LEST MILITARY TRAINING AREA, SLOVAKIA – As the smoke cleared, tank treads stopped spewing up mud and helicopter rotor blades faded in the distance, 2nd Calvary Regiment Soldiers, Indiana National Guard members and fellow NATO allies: Czech Army, Polish Armed Forces, Hungarian Defense Forces, and the Ministry of Defense-Crisis Department and the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, successfully completed Slovak Shield 2016.
4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Stryker Combat Team, based in Vilseck, Germany, and Chemical, Engineer, Military Police, aviation and support personnel from the Indiana National Guard all were integral components of Slovak Shield 2016 at Military Training Area Lest, Slovak Republic, Oct. 6-13.
Slovak Shield 2016 is a multinational training exercise of more than 2,000 participants that took part in a computer-based exercise and live exercise. Troops also did weapons, demolition and tactics training with coalition counterparts and some even trained outside of their normal duties.
"I'm fully aware of the demands and high expectations made on you during this exercise. Despite that you have all managed to maintain your professional skills, behavior and attitude. This exercise proved your ability to work in a multinational environment and I've been informed that all of your duties have been executed with high standard results," said Gen. Milan Maxim, chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. "I ask you to remember what you have achieved and learned from it."
The exercise director spoke to the joint force formation at the closing ceremony with a sense of pride.
"When we started the exercise I asked you all to become a strong team, because that's what this alliance is all about – I've seen a strong team, many different uniforms, heard different accents, but I can tell you we speak the same language of values, we speak the same the language of tactics," said Lt. Gen. Pavel Macko, Slovak Shield director and 1st deputy chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic.
"I asked you to do three things on the very first day; the first one was to represent your nation, armed forces and your unit superbly. The second thing that I asked was for you to be professionals in your unit and dedicated to the mission," he said. "Third thing that I asked you was to create strong bonds, learn from each other, become friends, and I've seen it. You did it far beyond anyone's imagination or expectation."
During this year's Slovak Shield, elements of 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment had the opportunity to integrate their troops into the overall exercise and joint training.
"For us to be invited to it, I think is pretty significant, being based out of Germany, we're looking to strengthen ties with allies. Being invited to Slovak Shield even at the troop level commitment, tells how dedicated we are to increasing interoperability and bringing all of the allies closer together from our part, " said Capt. Matthew Maxcy, team outlaw and Outlaw Troop commander, 2 CR. "But also on the part of the Slovaks and the other countries – that they trusted us enough to reach out and say they wanted to work with us."
"We need to build these relationships because they could be useful in the future in whatever the next conflict we find ourselves in, we're going to find ourselves with another country to our right and to our left," he said.