USAREUR at the Vanguard of Multilevel Multinational Engagement
Boots on the Ground:
Vital in Peacetime,Too
T
he dim cargo bed of a Lithuanian military truck
served as the unlikely nexus of U.S. military strategy as it applies to foreign military engagement and
multinational training, but as raindrops thudded
against the cargo bed’s taut cover on the first day of exercise
Saber Strike 2012’s situational training phase, there was no
better example of the exercise’s purpose.
Saber Strike, which focuses on the NATO partner states of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, is one of the premier annual joint
Top left, CPT Michael Adams from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s (ARNG) 2nd
Squadron, 104th Cavalry (2/104th Cavalry), 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, offers advice to a Lithuanian reservist during exercise Saber Strike 2012. Right, exercise observercontroller SSG Matthew Doerr from U.S. Army Europe’s (USAREUR) 3rd Squadron, 2nd
Cavalry Regiment, reviews a situational training event with a Latvian platoon leader.
32 ARMY ■ September 2012
A U.S. soldier from the 2/104th Cavalry maneuvers alongside a Lithuanian soldier as role
players pose a threat during the situational training exercise (STX) portion of Saber Strike.
Text and Photographs
By Dennis Steele
Senior Staff Writer
An American soldier’s assault pack displays
badges and flags (Canada and Lithuania in
bottom row) of five Saber Strike participants.
September 2012 ■ ARMY
33
Chris Curry, a
trainer from USAREUR’s Seventh
Army’s Joint Multinational Training
Command (JMTC),
conducts a counterimprovised explosive device (IED)
class. JMTC’s training team specialties
range from individual and small-unit
tactical training to
advanced simulation training for
senior leaders.
multinational training events staged by U.S. Army Europe
(USAREUR). (Canada, Finland, France and the United
Kingdom also sent personnel to participate in Saber Strike,
making it an eight-country NATO exercise.)
U
Above, soldiers from Canada and Latvia go through an
urban combat STX lane during Saber Strike. Center,
Canadian soldiers from a Highland regiment wear traditional headgear during the exercise’s opening ceremony.
34 ARMY ■ September 2012
SAREUR conducts or supports more than 20 multinational exercises annually and stages many other
engagement events such as courses, conferences
and symposia. USAREUR’s exercise and training
program is sophisticated and complex, but each element depends on a simple and proven formula—American
soldiers directly working with international forces to build
relationships and interoperability.
Under the refocused U.S. national strategy announced
earlier this year, the importance of multinational training
and engagement events will increase. Such events are based
Top left, Pennsylvania ARNG SGT Michael
De Benedetto assists Lithuanian reserve
PVT Vida Riukiene as she fires the .50caliber machine gun mounted on his
Stryker reconnaissance vehicle on the first
day of Saber Strike. Top right, an Estonian
soldier carries his company guidon during
the exercise. Bottom left, a U.S. soldier
prepares to start his Stryker vehicle.
on face-to-face encounters and rapport-building in a personal way, proving that even in peacetime, America needs
boots on the ground.
On that rainy morning in Latvia, a pair of those boots belonged to Pennsylvania Army National Guard CPT Michael
Adams, who was fitting into the role of liaison officer. He is
the commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop,
2nd Squadron, 104th Cavalry (2/104th). During Saber Strike
he was attached to a headquarters company from the
Lithuanian National Defense Volunteer Forces, the reserve
component of the Lithuanian army, which was preparing
for a deployment to Afghanistan to serve in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and support a
provincial reconstruction team in the German army sector.
One of the purposes layered within Saber Strike is helping
to tactically prepare NATO units for ISAF deployments. A
Latvian regular army company also
was training for an ISAF rotation during the exercise.
A composite platoon from 2/104th
Cavalry, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat
Team, 28th Infantry Division, was partnered with the
Lithuanian company during Saber Strike. Lithuania and
Pennsylvania are paired under the National Guard’s State
Partnership Program, which had its start in the three Baltic
states more than 20 years ago as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia regained their independence. The program now extends to more than 60 countries worldwide, and USAREUR
uses assets under the program to bolster its training/engagement program. In Europe, 27 countries are partnered
with 27 states.
CPT Adams sat on a bench inside the truck listening to
radio chatter from the Lithuanian and U.S. platoons.
