Photo By Sgt. 1st Class William Tanner | Troopers assigned to 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conduct a brief halt in their...... read more read more
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MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania – As 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment ends their current rotation in Operation Atlantic Resolve-North with the squadron’s current “Dragoon Ride” from Estonia to Germany, the Regiment remains actively engaged while continually supporting their NATO Allies.
2nd Squadron (Cougars), 2nd CR landed at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air base on March 20, 2015 and hit the ground running with the intentions of building strong relationships with our allies through bi-lateral and multilateral training. Within a few days, the unit had their Tactical Operation Center set up, having accounted for all personnel, equipment and weaponry. Following a rehearsal of concept drill, or ROC drill, the Cougar Squadron headed out on their first mission, a tactical road march from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air base to Smardan Training Area, a Romanian training location in northeast Romania.
“The tactical road march is meant as a transition point for 2nd Squadron,” said 2nd Lt. William Crawford, a civil and public affairs liaison assigned to the unit. “The movement is in preparation for a forward passage of lines with the 173rd (Airborne) Brigade Special Troops Battalion which will transition into squad and platoon live fire exercises.”
During the road march, the unit moved through various towns and two cities, Braila and Galati. Romanian military police helped to clear checkpoints and refueling locations while coordinating all movement through the squadron’s logistics officer, or S4, Capt. Don Duong.
“I was primarily involved with conducting coordination with the Romanian police,” said Duong. “We also arranged the escorts, worked out the schedule for the tactical arrangement of the road march, as well as setting up arrangements and life support for the Soldiers when they arrived at the Smardan Training Area.”
Preparation and coordination were essential in the road march with the movement spanning over 338 kilometers (210 miles.) Though the movement was the unit’s responsibility, it could not have been done without local national assistance.
“The Romanians were very accommodating and went out of their way to help us out,” said Duong. “From making sure that we had proper cross talk and coordination to helping to lead the guys to their objective. Over all, the Romanians played a pivotal role in ensuring that we were able to conduct our operation.”
Being able to live and train alongside our NATO Allies and European neighbors while helping to maintain the relationships and trust that are essential for ensuring regional security is the goal of Operation Atlantic Resolve, and is what Cougar Squadron is striving for.
“This entire exercise is meant for us to build interoperability and provides us with the ability to train the squadron, down to the squad level,” said Crawford. “We would like to see our squadron support and strengthen bonds with our allies to not only better ourselves but to improve on the opportunities that we will have in working with our allies.”
Through the coming months, 2nd Squadron not only hopes to have demonstrated the United States’ commitment to it’s NATO Allies but to also have helped enable NATO through the building of strong relationships and successful interoperability training throughout Europe.
“This training really highlights the concept of the Regiment,” said Duong. “To be able to train with the Romanians really demonstrates our ability to deploy quickly, integrate with host nation forces and connect to an operation. It reinforces the theme of Operation Atlantic Resolve.”
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.26.2015 15:09 |
| Story ID: | 158205 |
| Location: | MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, RO |
| Web Views: | 656 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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