Photo By Corinna Baltos | REZEKNE, Latvia – Paratroopers from Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry...... read more read more
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REZEKNE, Latvia – Two weeks ago Paratroopers from Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade , landed in Latvia where they will spend the next six-months training with their Latvian partners as part of Atlantic Resolve. Atlantic Resolve is a U.S. led effort being conducted in Eastern Europe to demonstrate U.S. commitment to the collective security of NATO and dedication to enduring peace and stability in the region.
Their first major training opportunity in Latvia was during Exercise Zobens, a Latvian hosted 30 – hour continues exercise designed to test the nation’s ability to work with different internal and external agencies to marshal their capabilities and defend their position. It took place in eastern Latvia, Sept. 24-25.
“It is a great opportunity to come to another country and train with our allies,” said Capt. Tyler Martin, Chosen Company Commander, during a brief period of down time at the exercise. “We are able to learn from our partners and show them what we can do.”
Martin said that participating in the exercise was a huge opportunity for his unit. “We have a unique capability that we bring to the table,” he said. “As paratroopers we are mostly associated with jumping out of planes, but we can also conduct joint and combined operations with both light and mechanized infantry elements.”
Chosen Company, along with elements from the newly-formed Latvian Armed Forces mechanized battalion, served as the oppositional force for the exercise.
“Our mission during this exercise, was two-fold,” said Maj. Brian Miletech, operations officer, 2nd Bn., 503rd Inf. Regt. “We were here to validate the ability for the 2nd Lithuanian National Guard Region to alert, marshal and deploy their forces in defense of their country, as well as demonstrate our ability to rapidly maneuver our combat power through air assault.”
For the Paratroopers working with their allies was a fantastic training opportunity.
“This was a great opportunity to work dismounted against a mobile and retrograded enemy with our partner and allies,” said 1st Lt. Niles Olsen, a platoon leader in Chosen Company. “It was also great working with the Latvian mechanized forces that were attached to our platoon.”
Olsen said that working with the mechanized forces brought some challenges, but the two forces were able to work together to overcome their initial difficulty.
“Communication was somewhat of an issue, fortunately they speak better English then I do Latvian,” he said. “I was able to work with the Latvian platoon leader to accomplish our shared objective,” he said. “Even though she is a platoon leader in a mechanized infantry platoon and I am a platoon leader in a light infantry unit, we have the same challenges, and a lot of similarities. Tactics speak across languages.”
Pvt. Trenton McLain, an infantryman in Olson’s platoon, said participating in the exercise was not what he expected.
“I was expecting a casual stroll down the road, then stopping for a while before going into action,” he said. “But everything flowed through, we didn’t stop and went straight into contact.” This was the first exercise that McLain has participated in. He joined the Army in February, and reported to Chosen Company in June.
“I learned a lot,” said McLain. “In basic they teach doctrine, here I learned how to put that into practice.
The Paratroopers said being able to train in Latvia has been a fantastic opportunity. They praised the ability to train in an authentic environment instead of a designated training area.
“We were walking through towns, past houses,” said Olsen, “We don’t normally get to do that.”
Adding to the realistic training environment was the opportunity to match forces with a different country.
“The Latvians don’t fight like we do,” said Olsen. “They fight unconventionally and use different tactics.”
He said the Latvian National Guard was a tactically sound unit that provided great resistance.
“They put us in quite a few uncomfortable situations that forced us to think critically and learn from the results,” he said.
Over the next several months the Paratroopers will continue to work closely with their allies here to refine their skills, through training and exercises.
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The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, is the Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, and is capable of projecting forces to conduct a full range of military operations across the United States European, Central and Africa Command areas of responsibility within 18 hours.
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2016 13:39 |
| Story ID: | 210531 |
| Location: | REZEKNE, LV |
| Web Views: | 147 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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