Lithuanian PVT Vida Riukiene operated the company radio, responding to calls from platoon leaders and relaying
messages to the exercise control cell in “NATO English”
(serviceable general English comprehension laced with an
September 2012 ■ ARMY
35
Right, CPT Daeius
Vizinis, commander of
the Lithuanian company
participating in Saber
Strike, receives firing
limit instructions. The
Lithuanian company
was training for an upcoming deployment to
NATO’s International
Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) in
Afghanistan. Below,
SGT Brandon Shoemaker gets instruction
on the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle from a
Lithuanian NCO.
understanding of military-specific terminology). When
PVT Riukiene got stuck on a word, CPT Adams came to
her rescue.
W
hile coordinating with the American side, his
job—as he saw it—was to be available to the
Lithuanian company’s leadership, the commander and executive officer, answering their
questions, mentoring when it was appropriate
and butting out of their business when that, too, was appropriate.
One of the higher-level strategic objectives of all multinational missions relates to the area of “assurance”—that a
U.S. presence at routine training events, for example, builds
trust among allies that the United States will also show up
when the alarm bells are ringing.
RFF is the acronym for request for forces, which a U.S.
theater commander would use when asking for additional
troops to respond to a contingency. As LTG Mark P.
Center right, a Lithuanian soldier goes through the urban
combat STX lane during Saber Strike. Right, a Latvian
soldier responds to a situation on the counter-IED STX lane.
36 ARMY ■ September 2012
Right, SSG Quentin Hoover, a 2/104th
Cavalry squad leader, offers tactical
advice to a Lithuanian platoon leader.
Center, CPT Adams listens to a suggestion from his Lithuanian counterpart.
Bottom, 1LT Byron Stouffer, a 2/104th
Cavalry platoon leader, goes over plans
with Lithuanian CPT Dazius Sezenas.
Hertling, the USAREUR commanding general, often reminds his staff: “You can’t RFF trust.”
L
TG Hertling means, of course,
that trust must be built long
beforehand and at all levels of
command structures. Trustbuilding, therefore, is an important component of USAREUR’s
multinational engagements, and trust
takes root at the personal level. CPT
Adams was proving that in the back of
the rain-splattered truck.
The truck was the Lithuanian company’s mobile command post, and it
was parked on a fan of damp sand that
extended from the berm of a live-fire
range in the training area of Camp
Adazi, Latvia, which is the largest
training area in the Baltic states and traditionally hosts the situation training
exercise (STX) and field training exer-
38 ARMY ■ September 2012
cise (FTX) portions of Saber Strike. The exercise’s command
post exercise (CPX) elements were held in Estonia this year.
Vestiges of the past dotted the Adazi training area—dank
bunkers, tumbledown buildings, jagged shards of concrete
signs and eroding sumps of foxholes and tank fighting positions, all of which were constructed during the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. Adazi Base served as a Soviet armor
brigade’s camp throughout most of the Cold War.
The American and Lithuanian soldiers had been together
for little more than a day and the fit was already comfortable.
It was apparent that the Lithuanian troops liked CPT Adams.
PVT Riukiene drew a cartoon character between radio
transmissions. Adding the day’s date and the greeting “Best
Wishes from Lithuania” to the bottom of the drawing, she
handed it to CPT Adams and said, “This is for you.”
As he thanked her, a big, gregarious Lithuanian platoon
leader clamored into the back of the truck and started rooting around in his pack, eventually hauling out a big hunk of
smoked bacon and whipping out a particularly large combat knife to carve off generous slices, which he handed out
all around. “From home,” he told the American captain.
When the lip-smacking was done, CPT Adams asked for
the radio handset and called the American platoon sergeant.
“How much ammo have you got left?” (The U.S. Stryker
platoon was conducting live-fire training with its vehicle-
Below, SFC Matthew Morgan readies his Stryker vehicle
for movement during Saber Strike. Right, a Latvian army
reserve soldier receives instructions during the field training portion of the exercise. Bottom, Lithuanian soldiers
help a simulated casualty aboard an American Stryker.
The Lithuanians lined up and one by one rattled a
healthy burst through the American .50-caliber machine
gun, and deciding that wasn’t enough, gathered all the
magazines they could find and let several American troops
fire their brand new Heckler and
Koch service rifles. They then piled up
training rounds for their Carl Gustav
recoilless rifles and conducted a
makeshift class on the weapon’s operation for the American guardsmen.
