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DUSHANBE, Tajikistan – About 300 troops from america, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Pakistan educated collectively for the train Regional Cooperation 22 Aug. 6-18.
The annual train, sponsored by U.S. Central Command and primarily carried out by Nationwide Guard Troopers and Airmen, enhanced multinational stability operations and cooperation on counterterrorism and joint mixed capabilities among the many U.S. and Central and South Asia, or CASA, nations.
“It’s actually about collaboration and constructing these partnerships and making certain that all of us acknowledge that none of us need terrorism,” mentioned Col. Peter Fiorentino, a Massachusetts Nationwide Guardsman who served because the brigade deputy commander for the train. “All of us need to reside peaceable, steady lives.”
This 12 months’s train, held for the sixth time in Tajikistan, included a command submit train, or CPX, and a subject coaching train, or FTX. A 3-day tutorial lead-up preceded each occasions to determine contributors’ baseline data.
Earlier than the beginning of the CPX, the educational portion of the occasion centered on the navy decision-making course of. From there, U.S. forces labored with their accomplice nation counterparts as a cohesive brigade workers to deal with a situation that included border disputes and disruptions, ethnic tensions, civil unrest and a humanitarian disaster that displaced 50,000 folks.
“On the finish of the day, we met our goals and everybody was working towards the identical objective,” mentioned Lt. Col. Kevin Carter, lead train planner for RC22. “It actually helps once we’re all attempting to realize the identical goal, which is constructing our capabilities on safety cooperation.”
Workers from the Massachusetts Nationwide Guard served within the lead for america on the CPX, a task they’ve served for the previous 16 years. Further Troopers and Airmen from the Virginia, Arizona, Montana and Mississippi Nationwide Guard additionally participated in RC22, alongside their State Partnership Program accomplice nations. SPP is a Division of Protection program that hyperlinks a state’s Nationwide Guard to the armed forces of a accomplice nation to construct and preserve mutually useful relationships with U.S. allies world wide. The Virginia Nationwide Guard and Tajikistan have been companions since 2003.
“We’re leveraging the State Partnership Program that now we have with the Nationwide Guard,” Carter defined. “Tajikistan has a relationship with Virginia, and people relationships have been important and big for this train.”
Whereas a number of Virginia Nationwide Guard Troopers participated within the CPX, most have been a part of the FTX, held at a coaching web site outdoors Dushanbe. There, advisers from Advisor Group 3320, assigned to the third Safety Power Help Brigade, led an info change that lined the therapy of frequent battlefield wounds, convoy operations and close-quarters battle.
“The change went wonderful and either side have been in a position to develop collectively all through,” mentioned Maj. Andrew Kuntz, Bravo Troop, third SFAB commander. Based mostly in Fort Hood, Texas, Kuntz and his advisers are deployed to Jordan. “I feel the relationship-building, which was the first focus of this, labored out very properly and that relationship is now there to proceed.”
Kuntz defined workouts akin to RC22 are atypical for the SFAB. With the invitation to take part, Kuntz and his crew have been in a position to construct relationships in Tajikistan.
“We don’t essentially come to those occasions for these occasions particularly,” Kuntz mentioned. “What we’re attempting to do is construct a relationship so we are able to get a everlasting partnership with one unit of their nation on the operational stage.”
Sgt. Peter Leon, a crew chief assigned to the Virginia Nationwide Guard’s third Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Fight Group, mentioned attending to know his counterparts from Tajikistan was a spotlight of the expertise.
“It’s a very good expertise coming over to those nations and dealing with them. It presents new alternatives for Troopers to study new cultures and new coaching, in addition to prepares each our navy and their navy for future cooperation so we are able to know the capabilities and limitations of one another and we are able to higher complement one another in real-world eventualities,” Leon mentioned.
Within the remaining days of the train, senior leaders visited the CPX and the FTX. Among the many guests: Maj. Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck, the adjutant normal of Arizona; Brig. Gen. Maurizio D. Calabrese, deputy commanding normal for intelligence at U.S. Central Command’s Over-the-Horizon Counterterrorism Headquarters; and Col. Kurt Kobernik, the Virginia Nationwide Guard’s J3 director of joint operations.
“It’s necessary that we guarantee continued sources for these worldwide workouts. Any likelihood now we have to extend interoperability throughout instances of peace tremendously enhances our productiveness throughout battle,” mentioned Muehlenbeck. “The Nationwide Guard prides itself in our motto, ‘At all times prepared, at all times there.’ That is how we get there.”
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