On Friday 24 November, Niels Juel arrived at his base port at Naval Station Korsør after just over 2½ months of deployment in NATO’s Standing Naval Forces in the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
With his presence, Niels Juel has contributed to the NATO alliance’s deterrence against potential threats to allies by demonstrating NATO’s ability and willingness to defend the alliance’s population and territory.
Niels Juel has for a period been redeployed to NATO’s Standing Naval Forces in the Mediterranean in order to also be ready to solve a possible evacuation effort. This preparation took place at the same time that the tasks for NATO were solved.
In connection with the return home, an event was held with relatives of the crew. Around 240 relatives had turned up to receive. To mark the homecoming, a hot dog van was arranged on the quay, and the relatives were all given the opportunity to be shown around the ship.
At the end of the event, relatives and crew gathered in the helicopter hangar, where the commander of the 2nd Squadron and the commander of Niels Juel gave a speech. Last but not least, the head of Niels Juel handed out children’s medals to the approximately 40 children who had attended.
The children’s medals are awarded as appreciation for the effort it takes to have a close relative deployed. Some of the smallest children came to their first medal presentation asleep, but the pride clearly radiated from children and adults alike.