B
mounted weapons on the range next to the Lithuanian
company.) Upon receiving the answer, he told the platoon
sergeant to shut down the training, load the remaining
ammo into the back of a Stryker and roll it over to the
Lithuanian side.
“You want to shoot our guns?” CPT Adams asked the
lieutenant. Beaming, he replied, “Ohhhh yeah!” It was the
Americans’ “from home” offering.
40 ARMY ■ September 2012
efore the day was done, each
side had shot pretty much
everything the other side had,
and they were all shaking
each other’s hands and having a good time in the aftermath of a
soggy rain shower. It all had started
with a drawing and a hunk of smoked
bacon in the back of a truck—the first
step toward building the kind of trust
that you just can’t RFF.
The U.S. Army will be increasingly
engaged in building relationships and
trust with foreign armies under the
post-Iraq/Afghanistan conflict strategic
guidance that emphasizes “strengthening alliances and partnerships across all regions.” The guidance, released last January, stated, “Whenever possible, we
will develop innovative, low-cost, and small-footprint approaches to achieve our security objectives, relying on exercises, rotational presence and advisory capabilities.”
The guidance included such missions among the priorities
set as military planners looked at the way forward to sustain
U.S. global leadership, stating, “U.S. forces will conduct a
Above, Estonian soldiers use their Humvee to enter a
building on an urban combat training site. Right, U.S. soldiers cover the flank of their Lithuanian counterparts during training. Below, CPT Adams (right) answers questions from Lithuanian soldiers during a training break.
sustainable pace of presence operations abroad, including rotational deployments and bilateral and multilateral training
exercises. These activities reinforce deterrence, help to build
the capacity and competence of U.S., allied, and partner
forces for internal and external defense, strengthen alliance
cohesion, and increase U.S. influence.”
S
tanding in the sand of the Adazi live-fire range as
U.S. A-10 aircraft made gun runs and dismounted
Latvian troops peppered targets with small-arms
fire, LTG Hertling noted that the strategic guidance
emphasis on building partnerships has been USAREUR’s emphasis for many years.
Concerning USAREUR, the commanding general said,
“It’s not the way forward because we’ve been building partnerships for a long time, but it’s the way we MUST continue. We’ve been doing exercises with a lot of forces over
the last 10 years, and it has built all of our European allies to
the point where they can fight.”
42 ARMY ■ September 2012
Using the Baltic states as examples of progress over that decade, he added, “Because of
the progress they’ve made, they have a good,
capable military. They still need assistance in
the enablers—joint tactical air controller
(JTAC) training, engineers, intelligence—and
now we’re getting to those pieces. So, the
multinational exercises we do along with the
multinational training—because it’s more than
exercises, we have to train these guys first, and
those are two different things—cause them to
have a pretty capable military and fight above
their weight class.”
LTG Hertling added that the work done by
USAREUR in the past, particularly with the former Soviet
Bloc countries that are now NATO members, has resulted
not only in improving military capabilities for those countries but also in creating some of America’s best allies from
what had been potential enemies.
“These are the guys who are with us in Afghanistan,” he
said.
“One of the points that I continue to try to make with anybody who says we’re still fighting the Cold War is by saying, ‘Seriously, have you been over here lately? Do you see
what kind of Cold War is here? All the people we were prepared to fight against are now on our side, and, in fact, are
providing [many of] the forces that we’re using in Afghanistan.’”
LTG Hertling continued, “The figure I use is: Of the 40,000
[non-U.S.] ISAF forces in Afghanistan, 91 percent of them
come from Europe. They have to train before they get to
combat, and they train and exercise with us. That’s the criticality of U.S. Army Europe.”
Above, a Latvian army convoy stops to assess an IED threat during Saber Strike. Right, SGT Bradley Herron, 2/104th Cavalry,
goes on patrol with the Lithuanian reserve company. Below, a
Lithuanian radio operator checks in with her squad leader.
44 ARMY ■ September 2012
SSG Hoover (left) and SGT Herron demonstrate a rifle technique for the Lithuanian
company. Right, a Lithuanian platoon leader assesses a training situation.
