Bosnia and Herzegovina benefit from Combined Endeavor 11

Photo By Staff Sgt. Shawnon Lott | Sgt. 1st Class Predrag Nikolic, Bosnia and Herzegovina army, tracks and plots friendly nation positions during Combined Endeavor 11 in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 20 2011. Combined Endeavor is the largest Theater Security Cooperation communications exercise in the world, combining 40 different countries from NATO, Partnership for Peace, and strategic partners.  

GRAFENWOEHR, BW, GERMANY

09.20.2011

Story by Sgt. Brian Rodan 

Combined Endeavor

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany-- Bosnia and Herzegovina learns more about communications with 38 other nations at Combined Endeavor 11, a multinational exercise, Sept. 8-22, 2011, in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The goal of the exercise is to improve North American and European military communications, and computer network inter-connectivity to help nations partner together in responding to regional crisis or disaster.

Maj. Nebojsa Stajic, Bosnia and Herzegovina Army said, for us Combined Endeavor is a very successful exercise. My country uses Combined Endeavor for our interoperability in our communication systems. Also the experience we gain at Combined Endeavor helps our use in the communication planning process for our ongoing Afghanistan International Assistant Security Force operation.

Combined Endeavor gives all participates the opportunity to gain more knowledge about their nations equipment and learn about other countries equipment. This knowledge could benefit them in the future during a coalition exercise or real world event.

“This exercise is very useful we will use the experience from this exercise to improve our communications in our unit in ISAF, and also we are improving our communications in our country. Another benefit is that we get to learn about the new equipment other countries have that we might buy in the future,” said Stajic.

“This year is the first year we planned to test our Cisco router with our electrical switch together, and so far we've had success in getting those to work,” said Stajic.

Nations that have previously participated in Combined Endeavor claim their experiences during the exercise benefit them in the present and in the past.

“Combined Endeavor helped us learn how to better communicate from our country to our force in Iraq in 2009,” said Stajic.

Participating in Combined Endeavor gives nations the opportunity to work together and create relationships with each other without the extreme distance that separates their countries.

“It's a very interesting experience working together with other nations. Together you get to learn many new and interesting things about communications, its very very useful exercise for us,” said Stajic.

“One of the main goals of this exercise is also human interoperability. The countries talk together, and I could say that we are now friends. Combined Endeavor helped bring about friendships among the countries here which is a very very good part about this exercise,” said Stajic.

• Date Taken: 09.20.2011
• Date Posted: 09.20.2011 09:54
• Story ID: 77298
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, BW, DE