California Guard participates in seventh Rapid Trident

By Pfc. Marilyn Lowry
69th Public Affairs Detachment

Soldiers from the Ukranian Army Band put on a musical performance at the opening ceremony festivities in Central City, Ukraine, Sept. 6, 2010. Rapid Trident is a NATO and Partnership for Peace training mission held in the Ukraine annually. (Spc. Nevada J. Smith)
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CENTRAL CITY, Ukraine (9/9/10) -- Having been involved with Rapid Trident since 2003, Army Brig. Gen. Charlotte Miller of the California National Guard said she has seen many positive training developments from both the U.S. and Ukraine service members as well as the contributing nations during Rapid Trident.

“The importance of the mission is not only for continuing cooperation between the U.S. and the Ukraine, but the importance of the mission is the multi-national aspect and the coalition perspective of having 13 other contributing nations working with us together in this exercise,” she said during the welcoming ceremony on Sept. 6.

The California Guard and Ukraine armed forces are joined in the National Guard's State Partnership Program.

Miller hopes to achieve the hard tactical objectives of military decision processes with the training audience of the two training brigades. Staff development for brigade, very separate objectives level of command and company tactical techniques and procedures are the focus of the mission.

“We have a multi-national brigade and bilateral brigade with the U.S. and Ukraine, and a broader objective of multi-national coalitions operations and learning to work together,” she said.

Miller went on to say she’s looking forward to getting to know the contributing nations that are participating in this exercise.

”I’d like to make sure they feel welcome and want to continue their partnership with us and the Ukraine,” said Miller.

The general’s advice to Soldiers new to Rapid Trident is to get to know who they’re working next to.

“Share about the U.S. working experience and home culture, and gain that same reciprocal from whomever [you are] working with” she said.

“I'm very happy to be here … it should be a great exercise and a great two weeks.”

Following the opening ceremonies, Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Nazarkin, deputy commander of Eighth Army Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, took a moment to describe what he expects from the joint exercise at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center near Lviv, Ukraine.

He explained not only the expectations of his troops, but also the challenges and opportunities that he foresees from this operation.

“We have prepared for this exercise for a whole year,” said Nazarkin, referring to what his soldiers would learn from this exercise, “and of course our soldiers will get to practice on this exercise and they will practice conducting peacekeeping operations in a multi-national environment.”

There are about 1,400 soldiers participating in this exercise, and while there may be cultural and military differences among the nations, Nazarkin does not see this as a real problem.

In fact, he said he sees this as an opportunity for the participating armies to learn and unite. It will not influence the conduct of every task on this exercise, Nazarkin said. “I think the cultural differences will be knowledgeable to the soldiers from every country.”

As far as challenges, Nazarkin doesn’t foresee any major issues through this exercise. There are many participants this year that were involved in the last exercise from the division and brigade headquarters down to the company and platoon levels.

With few challenges to overcome, Nazarkin said he believes that this exercise will be no different.

As a joint training mission, many components are involved to conduct a smooth and efficient exercise. All contributors will learn how to function as a cohesive body in war fighting, but will also learn to incorporate the many differences that each nation’s army brings, culturally and tactically.

As the training begins and the soldiers start to work with and learn from each other, they will grant Nazarkin his wish, “I wish to conduct this exercise to a high [standard] and professional level.”

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