T
he general indicated that USAREUR approaches maining two-star command under USAREUR. USAREUR’s
partnership and trust-building in a holistic man- V Corps headquarters will be inactivated after it completes
ner, providing an overarching orchestration ele- its current ISAF deployment, and under current force-cut
ment that uses the command’s organic assets and plans, USAREUR also will lose two of its brigade combat
assets such as those currently provided by the teams (BCTs) as the 170th and 172nd Infantry BCTs will be
State Partnership Program. That function will remain criti- eliminated, leaving USAREUR with only two ground macal in the employment of rotating
training units that could be provided
for multinational exercises in the future as USAREUR forces are downsized.
“We plan the exercises. We conduct
the training at the Joint Multinational
Readiness Center. We provide the
training support facilities in the different countries. Our guys are force multiplying training. USAREUR controls
and pulls it all together. … That’s where
USAREUR contributes. It’s a very intricate choreography of many different
organizations,” LTG Hertling explained.
USAREUR has endured significant
force reductions in the past several
years. The division headquarters and
their tactical formations previously assigned to USAREUR have returned to
the United States, leaving the 21st TheA Latvian army scout prepares for a mission during Saber Strike.
ater Support Command as the only reSeptember 2012 ■ ARMY
45
neuver BCTs: the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Stryker) based in Germany and
the 173rd Airborne BCT based in Italy.
The USAREUR commander said that
the command can still accomplish its
multinational training and engagement
mission with the impending reductions, but he cautioned against imposing further reductions as more cuts
could undermine the efforts.
“When the training packages fall
apart,” LTG Hertling said, “then you
don’t have the allied support for operations as we have in ISAF. They didn’t
get there on their own; we were the
ones who helped them do that.
“We will still have a significant-size
force over here when those two
brigades eventually leave; we will still
have 30,000 soldiers here in Europe.
It’s going to be tight in terms of continuing the kinds of things we need to do,
Above, members of USAREUR’s 160th
Forward Surgical Team treat a mock patient during a mission rehearsal exercise
conducted during Saber Strike. The team
soon will deploy to Afghanistan. Right,
Americans and Lithuanian team members
participate in a tug-of-war contest during
the exercise’s games day. Below, an
Estonian soldier shouts commands.
but we can do it after Afghanistan rolls down a little bit
more. But it is something we must continue to do or we are
going to lose the alliance capabilities. We are an economyof-force effort here in Europe right now, and I think we’re
contributing significantly to the training of other countries.”
U
SAREUR’s area of responsibility (AOR) covers 51
countries across an expanse that stretches from the
Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Scandinavian ice cap to the Mediterranean, including
Israel and Turkey. The Iron Curtain once marked
its eastern boundary and defense line during the Cold War,
but with the breakup of the Soviet Union two decades ago,
many of the former Soviet Bloc countries are now partner
nations that, like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, made the
hard climb to NATO membership.
(continued on page 50)
46 ARMY ■ September 2012
ducting its final mission rehearsal exercise at Adazi Base, using part of the
base hospital.
Other U.S. participants in Saber
Strike included a Marine Corps Reserve weapons company and JTACs
from the Air Force Reserve. An Air
National Guard contingent flew A-10
attack aircraft and KC-135 tankers to
support the exercise. USAREUR’s 21st
Theater Support Command played an
important role in Saber Strike, directly
supporting American personnel at the
exercise sites while also conducting
reception, staging, onward movement
and integration training and providing U.S. Army senior leadership to the
CPX phase.
Seventh Army’s JMTC supplied the
exercise’s training foundation—deA Latvian soldier takes position to cover his squad during an STX event.
ploying training and support teams
and gear ranging from advanced simu“We are only 20 years from the Soviet times. We started lation equipment for the CPX to sensors and range targeting
from zero—not even weapons,” said Lithuanian CPT Daz- systems for the STX/FTX.
ius Sezenas, the company executive officer with whom CPT
JMTC is the pivotal piece in USAREUR’s training proAdams was working. “But we grew up and joined NATO, gram, providing training assets at the Hohenfels and
and exercises like Saber Strike are how you grow up. NATO Grafenwoehr training areas in Germany. (Hohenfels is home
is not just something that exists on paper. It really works.”
to the U.S. Army Joint Multinational Readiness Center.)
