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“We’re going to be all over Europe joining the strong Europe team and integrating into their training plan for the next nine months.”
Col. Clair A. Gill, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade Commander, and almost 2,000 of his Troops will be one of the next units to bolster the U.S. presence in Europe.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook recently said the increase of American servicemembers in Europe “is part of our European Reassurance Initiative to maintain persistent, rotational presence of air, land and sea forces in Central and Eastern Europe.”
Cook was talking about the Navy ships headed to the western Pacific and 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division’s recent deployment, but 10th CAB is close behind and will be providing a much needed training opportunity to the other NATO forces.
“While an armor brigade is a very lethal force, and they’re going to do some fantastic training with our partners on the ground, aviation really is what I like to call that three-dimensional problem solver for the Army, the joint force and our coalitions,” Gill said. “We move faster than they do on the ground and we shoot farther in some cases than some systems from the ground.”
Those capabilities will be demonstrated through several different training missions scheduled throughout Europe.
“There’s a tremendous amount of training opportunities over there, with multiple nations that don’t get a chance to work with aviation,” Gill said. “There are some countries over there that have less than a handful of aircraft, so we will have that decisive impact for them to learn how to do air/ground operations.”
The other asset aviation brings is medical evacuation essential for the extensive training exercises the NATO forces will be conducting.
“We provide a tremendous blanket of security for Soldiers on the ground who are training, or even in a combat environment,” Gill said. “They know we’re going to get them to care.”
12th Combat Aviation Brigade is already stationed in Germany. Gill said his brigade will provide the numbers and equipment to make aviation a true force multiplier.
“We’re really excited about getting there,” Gill said, “working with the 12th CAB, and all of the alliances and partnerships they’ve already stood up, but they just don’t have the capacity to maintain due the number of aircraft and Soldiers currently there.”
The capacity is increasing, and not just with aviation. 3rd ABCT arrived in Europe recently with around 3,500 Soldiers and approximately 7,500 Sailors from the Carl Vinson strike group will be departing from San Diego soon.
“The United States is demonstrating its continued commitment to collective security through a series of actions designed to reassure NATO allies and partners of America’s dedication to enduring peace and stability in the region in light of the Russian intervention in Ukraine.” Cook said.
Gill finished, “And frankly, we hope we never get to the defend end of the spectrum, but we’re there to demonstrate that if the need were there, we would be with them to defend.”
| Date Taken: | 01.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 01.11.2017 12:26 |
| Story ID: | 220111 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 186 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 10th CAB Prepares for Atlantic Resolve, by MSG Nathan Hutchison, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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