Ret. Gen. Daryl Bohac Outlines AFOCR’s Vision During Czech National Day Event in Chicago
AFoCR Secretary Daryl Bohac and Mr. Jakub Uteseny, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Chicago
Remarks by Ret. Gen. Daryl Bohac Highlight Future AFOCR Priorities:
It is a pleasure to be here in Chicago and to join in celebrating Czech Republic Statehood Day. My involvement with the Czech Republic began in 1998, when I first traveled there as part of the National Guard State Partnership Program. For those who may not be familiar with this program, it began in 1993, when former Warsaw Pact nations turned toward the West and NATO. The Czech Republic was one of the first countries to do so, and the Nebraska National Guard, along with the Texas National Guard, was partnered with the Czech Armed Forces—a partnership that has continued ever since.
Following my retirement from the military in 2023, I joined the Board of the American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFOCR). AFOCR played a significant role in supporting the Czech Republic’s admission to NATO. It was, and continues to be, a group of citizen-diplomats who work to maintain and strengthen the transatlantic relationship between our two countries. Joining AFOCR felt like a natural extension of the role I played as a senior leader in the Nebraska National Guard and of our shared mission to strengthen military and civic ties.
In this increasingly transactional world, it seems to me that citizen-diplomats will play an even more vital role in sustaining our relationship. AFOCR’s work is guided by four pillars: Political Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, Academic Diplomacy, and Economic Diplomacy. We aim to serve alongside our career diplomats to identify new ways to deepen and expand cooperation in each of these areas.
In closing, I can still hear echoes of the words chanted in Prague’s squares in 1989, when Czechs gathered, shook their keys, and said—and I paraphrase here—“If not now, when? If not us, who?” Those same words resonate today for all of us who care deeply about the friendship between our two nations. Indeed, it is a call to be engaged and involved.