JMTC has the capability to deploy a wide range of training
PT Daeius Vizinis, the Lithuanian company com- teams and sophisticated training equipment packages
mander, added, “During Saber Strike, our com- throughout USAREUR’s area of responsibility. Training
manders and soldiers for the first time are work- teams from the command arrived in Latvia with 19 containing in the field, not just on their own but with ers filled with equipment for the exercise.
coalition forces and partners. Mainly, it’s exchangWhile conducting or participating in multinational exering experiences, and it involves not just officers but soldiers, cises throughout its AOR, USAREUR hosts many other
with all of us learning how to adapt to
different situations.”
While the 2/104th Cavalry element
was working with the Lithuanian
company during Saber Strike, a composite Stryker unit from USAREUR’s
2nd Cavalry Regiment (CR) was partnered with an Estonian company. The
2nd CR also was in the early stages of
preparing for an Afghanistan deployment during the exercise, conducting
individual and small-unit training.
USAREUR’s 160th Forward Surgical
Team also was preparing for an ISAF
deployment during Saber Strike, con-
C
An American soldier checks for
targets, using his rifle’s scope.
50 ARMY ■ September 2012
training activities that range from international symposia for senior officers and NCOs to basic leadership
training for international soldiers at
the Seventh Army NCO Academy.
M
any exercises and other
training events are conducted under a mix of authority and funding. Saber
Strike, for example, was simultaneously a U.S. European Command (EUCOM) exercise (meeting
NATO responsibility criteria), a U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) exercise
(meeting the criteria of U.S. multiservice training) and a USAREUR exercise (under the criteria of training its
units for deployment and meeting its
general Title 10 responsibilities to provide trained and ready forces for the
Above, a Stryker from the 2/104th Cavalry moves
through the woods in the Latvian training area. Below,
SSG Sean Caruso, Company I, 2nd Cavalry Regiment,
makes a radio call while on checkpoint duty.
52 ARMY ■ September 2012
nation’s defense).
Within the Title 10 construct, USAREUR also must coordinate interoperability of systems such as mission command
or communications systems with the partner countries. This
interoperability also is promoted during the exercises.
The complex training calendar is planned at USAREUR
headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. (USAREUR Headquarters is slated to move to Wiesbaden, Germany, in the future as facilities are constructed.) Currently, COL Bill
Williams oversees the program as the USAREUR G-37
(training plans).
Pennsylvania National Guard CPT
Adams discusses various routes
with his Lithuanian counterpart.
T
he top three USAREUR-planned annual regional
exercises are Immediate Response, held in Croatia;
Saber Guardian, currently held in Romania; and
Saber Strike, with the tactical portions traditionally
held in Latvia because of the available facilities but
with overall responsibility rotating among Latvia, Lithuania
and Estonia.
Added to USAREUR’s calendar this year is exercise
Saber Junction, which will be held at the Joint Multinational
Training Center and involves soldiers from 12 countries
training alongside the 2nd Cavalry Regiment at Grafen-
woehr in a decisive-action/full-spectrum
JCS exercise, according to COL Williams.
“In general, the overall program that
we’re accomplishing here is based on a EUCOM strategy of active security,” COL
Williams said. “We have two higher headquarters in USAREUR, EUCOM and the
Department of the Army, and we have two
focuses. One is to get our units ready for
war for the Department of the Army or for
any other operations worldwide—our Title
10 responsibilities. The other focus is how
we do that in this theater to also meet the
EUCOM commander’s goals.”
He said that those goals “not only involve building partner capacity—shifting more toward sustaining partner capacity that we built over the past 10 years
with some of our Eastern Bloc countries—they involve interoperability, assurance and access. Assurance is for places
where they may have concerns about their safety from
neighbors. They sure feel good when the United States
shows up with some troops once in a while—demonstrating
that we are willing to protect them. It reinforces our position.” In addition, he noted, “It’s not easy to come into another country, go through customs, follow their laws and
regulations, work under established status of forces agree-
Left, Canadian soldiers enter an urban training site building.
Above, a Lithuanian soldier stands watch during the exercise.
September 2012 ■ ARMY
53
and that dwell time has allowed us to
use the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the
173rd Airborne Brigade a little bit more
than we have in the past 10 years just
because we’ve had time with them.”
He said USAREUR maintains a
schedule of “home and away games.”
Away games are multinational training
exercises in other countries; home
games are exercises conducted at the
Joint Multinational Training Center.
“We can invite multinational forces to
be a part of the home games,” COL
Williams noted. “That’s one example
of how we’ve blended together the Title 10 responsibility and the strategy of active security.”
