WEBVTT

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Yeah , Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan G

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Peterson for uh I'm the battalion

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commander of First Battalion 50 1st .

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So today we , we conducted an attack on

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a uh on an objective , a uh

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um small , small town um where they

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enemy fighters . And uh we did a uh

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yesterday began with , with joint

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planning with our Norwegian partners .

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Uh We had one American company uh

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working attached to a uh Norwegian

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infantry battalion . And uh so they

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conducted the joint planning . And then

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this morning at about three o'clock ,

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our uh our scalp platoon um conducted

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the initial reconnaissance and uh and

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provided um intelligence uh

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in observation to both uh American

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and uh Norwegian soldiers uh that have

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facilitated them uh jointly clearing

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this objective . So I th I think one of

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the , the key things is figuring out

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how to communicate with one another .

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And uh and we were able to uh to , to

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work through that yesterday during the

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planning process and get some good

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rehearsals in . And uh that's , that's

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the first thing . And then second thing

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is just understanding each other's

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capabilities , strengths and weaknesses .

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So that uh um because there are some

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differences um a lot of similarities ,

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some differences . Um , but making sure

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that , uh , that we know , um , what ,

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uh , what strengths to leverage from

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each other to make a successful

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operation from the American point of

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view . The , one of the important

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things is just seeing , um , you know ,

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different training areas . It's similar

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but it's , it's different and I think

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any time that you can , you can get out

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of , uh , your , your home turf , so to

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speak and , and train somewhere else .

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It's , uh , uh , it , it helps your ,

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um , your paratroopers , your soldiers

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grow and learn . Um , but I think more

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importantly at the , the strategic

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level , um , these are allies and

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partners that we may have to fight

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shoulder to shoulder with and some

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future conflict . And so , uh , the

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more that we can get out and practice ,

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um , you know , exercises and other

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things working with them , the more

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familiar will be and , uh , and more

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ready will be if something that were to

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happen where we would have to fight

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with them , I think it's phenomenal .

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Um , you know , we , we , uh , we

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landed on the ground at like nine

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o'clock , uh , local in Norway and we

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took off from Alaska at , uh , at about

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two in the morning . So , um , really

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if there was some sort of crisis here

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and we need to reinforce our Norwegian

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allies , um , we could , uh , we could

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literally get the call that same night

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and be on the they , uh , in their

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backyard , uh , ready to help them , uh ,

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by the time they get up in the morning .

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So it's pretty , uh , pretty powerful .

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I think it just , uh , one , showcases

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that , uh , that we can quickly , uh ,

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reinforce them . And then I think also

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doing these exercises shows that , uh ,

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we are committed to the partnership and

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it , and , uh , it means a lot to us

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and that together we're , we're much

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stronger . Um , every , every army ,

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every ally has some things that they're

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better at than others . It's always

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good to learn from each other . But I

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think it's important to , um , for our ,

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uh , our youngest soldiers and

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paratroopers to , uh , to get familiar

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with , uh , um , with , with , you know ,

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similar , um , you know , folks from ,

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from other nations . Um , one of the

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things I've always been struck by when

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I work with , uh , with partners and

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allies is , uh , there's a lot ,

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there's a lot more similarities , um ,

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in terms of like the challenges and ,

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um , things that people have to

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overcome and , uh , and it's just good

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to , uh , to , to hear how they work

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through those problems and then also to

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be able to provide , um , similar

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feedback , um , with how , with how we

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overcome those challenges . So , I , I

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think we've , uh , we've certainly

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taken a couple of things back that , uh ,

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that we'll , we'll look to , uh , to

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implement or , um , you know , at our

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level and , uh , and I also think that ,

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uh , just some of the bigger , um , you

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know , just , just the jump on to a

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frozen lake drop zone , it shows that ,

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uh , this is an infiltration method

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that we can , we can use in the future

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in the 11th airborne division as a , uh ,

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as an airborne unit . And so , uh , it

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might be somebody else in the future ,

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but we'll certainly take all the

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lessons that we've learned from that

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operation and , uh , and make sure that

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uh that's communicated out so that uh

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uh anybody else in the 11th airborne

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Division could do that again in the

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future . So my name is uh Bonna Delson ,

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um Lieutenant Colonel and second

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battalion brigade not today . We have

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conducted a battalion

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attack at the Moan Plateau

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and we have detached one company

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from US army and that has been a

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great experience for us . We started

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the planning process yesterday and we

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started the operations towards the high

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ground at 0 300 tonight .

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At 900 . Each hour , we started the

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attack towards the village that we are

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now in , supported by

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Norwegian companies . The US army

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company Apache company did the final

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attack towards this village .

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And my experience is that they have

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done a great job together , shoulder to

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shoulder and they were able to take out

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the enemy forces that were in this

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village occupying the village . It is

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essential for to train together

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as allies to make sure that we

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have in a way , the same procedures

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to get to know each other , be able to

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speak to each other on the radios . All

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those sort of things take away the

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friction when we are in a

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live situation . So it

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is of the essence to actually train

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together to be able to in a way cope

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with a real life situation . What we

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have seen this week of training is that

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we have a lot of the same procedures we

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do . We have the same approach to

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the difficulties that these harsh

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conditions give us . And that is

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really reassuring for us as Norwegians

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to know that us forces are really

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capable of conducting complicated

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operations in this environment . This

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is a proof of a

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willingness and

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ability to hasty

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conduct a a

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reinforcement on the Norwegian soil .

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And that is of course really

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reassuring for all

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countries and maybe especially up north .

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And now that we also have the Swedish

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and Finnish members of this , this is a

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great experience so far . It has been a

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really good experience . We are now

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just looking forward to continue , take

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it to the next level . We have

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1.5 day left , we will use it well to

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reach as far as we can . And also we

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have already created a good cohesion

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between our troops and that is also

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essential to be able to succeed . If

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the day comes , I want to say that I am

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really impressed by how fast the US

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troops adapted both to the new

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terrain and to the cooper

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operation that we have had is

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functioning very well . So this has

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been a great experience for my soldiers

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and they are smiling from uh from year

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to year uh because of this . So .