Photo By Staff Sgt. Angela Parady | First Sgt. Thomas Thornhill, first sergeant for Company A, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry...... read more read more
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RIGA, Latvia - More than 150 Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division are training with their Baltic allies at a base located outside Latvia’s capital of Riga.
These soldiers bring with them confidence in their skill sets and abilities, as well as armed and mechanized equipment to help train their NATO allies. The cooperative training between the allied partners helps foster development for all the forces involved, as well as instilling confidence, and breaking down cultural barriers.
“1st Cav was tasked with the mission of providing a training opportunity in Latvia with our soldiers and the Latvian’s in order to share experience, as well as to improve relations with a country we don’t normally get the opportunity to work with,” said Company A, first sergeant, 1st Sgt. Thomas Thornhill.
Called “the Stallions,” 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment is a Combined Arms Team, so they have both M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. These tanks also traveled to Latvia, giving soldiers the ability to bring combat firepower forward to any battlefield, and to train their multinational partners with this equipment, said Thornhill.
Pfc. Harry Newcomer, a Bradley mechanic from Hartford County, Md., traveled to Latvia with other soldiers from Company J. For the young soldier, this is his first time traveling to Europe, and he is enjoying the opportunity.
“We are here to support our NATO allies, and to support our Bradley’s and all the armored vehicles we have here,” said Newcomer. “They have never had any of our armored vehicles here, especially the tanks. They are all new to the area and none of the Latvians have had an opportunity to train on them. We are going to be working with them and training them to be able to use this sort of equipment.”
The 1st Cavalry recently replaced the 173rd Airborne Brigade for a large scale exercise taking place throughout the Baltic countries and Poland, known as Operation Atlantic Resolve. NATO soldiers were invited to take part in the exercise that was coordinated through U.S. Command, Europe and the current host nations.
Thornhill, who grew up outside of Alexandria, Louisiana, before traveling the world first in the Marines, then in the Army, said the joint training has many purposes, with an emphasis on developing trust and confidence among the participating nations. They are doing that through the cooperative nature of the exercise and sharing of knowledge, skills and abilities.
“The best thing, is this allows the Latvians to gain confidence in our abilities, and for us to understand and gain confidence in theirs,” he said. “Even more important, we are building trust. It all boils down to trust. The Latvians have to be asking themselves, can I trust these strangers who are coming onto my land, and say they are going to protect me? So often in Latvian history, the strangers that came in could not be trusted. They were here for social, economic or political gains, and ended up enslaving the people.”
Thornhill points to a sign behind him, an insignia patch for the Latvian Explosives Ordnance Disposal Company.
“We are guests here,” he said. “We were asked to come here and conduct training to build channels of communication and levels of trust in a foreign nation. We are not trying to change anything, we are not here as a defensive measure. This exercise is testing the capabilities of our combat team, and theirs.”
The soldiers from 1st Cavalry are living with and working with the Latvian soldiers, as well as Norwegians who are currently here for the exercise as well. Newcomer said that it is a great experience, and everyone he had met was really nice and helpful in getting the Americans settled in.
“Working so closely together, I know now that if we were in a situation that wasn’t an exercise, we would be equipped to work with our NATO allies, and be able to communicate better than before,” said Newcomer. “Being able to cross train with the allies, and see how they do things compared to how we do things, has opened my eyes to new ideas.”
Thornhill said this cross training leads to better, more developed soldiers.
“Soldiers exploring a different way to do things, it actually sets them up for success. It allows them to broaden their lens on the world, and see more than just the American way of doing things.”
Being exposed to different cultures, such as the Latvians, helps build relationships between the allied soldiers and emphasize a culture of trust and understanding between the nations who may stand next to each other in a conflict.
Thornhill pointed to the changing dynamic of military operations and a shift away from the Middle East after 13 plus years focusing most of our efforts there. With that transformation of the battlegrounds, and even missions, there is a renewed need for more cultural awareness. Living with and training here gave the soldiers of the 1st Cavalry a dynamic opportunity to work with cultures that they most likely had never worked with, or heard of.
He hopes that this training opens the eyes of many of his newer soldiers. Between 30 and 50 percent of his company have not deployed since joining the military. This mission, though short gives them experience living and working in a foreign environment, without the stressors of being in a combat environment.
“When I get back to the U.S., I will have a better trained company, who is culturally well rounded and has the capability, and more importantly the confidence that they can go to any continent on the planet and protect our national security interests with direct ground combat firepower at anytime, in any place.”
| Date Taken: | 10.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.27.2014 04:52 |
| Story ID: | 146122 |
| Location: | RIGA, LV |
| Hometown: | ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 777 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, NATO-led exercise to bring multinational forces together, by SSG Angela Parady, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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