Wrapping up this article I'd like to add a little something about my personal position in the past few weeks. When Odan ordered Weekstrom to step down as commander and hand over command of our MU I sided with Weekstrom who asked for reasoning. In the next few days Congress had to vote twice, once for Tim as new commander and once for Odan having the power to relieve our commander. I found myself between the law and my heart. I considered Weekstrom to be in his right, he approached the occurring problem from a democratic perspective. I voted against Tim as new commander of DAF (nothing personal), and against Odan having the power to relieve a military commander to step down just like that. Our law has its loopholes and is open for interpretation but I guess they will never really disappear. As you might have noticed reading this article I encourage everyone to support Tim as new commander. I believe this is in the best interest of our country. Now you know my position in the past few weeks and my motives for the future I hope those of you who just like me sided with Weekstrom think about our future and look forward.




Signed,

Shawtyl0w