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    Training Support Activity Europe provides key piece of Persistent Presence

    Latvia hosts Baltic forces regional training event

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Seth LaCount | Paratroopers from Lithuania, Estonia, the U.S. and Latvia, participate in a Baltic...... read more read more

    GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - Training Support Activity Europe has a history of helping U.S. Soldiers train throughout Europe and the recent activity of U.S. Soldiers in the Baltic region, known as Persistent Presence, is no exception.

    The mission of the TSAE, a part of the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command here, is to identify, acquire, manage and sustain the resources required to support training within the U.S. Army Europe area of responsibility.

    "Our mission here at TSAE is to provide primarily Title 10 support, but we also do multinational partnership support for training activities from ranges, local training areas, field training exercises to DA photos and Visual Information, as well as simulators," said Maj. Glenn Tugman, deputy director for TSAE. "So we cover that gamut of support here in Europe. We're currently in 11 countries providing support as we speak today."

    Persistent Presence began in April when approximately 600 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as part of unscheduled land-forces assurance activities to demonstrate commitment to NATO obligations and sustain interoperability with allied forces. These training rotations are scheduled to take place for the next few months and beyond. They are in addition to previously scheduled multinational land force military exercises in the region.

    And in the case of Persistent Presence, like previous training events in Europe, the TSAE is there for assistance. This time, however, was somewhat different according to Tugman.

    "The thing that's different here [Persistent Presence] is the notification," he said. "We generally spend 12 months to get ourselves ready to execute an exercise. For Persistent Presence, we had about a week. About seven days of planning and preparation and then another seven days to push guys out with training aids and devices and what they needed. That's what was unique about it; it was a very short notification and execution. We were able to meet it and get our guys out there in that short amount of time. That speaks to our adaptability and expeditionary capability."

    According to Ron Chase, an exercise planner with the TSAE, the TSAE currently has a two-man team for Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for Persistent Presence. Chase also said that these countries were receptive to the presence of U.S. Soldiers.

    "I've worked on the African continent, I've worked in Bulgaria and even Ukraine and they're all very receptive to us," he said. "…overall they're happy for us to be there and they want us there."

    According to Tugman, the TSAE's support of Persistent Presence has been a success so far.

    "Everything that we have received back so far is that it has been very successful," he said. "In fact the 173rd was surprised how fast we got there to support them. The units here in United States Army Europe (USAREUR), they see us every day when they're out doing training. But when you pack up and take off somewhere, and then a week later we show up and we're helping you there, that was a little bit of a surprise to them, I think, that we could get there that fast."

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 06.06.2014
    Date Posted: 06.06.2014 05:15
    Story ID: 132244
    Location: BW, DE

    Web Views: 342
    Downloads: 0

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