Latvian and American Forces from the Michigan Army National Guard work jointly to conduct urban terrain training on San Gregorio to clear a village of any hostiles.
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Journalist: Master Sgt. Jennifer Foster, AFN Benelux
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Latvian forces work together with the Michigan Army National Guard to conduct urban terrain training on San Gregorio to clear a village of any hostiles.
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SOUNDBITE (English) SGT Michael McNichol, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, Team Leader, San Gregorio training grounds, Spain, “So Michigan has a state partnership with Latvia and I think it’s important for a lot of these guys. Some of us have been deployed before but some of these guys haven’t so working with a different country that we could be working with in the future on a deployment or in a combat zone is very important. It’s learning that they’re comfortable working with us, we’re comfortable working with them and we both know how each other works and operates and we communicate through those language barriers. What we’re going to be doing is working urban terrain and that’s really our bread and butter as infantrymen for the past, you know, 10 years. It’s the wars we’ve been fighting we do a lot of urban operations so being able to work with them, bring them into this urban terrain here, kind of show them how we work, and work together, and clearing some buildings. Stuff that we like to do.”
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SOUNDBITE (English) 1LT Roger Craig, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, Executive Officer, San Gregorio training grounds, Spain, “I make sure the platoon leader gives out good orders, that it’s clear and concise. I’m actually learning a lot from their platoon leader as well and I’m also learning from the company commander, but I want to make sure the relations are running smoothly and if there are any questions or anything I can help out with their platoon leader with the very little experience that I have, I provide it.”
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SOUNDBITE (English) SSG Daniel Blaser, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, Rifle Squad Leader, San Gregorio training grounds, Spain, “Things have been going fairly well. We’ve done a lot of things with the Latvians that have integrated us well into their unit. It feels like we’re being welcomed. We do our best to treat them with respect and vice versa. Everything, I guess, couldn’t really be going any better.
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SOUNDBITE (English) CAPT Arnis Mezals, Latvian Infantry Company Commander, San Gregorio training grounds, Spain, “Working with Americans is no challenge, there’s no bigger or smaller, it’s just so much fun and so much I’m getting out of it and my guys are getting out of it a lot and I love it.”
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