FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Pennsylvania National Guard leaders met with the new commander of Lithuania’s Land Force Oct. 9.
Brig. Gen. Arturas Radvilas, who assumed command of the Lithuanian Land Force in July, visited Fort Indiantown Gap and attended a 28th Infantry Division departure ceremony in Harrisburg.
Radvilas was joined by Brig. Gen. Modestas Petrauskas, Lithuanian defense attaché to the United States and Canada, and Command Sgt. Maj. Darius Masiulis, Lithuanian Land Force command sergeant major.
The visit to Fort Indiantown Gap included office calls with Brig. Gen. Laura McHugh, Pennsylvania National Guard deputy adjutant general-Army, and Command Sgt. Maj. Jon Worley, Pennsylvania National Guard senior enlisted leader, and a trip to Second Mountain Hawk Watch.
At the 28th ID departure ceremony, the Lithuanian contingent talked with Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler, Pennsylvania adjutant general, and Maj. Gen. Mark McCormack, commanding general of the 28th ID. More than 500 Soldiers with the division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion are deploying to the Middle East to support Operation Spartan Shield.
“It was great meeting with General Radvilas, General Petrauskas and Command Sergeant Major Masiulis,” McHugh said. “I always appreciate the opportunity to meet and talk with our Lithuanian partners.”
“I enjoyed being able to spend time with Command Sergeant Major Masiulis during his visit here,” Worley said. “Despite being on different continents and being separated by thousands of miles, Lithuanian soldiers and U.S. Soldiers go through similar training and face many similar challenges.”
The Pennsylvania National Guard and Lithuania have partnered through the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program since 1993.
The two sides have taken part in over 730 engagements, including senior leader engagements, subject matter expert exchanges, familiarization visits and cooperative training and exercises.
“As we approach the 30th anniversary of the partnership with our friends in Lithuania, I can’t help but to be amazed at how far they have come as a profession of arms,” McHugh said. “It has been truly an honor to watch them develop a world-class fighting force knowing that the Pennsylvania National Guard played a role.”