Who is the man, that in only eight hours, without any casualties and only two lightly injured soldiers, succeeded in neutralising the terrorists above Tetovo, and that in the last few days has made a significant impact with the clearing of terrain on Skopska Crna Gora?
General Pande Petrovski is a 58 year old, an extremely military minded man, who is happily married, whose military career, most of it served in Macedonia, Croatia and Kosovo, most of his time spent with the troops on the field. Who has risen through the ranks, starting from platoon commander, up to corps commander and recently Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Macedonian Army. This man is the founder of the ARM Second Corps in Bitola. After he graduated from the Military Academy for Armour and Mechanised Units in Banja Lukan, swiftly in 1965, he was promoted to lieutenant, at the very young age of 22 we might add!! . His career started in Jastrebarsko, a small town near Jasenovac in Croatia, where he remained for nine years until 1974 where he left on promotion as Captain First Class. To further his academic mind, he attended postgraduate studies at the Command Staff Academy in Belgrade, upon graduation he was again promoted to the rank of Major, all this at the age of 31. After this stint, he was posted to Prilep and he was appointed Chief of Staff serving the Armour-Mechanised Brigade. By the time he was 41 years old he was already colonel and Chief of Staff of the Brigade in Veles from where he left for the National Defence School known as the "generals' school", nothing was to stop this man climbing the ladder of promotion, he was appointed Commander of the Armour-Mechanised Brigade in Pristina which was part of the Third Army of the former JNA. As he himself says, "after his stay in Kosovo he knows the terrain on both sides of the border better than his own pocket”. Indeed he does! All this was very crucial after the meeting with President Trajkovski for this early retired general to be appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Macedonian Army, and to lead in the action of driving the terrorists away, can only be described as, “outstanding”.
Again promotion wasn’t too far around the corner, only eight years ago was he promoted to the rank of Major General when he was 50. This man is one of the first three generals to be promoted in the army of independent Macedonia an achievement he can be proud of. General Petrovski prepared all the strategic plans for the defence of the Republic of Macedonia. He firmly stands on the position that, the defence of Macedonia should be based on its own forces, to whom he knows only too well, but only if Macedonia is capable of defending itself, can it present itself, or more precisely Macedonia could be a serious candidate for an ever demanding membership in NATO.
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MACEDONIA FOR THE MACEDONIANS
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