Slovenian president visits Immediate Response

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Walter Van Ochten | Slovenian President Borut Pahor (right white shirt) and Col. William Glaser,(second to right), director of simulations for the Joint Multinational Simulation Center, Grafenwoehr, Germany, exchange ideas about the training as part of a delegation of distinguished dignitaries that visited the multinational exercise Immediate Response 15 near Postonja, Slovenia, Sept. 18, 2015. Immediate Response is a Field Training Exercise being held in Slovenia and Croatia Sept. 11-22, 2015. The exercise improves allied and partner capacity to respond to regional crises and promote stability and security designed to enhance joint combined interoperability with allied and partner nations. It supports the goal of a “Strong Europe” in that partner nations are trained and ready to combine forces to ensure unified security across allied nations.  

POSTONJA, SLOVENIA

09.18.2015

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Walter Van Ochten 

118th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Tennessee Army National Guard

POSTONJA, Slovenia - Slovenian President Borut Pahor, joined Brig. Gen. John Hort, U.S. Army Europe, G3, deputy chief of staff, Operations and Col. William Glaser, director of simulations for the Joint Multinational Simulation Center, Grafenwoehr, Germany, as part of a delegation of distinguished dignitaries that visited the multinational exercise Immediate Response 15 near Postonja, Slovenia, Sept. 18, 2015.

Immediate Response is a multinational exercise being held in Slovenia and Croatia Sept. 9-22, 2015. The exercise is designed to enhance joint and combined interoperability with allied and partner nations. It supports the goal of a “Strong Europe” in that partner nations are trained and ready to combine forces to ensure unified security across allied nations.

Part of what makes an effective regional-security partnership is not only the necessary equipment and technical ability to operate together, but the cooperation developed along the way.

Slovenian President Pahor said he was very impressed with what he saw at IR15. He believes that because he sends his troops on international community missions to protect peace and security, he is obliged to get them the needed experience and practice before hand.

“The international cooperation is the very first pillar of this and I’m very satisfied we had such an experience here today. As a president and a commander in chief, whenever I’m talking to my colleagues everybody is saying that our army is very capable and professional. I’m very proud to be the commander in chief of the Slovenian army,” said Pahor.

Brig. Gen. Roman Urbanc, Slovenian Exercise director for exercise Immediate Response 15, believes that getting to know each other better is one of the most important things happening at IR15. That along with, making good allied connections at both the leadership and the soldier level and imparting IR15 experiences and knowledge to each countries army, will make this a successful exercise.

“This is a learning process and we have to learn from each other. In each army you can find some good stuff that you can adapt to your army. But, the most impotent thing is that we follow the same standards and rules. Once we set those up, we need to follow it,” said Urbanc.

The participating nations of IR15 demonstrated some of their newly honed skills to the delegates by conducting a multinational force on force assault drill, backed by Slovenian Air Force close-air support.

"As we all saw today, this is a great opportunity; as we build readiness throughout the force and build relationships. But, most importantly we have worked through some of the challenging interoperability issues that all allies have to fight through to be an effective fighting force on the battle field," said Glaser.

Glaser said of IR5, “We are real fortunate to be over here because location matters, being over here with all of the allies that are available for us to train with creates a much more realistic scenario for training with our allies because we will never fight alone again.”

• Date Taken: 09.18.2015
• Date Posted: 09.20.2015 20:08
• Story ID: 176684
• Location: POSTONJA, SI