Michigan 1-119th FA completes Operation Summer Shield XII in Latvia

Photo By Kimberly Derryberry | Lt. Col. Scott Meyers, battalion commander assigned to the 1st Battalion, 119th Field Artillery Regiment, Michigan National Guard, stands in front of his troops during the closing ceremony of Operation Summer Shield XII, March 31, 2015, near Adazi, Latvia. Operation Summer Shield XII is a multinational NATO training exercise whose participants include U.S. active duty Army, Reserve, and National Guard, U.S. Marines, and units from Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Luxembourg and Canada. Michigan and Latvia have worked together in the State Partnership Program for 23 years. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Kimberly Bratic, Michigan National Guard/Released)  

ADAZI, RIX, LATVIA

03.31.2015

Story by Staff Sgt. Kimberly Derryberry 

Michigan National Guard

ADAZI, Latvia — Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 119th Field Artillery Regiment, Michigan National Guard, participated in the closing ceremony of Operation Summer Shield XII, March 31, 2015, in Adazi, Latvia.

The MING 1-119th FA and their Latvian Land Forces counterparts completed two weeks of training and a four-day, live-fire exercise.

OSS XII was a NATO training exercise whose participants included U.S. active duty Army, Reserve and National Guard units, U.S. Marines, and units from Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Germany and Canada.

“It is so important that we, from many nations, train and work together. We call it military interoperability,” said Gen. Hans-Lothar Domrose, NATO commander of the Allied Joint Forces. “That we are precise, that we are fast, that we are agile and that we can do this over nations – a nation can do this – but to be able to accomplish something with many nations, that is the real challenge and that is why we are training.”

The exercise held many significant milestones including the first time the Latvia Land Forces fired an M777A2 howitzer, the first time an all-Latvian gun crew completed a fire mission, and the first time the 1-119th FA fired a howitzer on European soil since World War II.

“The mission allowed us to enable the joint fires observers to call for accurate fire. It also allowed us to train the Latvians on the capabilities of the M777 and integrate them into our gun crews,” said Capt. David Bennett, battery commander assigned to the 1-119th FA, MING. “We had a full squad. They were field artillery Latvian soldiers. They use an older system but they had some basic knowledge of field artillery. They learned each of the positions with the end result being, during our final live-fire exercise, they were able to operate the M777 as a full crew with guidance from our Soldiers, but they were completely independent and allowed them to process the call for fire.”

Michigan and Latvia worked together through the State Partnership Program for 23 years.

• Date Taken: 03.31.2015
• Date Posted: 04.03.2015 11:17
• Story ID: 159085
• Location: ADAZI, RIX, LV