It was in March last year that Vance visited the world's largest island. The fact that he then talked about the Danes as bad allies was the last straw for Knudsen.
I felt betrayed.
The first thing he does when he and his wife Gina welcome guests to their semi-detached house in Køge, south of Copenhagen, is to thank Sweden for its strong support, now that Denmark is in its worst crisis since World War II.
He wants us to understand that the Danish relationship with the US has been something very special. But it has broken down.
They are not only doing an injustice to Denmark and to Greenland. They are doing an injustice to the values we have shared.
Soldiers in coffins
He has served abroad for half his professional life. He has fought in Afghanistan twice, side by side with Americans. He participated 28 times in the painful ceremonies when soldiers were sent home in coffins - to the US, to Canada and to Denmark.
During one of his missions abroad, he experienced 58 rocket attacks in eight months.
For me, it was a slow deterioration of the psyche.
Søren Knudsen has no regrets. He is proud of what he has accomplished and the most important thing for the more than 40,000 Danish veterans is that they are met with respect, he emphasizes.
“Everyone is angry”
At the same time, everything is easier to handle when your arms and legs are intact and you don't suffer from serious mental problems. But how does it feel for someone who no longer has their daughter or son in their life? Or for someone who has to put on a prosthesis every morning?
As vice chairman of the voluntary organization Danish Veterans, he can't really speak for everyone, but he still says:
All the veterans are very, very angry right now.
In Denmark, veterans are a cherished group with well-developed state support and extensive social activities based on volunteer efforts.
Responding to a crisis
There are frequent meetings and there is always readiness to respond when someone is in crisis.
"It's a few percent who have a severe PTSD diagnosis," says Søren Knudsen.
Now the veterans are also planning a demonstration for the first time. On January 31, they will march peacefully through Copenhagen, from the veterans' monument at Kastellet to the US embassy.
We also send many greetings to our American friends. We are not against Americans, not those we know, with whom we fought together.
Denmark has approximately 42,400 registered veterans (May 2025).
The figure refers to people who have been deployed by the defense forces on international operations one or more times. People who are still working, within the defense forces or in other parts of society, are also counted.
Since 1991, the Danish Defense Forces have had personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Balkans, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Gulf of Aden, Mali, Lebanon, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Guinea and the Baltics.
Sources: Danish Defence Forces and Veterans' Centre
