HISTORY OF THE HONOR BATTALION

The Honor  Battalion was established on the foundation of the First Guard Brigade which was formed after the Republic of Macedonia’s independence, on March 26, 1992, in the “Ilinden” barracks, after the departure of then Yugoslav People’s Army and the formation of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia.

With the restructuring of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia in 2001, the formation of the Guard Battalion – the Honor  Battalion was established as part of the First Guards Brigade, which was actively involved in defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Macedonia in all crisis areas.

According to its formation structure at that time, the battalion was consisted of: Command of the Battalion, the first and the second guard company, service company and the military orchestra. The Battalion included officers with extended experience gained in the first Guard Brigade, thus, on 22.07.2002, the Guard Battalion became officially functional.

On 01.03.2006, The Guard Battalion was transformed into the Honor Battalion, which included in its structure the Command of the Battalion, the Guard Company, the Service Company and the military orchestra.

The last transformation within the Army of the Republic of Macedonia, which meant professionalization, modernization and comprehensive preparations for NATO accession, placed the Honor  Battalion within the formation structure of the Logistics Support Command of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia.

The mission of the Honor Battalion is:

• Professional and systematic training and improvement of the overall structure for providing protocol honors of varying nature and scope.

• Continuous provision of logistic support to the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia in all circumstances.

• Securing the Presidential Residence by the specially trained platoon which is part of the structure and accomplishes the mission of the Honor  Battalion.

According to the Rule of Service in the Army of the Republic of Macedonia, the Honor  Battalion has achieved by now a quality and professional level of organization and conduct of combat training, thus more realistic conditions are established for achieving the foreseen standards set by NATO – the combat rules.

The Honor  Battalion have honored at the highest professional level numerous foreign delegations and dignitaries.

GUARD UNIFORM

The Guard Uniform is consisted of the following items:

- Guard Hat
- Guard Scarf
- Guard Coat
- Guard Belt
- Shirt
- Guard Trousers
- Guard Boots
- White Gloves
- Guard Overcoat

• The Guard Hat is a stylized dark red cap; the symbol of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia is applied on both sides of the hat which represents stylized sunflower blossom.
• Guard Scarf is a red silk scarf.
• Guard Coat is grey with red-black applications on the collar; the buttons are designed in gold color with applied symbol of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia; on the right side of the coat there is a red thread knitted plumb-line with metal elements on both edges which represent two bullets.
• Guard Belt is made of dark red fabric embroidered with sterling gold thread in traditional Macedonian embroidery which is buttoned up with a buckle; the symbol of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia in gold color is applied on the buckle.
• The Shirt is made of white silk.
• Guard Trousers are made of grey cloth with two sewn red strips on the external side of the trousers.
• Guard Boots are black leather, knee-high boots with sawn grey leather strips; they represent stylized galosh shoes.
• White linen Gloves.
• Guard Overcoat is a stylized dark red overcoat (long coarse jacket); under the collar, in line with the buckle for buttoning up the overcoat, two metal gold color clasps are applied which represent the Macedonian shield.
There are two types of Guard Overcoat, a summer linen overcoat and a winter velvet overcoat.