By U.S. Army National Guard Spc. Melissa Shaw
100 Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAUMHOLDER, Germany - Combined Endeavor 2008 ended 14 days of communication interoperability testing with a closing ceremony today, also marking the end of 10 years the exercise has been held at Lager Aulenbach.
Over the course of CE 08, 1,380 communication interoperability tests were conducted by 40 nations, NATO and the South East European Brigade, SEEBRIG, said U.S. Army New York National Guardsman Specialist Matthew A. Lashure, administrative specialist assigned to CE 08.
CE 08 is where coalition nations test and practice a full range of communications, equipment, policies and procedures prior to deploying for NATO missions and emerging real world crisis.
Between 160 and 180 tests were conducted and documented daily, with each day beginning at 6:45 a.m. and running often until after 7 p.m.
A total of 442 support personnel, the bulk of which belonged to the German Joint Support Service, and 1055 communications specialists participated.
CE 09 will be held at Kasara Barracks in Banja Luka, Bosnia Herzegovina, where the focus will shift to testing distributed across three or more test sites.