Posted on 02/17/2017 12:43:03 PM PST by Candor7
MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, Romania, Feb. 16, 2017 — Soldiers, tanks and M88 recovery vehicles from the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment’s “Fighting Eagles” recently arrived at the airbase here in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
The soldiers unloaded M1A2 Abrams tanks from the first train that arrived Feb. 14 to this eastern Romanian airbase located about 12 miles away from the Black Sea.
The arrival of the tanks and roughly 500 soldiers from 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, marks the beginning of a continuous rotation of U.S. troops in southeastern Europe as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
So far, more than 350 U.S. soldiers have arrived this month with another 150 set to arrive before the end of February.
Traveled From Poland
Over the course of a few days, soldiers and equipment traveled about 1,120 miles across four countries from western Poland, where the battalion and the rest of the 3,500 soldiers of 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, who have deployed to Europe, initially assembled.
“We traveled through Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Romania, testing the battalion’s ability to assemble quickly and move across Europe via rail and roads,” said Army Maj. Scott Stephens, the 8th Infantry Regiment’s executive officer.
“The cooperation and trust of allied nations to freely maneuver U.S. military equipment and personnel across Europe is essential to the success of Operation Atlantic Resolve and the security of allied European countries,” Stephens said.
Speaking to Romanian media as his soldiers helped off-load tanks from rail cars, Stephens added: “This is very challenging logistically to pull this off, to move this equipment across the sea [from the unit’s home station, Fort Carson, Colorado,] onto trains and across Europe. We’ve learned a lot, but this is a part of the reason why we are here. It is vital we learn these experiences, to be able to quickly deploy in the case of future operations.”
Bilateral, Multinational Training
Participating in Atlantic Resolve means the 3rd ABCT will conduct bilateral and multinational training with allies in eight different countries, the major said. The emphasis will be increasing interoperability with Romanian and Bulgarian land forces over the next six months.
“We are so excited to begin integrating with the Romanian army and begin training with our allied partners” said Army Maj. Michael Harrison, 8th Infantry Regiment’s operations officer. “Living and working alongside our allies daily will build confidence in our ability to operate as one team if we’re ever called to respond immediately to any crisis.”
Training opportunities will include taking part in the multinational Saber Guardian 17 exercise in July, as well as the opportunity to work with a new multinational brigade first proposed at the NATO Warsaw summit in July 2016 and based in Romania.
“We stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder with our NATO partners and our allies,” Stephens said. “It’s not just through words; it’s through actions, it’s through presence. We are here, we have incredible fighting capabilities with us, and we are here to stand with our allies to reassure them that NATO is a viable source.”
Is that Soros' craftsmanship?
It's hard to keep up.
Imagine if the Russians, after great effort, relocated a battalion from the Urals to say Vera Cruz in operation Caribbean Resolve. We would not know whether to laugh or cry. But we could count on the fact that the idiot who excuted the move would be "removed" by Putin.
See this is ours. We put a pawn on it.
In terms of strategic value, the whole thing is noise.
Couldn’t we be provoking a war by doing this? The only invasion I see is from the muslim countries.
I think Melania is from Slovenia, not Slovakia.
Gert out!!! No business there. no national interest there. Don’t care what they do in Romania. Build the WALL. Repeal Obama care. CUT MY TAXES!! and get these illegals out of my country. To hell with Romania!!
“neither Romania or Bulgaria will ever achieve 2% GDP on defense”
Romania already achieved it for their 2017 budget.
Yes, Slovenia is not Slovakia, you are right, but there is a shared genome. Google “Slovakian Women” images. you will see many versions of our first lady. I haven’t tried Slovenia yet.I’ll let you know LOL.
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Putin is forcing all to spend more on defense.
Bolstering Eastern Europe against Islam would be a good plan. Even the soft Western Europeans would benefit. You could take many troops in Western Europe and move them east.
Eastern Europe is not afraid of these muslims. This is a problem that is solved by police truncheons and you can buy 100,000 of these for the price of one modern IFV. Germany having problem with them is just lack of will.
Eastern Europe’s problem is that all these countries are still rather poor so expensive things like modern artillery, armor or jet fighters are not within the reach of their budgets.
There is no rational explanation. And any theory sounds tinfoil hatty.
It's terrifying. And if you question it, you are denounced as a Putin dupe. It's madness.
Have you actually counted the troop numbers?
It is Russians crying about few troops that are no danger to them and they know it. They hope that people will hear their crying, won’t look into it to check the facts and believe something like “when there’s smoke there’s fire”.
By the way the existence of the USA is something Russians see as a provocation so expect their constant whining for that duration at least.
Been there, ROMEX2005
For the same reason troops were deployed in Syria, in close proximity to a Russian base that existed since the 70s. Democrats want war, it’s not their sons and daughters.
History repeating. I can’t believe I am actually reading this.
Been there, ROMEX2005.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Lots of activity.
I translate it into Russian as, “don’t worry, Vlad. We’re not keeping a permanent garrison of any size in Eastern Europe. Maybe an advisor or twenty. Go on with whatever it is you’re doing in the Ukraine. We’ll munch popcorn and make occasional angry noises.”
Agreed.
Now 3500 soldiers with tactical nukes would be putting
Pooty on notice, LOL.We only have 350 with little more than military BVDs.
Fine. Who wants another cold war in Eastern Europe, when the red hot real kind is burning all over the world.
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