Exercise Agile Spirit ends with a bang

Photo By Staff Sgt. S.T. Stewart | U.S. Marines with 10th Marine Regiment and the Black Sea Rotational Force stand alongside Romanian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Georgian and Bulgarian soldiers during the Exercise Agile Spirit closing ceremony July 22, 2015, at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia. Exercise Agile Spirit 15 involved a NATO Response Force level combined operation that incorporated a wide range of planning and execution challenges during a command post exercise and a field training exercise.  

VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, GEORGIA

07.22.2015

Story by Sgt. S.T. Stewart 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa     

VAZIANI, Georgia - Exercise Agile Spirit came to close during a distinguished visitors day event and closing ceremony at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia, July 21-22.

Agile Spirit was a NATO-linked two-week multilateral force-on-force exercise held to improve military tactics and partnerships.

During the distinguished visitors’ day, July 21, U.S. Marines, Georgians, Romanians and Bulgarians put on a display of military force where they had to clear four buildings occupied by an enemy force.

“We had a full multinational company-size force task organized to come in and do what we call a hard hit raid,” said Capt. Frank Walker, company commander of Weapons Company, Black Sea Rotational Force.

A U.S. Marine combined anti-armored team from the BSRF began the attack on the buildings while the remaining forces of Georgians, Romanians and Bulgarians moved on foot to clear the area. The tactics used during the exercise were new to Agile Sprit.

“What U.S. Marines and Georgian forces have traditionally trained to in past years is counterinsurgency for the war in Afghanistan,” said Walker. “This is the first year where Agile Spirit had a conventional warfare focus instead of a counterinsurgency focus.”

This year’s exercise was designed to practice conventional defensive and offensive maneuvers to simulate a response to a regional crisis.

The exercise formally ended with a closing ceremony, July 22.

“It was very interesting for us,” said Georgian Cpl. David Ivanidze, a communications soldier with the Georgian military. “We are exchanging information about each other. It is very good because we should introduce information to each other and learn as much as we can about each other. It is very helpful because we have been working alongside each other for many years and will continue to do so.”

• Date Taken: 07.22.2015
• Date Posted: 07.25.2015 06:38
• Story ID: 171096
• Location: VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, GE