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NOVO SELO, Romania - Exercise Platinum Lion began its second iteration on Aug. 2 with U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, part of Black Sea Rotational Force 14.2, combined with soldiers from Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.
More than 200 partnered and allied personnel took part in numerous live fire ranges, advanced marksmanship skills, patrolling, non-lethal systems, breaching, and close air support training.
Cpl. Andrew Lembaris, an assault man with 3rd Bn. 8th Marines and BSRF 14.2, said participating in squad-attack live-fire ranges using mortars and rockets aids our interoperability with partner and allied nations.
“It’s a great learning experience for everyone involved,” said Lembaris. “We are here to learn and make mistakes from this training because here we can just start over. In combat you have to be ready because there is no do over.”
When nations fight side-by-side in combat they have to know what maneuvers each other will make and this interoperability training achieves just that, added Lembaris.
Along with consistent ground movement covering all avenues of training, Joint Terminal Air Controllers from each participating nation conducted close air support missions during the exercise.
Sergeant major Costinel Gheorghiu, a JTAC with the Romanian Armed Forces, worked in conjunction with Bulgarian pilots and U.S. Marine Corps JTAC’s to coordinate and execute training missions which would destroy designated targets on the ground.
“The more we train like this, the more effective we are when working together with other nations in real combat situations,” said Gheorghiu. “When we began the close air support training we noticed many differences in the tactics, techniques and procedures for each country, but we were quickly able to work with each other and create a commonality for us to follow.”
Ability to rapidly react and adapt to a changing situation was the goal of the close air support operations. Because of the differences in procedures, it forced all the JTAC’s to work together to accomplish the mission, added Gheorghiu.
The enhanced interoperability created and the partnerships formed will prove to be vital as exercise Platinum Lion culminates two weeks of training into one final exercise that will put the skill and coordination of each country to the test.
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2014 10:45 |
| Story ID: | 138960 |
| Location: | NOVO SELO, BG |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Black Sea Rotational Force 14 continues Platinum Lion, by Cpl Joshua Grant, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
