15th Engineers train with Norwegians

Photo By Staff Sgt. Christina Turnipseed | Two 15th Engineer Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade Soldiers perform camp maintenance March 5 during Cold Response. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Christina J. Turnipseed, 18th MP Public Affairs)  

STEINKJET, NORWEGIAN SEA

03.15.2016

Story by Staff Sgt. Christina Turnipseed 

18th Military Police Brigade

STEINKJET, Norway - Twenty-six Soldiers of the 15th Engineer Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade trained alongside counterparts in Norway’s Brigade Nord, engineer Battalion during exercise Cold Response in Steinkjet March 2016.

The main purpose of Cold Response was to train the 15th Engineers on survival and combat operations in severe cold weather conditions. Norway provides an ideal environment for extreme cold weather training as temperatures often fall well below freezing.

Some of the other skills learned were simple survival skills like wearing wool to stay warm, camouflaging the camp site, and cleaning heaters to prevent fires.
However, Cold Response is also a key training mission designed to encourage interoperability between the two units.

For the exercise, 26 15th Eng. Bn. Soldiers integrated directly into the Norwegian unit in various roles from operations planning to squad level training.

“We have 23 Soldiers attached to engineer company [number] five and three officers from the 15th Engineer staff in our headquarters,” said Lt. Unni Torkildsen, Norwegian battle captain, who went on to explain that U.S. officers were assigned to the Norwegian operations, security and communications departments where they engaged in cooperative planning efforts and sharing of experience and knowledge.

The Soldiers incorporated with the fifth company were afforded the opportunity to train with their Norwegian counterparts at the squad level.

“The training has been beneficial,” Pvt. Rickey Mackupson said. “I learned a lot regarding combat life saver.”

The daily cold weather survival lessons were also appreciated by the 15th Engineers.

“It was something to get used to,” said Pvt. Ayauni Waters referring to the cold weather. Waters found all of the training helpful, especially lessons learned on how to dress for extremely cold climates.

Lt. Col. Joseph Goetz, 15th Engineer Battalion commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. Chad Blansett, the senior enlisted leader, visited their troops at the camps where the Soldiers were housed.

“They have an opportunity to train with the Norwegians in their environment; in the cold,” said Goetz. “They use Norwegian equipment and they are integrated into their staff. It is a level of integration we have not been able to accomplish until now.”

The Norwegian army was also pleased with the combined training efforts.

“We cooperated with the 15th Engineers to trade lessons learned and to train together,” said Lt. Col. Dag Lunde, chief of engineers in the Norwegian army. “The 15th Engineers have some operational concepts which we would like to learn more about. We can also offer something here in Norway, for example, winter duties and fantastic training facilities here and in Northern Norway which we have almost unlimited facilities due to the nature of our exercise areas. So far I am very satisfied because we are learning from each other.”

• Date Taken: 03.15.2016
• Date Posted: 03.15.2016 04:58
• Story ID: 192373
• Location: STEINKJET, NORWEGIAN SEA