Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Duncan | Soldiers from the Kansas National Guard and 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne...... read more read more
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YEREVAN, Armenia – Armenian and U.S. Soldiers from the 12th Peacekeeping Brigade and 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Task Force Mountain and Kansas National Guard held a closing ceremony for Eagle Partner 23, Sept. 20, 2023.
Standing in front of their nation’s flags and a custom-made “Eagle Partner” flag the service members were recognized for their hard work and dedication. Over the 10-day exercise Soldiers trained on such skills as medical readiness, peacekeeping operations and small arms proficiency.
“You could really see at the beginning of the exercise sort of three distinct teams with elements of Active Duty, National Guard and Armenian Soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Kennedy, Kansas Army National Guard, who served as the exercise deputy director. “But as we went through the exercise they came together and gelled as one cohesive team.”
The two nations worked very well together, of course there are some differences on how we do things, but that’s why we conduct these exercises to figure out those differences. But at the end you could see a cohesive unit that could work together and conduct missions together, said Col. Arsen Mangasaryan, Commander of the 12th Peacekeeping Brigade, who served as the exercise director.
“Eagle Partner was a very successful exercise. We achieved our objectives and I think by doing this we were able to move forward with interoperability and cooperation with the U.S. Army,” said Mangasaryan. “Because of this success there is a very high possibility for Eagle Partner 24. There are already some talks about it happening, of course we have to come up with a decision for the future, but I hope that it is going to happen.”
As part of the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program (SPP), the Kansas National Guard has had a state partnership with Armenia since 2003.
“The Kansas National Guard has been a partner of Armenia through the SPP for the past 20 years. We typically do 30 to 40 events [annually] ranging from mil-to-mil and civ-to-civ interactions between our state and the Armenian government and it is appreciated on both sides,” said Kennedy.
Eagle Partner is a peacekeeping training exercise with approximately 85 U.S. Soldiers and approximately 175 Armenian soldiers working alongside each other.
The exercise was also to prepare the Armenian 12th Peacekeeping Brigade for a NATO Operational Capabilities Concept evaluation under the NATO Partnership for Peace program later this year.
| Date Taken: | 09.20.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2023 08:17 |
| Story ID: | 454151 |
| Location: | AM |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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