U
SAREUR’s exercise program is entering a postISAF focus stage, he said, moving beyond the maneuver unit levels to develop exercises and engagements that increase interoperability at higher levels
of command.
To that end, USAREUR added another level of interoperability training this year, conducting its first Combined
Force Land Component Commander (CFLCC) course in
July for the most senior level of allied leadership, a war college-level interoperability training opportunity.
Speaking from his headquarters after Saber Strike ended,
the USAREUR commanding general said, “This is critically
important because we are stepping up to the next level of
leader development within USAREUR for our allied partners. Over the last 15 to 20 years we’ve been doing theater
security cooperation at the unit level to help forces develop
their countries’ militaries. After 10 years of war, where
Top, Estonian soldiers dismount
to check for IEDs during the field
training exercise portion of Saber
Strike. Center, a 2nd Cavalry gunner covers the perimeter during
training. Right, American soldiers
salute during the Saber Strike
2012 opening ceremony.
ments and handle important details
like getting services, water and food,
ensuring that they meet the standards
that we require for our soldiers.”
He explained that to do all that in
two countries simultaneously, as with
Saber Strike, is even more difficult.
Preparing units for a NATO ISAF deployment rotation has been the primary training objective
for USAREUR training exercises since the war in
Afghanistan began.
“ISAF has been our focus—preparing for NATO operations in Afghanistan—but what you’re about to see is a
shift,” COL Williams added. “We’ve had more dwell time,
54 ARMY ■ September 2012
we’ve had a lot of multinational forces contributing to coalition operations, leaders are realizing that there’s an importance in understanding one another’s leadership style, leadership techniques and mission command potential.”
“In USAREUR,” he added, “we have Joint Multinational
Readiness Center where units come together to train to-
Left, SPC Chris Storie from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment attends a counter-IED class during the exercise. Right, a
Latvian army soldier returns fire during an opposing force attack as his unit goes through a Saber Strike STX lane.
gether, and we’ve been expanding that. We have the exercise
program … where we’re doing regional partnerships working together. We have our NCO academy, where we’re bringing young soldiers from other countries to train with our
specialists to become junior NCOs. Over the last eight years,
we’ve had close to 1,100 NCOs from other countries attend
our Warrior Leader Course, where they really get experience
with multinational partners at the youngest of levels. Because we work in joint interagency and multinational environments, it’s also necessary to train senior leaders to work
in those environments before they get to an operation.”
Using the Army War College’s CFLCC course as the
model, USAREUR developed a course adapted to a coalition environment and gained JCS approval, issuing invitations to European allies.
“The officers attending are not only rising officers from
their militaries—generals and senior colonels—many are future chiefs of staff of allied armies,” LTG Hertling noted.
T
he participants engage in learning how to manage
as a CFLCC in a combined/joint/interagency
coalition environment through discussions with
leaders from the military and government sectors
who have experience in that environment.
“USAREUR is leading the way in multinational engagement,” LTG Hertling said. “We’re always expanding what
we do with our allies. We have 26 NATO countries here in
Europe and a total of 51 countries—some NATO, some
not—in our area of responsibility. So it’s important when we
56 ARMY ■ September 2012
talk about how we conduct operations out of theater or even
within a NATO Article 5 arrangement to understand what
leaders are thinking and how they’re doing business. … The
importance is understanding each other and continuing to
gain trust and how to conduct operations and knowing each
other before you potentially hit the battlefield.”
While in Latvia during Saber Strike, LTG Hertling said
that American soldiers at all levels gain something through
multinational training experiences.
“Here’s what they get out of this,” he said. “We hear the
Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army say that
we need to broaden our soldiers. We need to give them
broadening experiences. We need to give them more cultural exchanges. Training in Europe, U.S. soldiers for the
first time could be talking to Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles or Georgians, and they understand cultures and
they understand how to work alliances when they come together in combat. … When you’re here, working with coalition partners, you have to work through languages. You
have to work through cultures. You have to work through
the way they do it. You can’t simulate that back in the
United States. So I would suggest—and I know I’m biased—that soldiers who train over here get a much better
training experience. They are much more broadened in
terms of leadership. They have to actually deploy to places
within their training; they actually have to bring equipment
across multinational lines and get through customs and get
into a country. Those are the kinds of thing we do in U.S.
Army Europe.”
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