The Cross of Merit of the Minister of Defence of the Czech Repubnlic, 3^rd class was awarded to Gen. (ret.) Mihail E. Ionescu, PhD., Director of the Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History of the Ministry of National Defence of Romania, and to Col. Cristian Dorca, Director of the National Military Circle in Bucharest.

At the same time there was the opening of the exhibition and the launch of a book by Adrian Barbu “Wings of Steel”, which brings to Romanian readers a story of Czech soldiers fleeing, via Romania, to join the Czechoslovak Army in the West at the beginning of World War II.

Representatives of Romanian veterans, cultural and political institutions, members of the diplomatic corps, military attachés and media visited the event.