“Many Dutch people felt involved in your well-being. People at home followed the news from the couch about increasing aggression in the Middle East, but you sailed towards it.” Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said this in Den Helder to the crew of HNLMS Evertsen. She received the Commemorative Medal International Missions from her hands June 24th.
The medal is an appreciation for the activities of the crew in the Mediterranean last spring. The Evertsen was then used to defend the French Carrier Strike Group against drones and missiles in the waters off Cyprus, but also this allied territory. This happened because of the war in the Middle East. Once in the Mediterranean, the ship was on heightened alert several times, but this did not lead to the use of weapons.
Collaboration
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius praised the flexibility, decisiveness and cooperation within Europe that the crew had shown during the assignment but did not forget the stragglers either. “Your home front also had a mission: to keep things running. Longer than expected. This medal is therefore partly for them as well.”
HNLMS Evertsen joined the French fleet on 6 February for an international exercise. During the voyage to the Baltic Sea, the war between the United States/Israel and Iran began. The fleet was then given a new assignment in the Mediterranean. This was followed by the French request whether the Evertsen could remain part of the task group, because of which the Dutch naval ship remained away from home for 3.5 months instead of the planned 2 months.