American general to receive honorary citizenship of Bratislava

Major General Roy Martin Umbarger, the commander of the US National Guard in Indiana, will receive honorary citizenship of Bratislava on September 26 from Mayor Milan Ftáčnik, according to Ftáčnik’s spokesperson, Ľubomír Andrássy, the TASR newswire reported.

Major General Roy Martin Umbarger, the commander of the US National Guard in Indiana, will receive honorary citizenship of Bratislava on September 26 from Mayor Milan Ftáčnik, according to Ftáčnik’s spokesperson, Ľubomír Andrássy, the TASR newswire reported.

“Consent was given by the city counsellors to grant honorary citizenship based on a request made to Bratislava by Slovakia’s chief of General Staff, General Ľubomír Bulík," said Andrássy, as quoted by TASR.

Bratislava wants to bestow the honour on Umbarger in recognition of his significant contribution to peace and friendship between the Slovak and American nations and to his help in professionalising and modernising the Slovak armed forces which form part of NATO, TASR wrote.

“Umbarger is the first foreigner outside the EU to ever receive this,” Andrássy told TASR.

Only three other people have been awarded honorary citizenship so far: former mayor of Vienna Helmut Zilk in 1990; German soprano Edit Gruber in 1997; and former Austrian ambassador to Slovakia Maximilian Pammer in 2009.

Source: TASR

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad