Posts tagged ‘2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment’
FRIDAY FOTO (May 20, 2022)
ALREADY THERE.
(U.S. Army photo by Specialist Elizabeth MacPherson) Click to enlarge
Another U.S. Army armored convoy of Stryker armored vehicles transiting a Pennsylvania highway? Nope. Germany? Guess again. If you have trouble reading the blue road sign on the right side of the photo, one reason could be because it’s in Finnish.
This is Outlaw Troop, 4th Squadron of the 2d Cavalry Regiment, leading a convoy from Niinisalo Training Area, Finland as part of Exercise Arrow on May 8, 2022.
Finland is not a member of NATO, yet, but the Finns, and their neighbors the Swedes, have been participating as partner nations in joint exercises with NATO forces for years. Nevertheless, both Finland and Sweden — while not neutral — have been firmly nonaligned with NATO, the Soviet Union or Russia until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 “upended their thinking about security,” according to The Washington Post. Both Nordic countries are already members of the European Union.
Moscow has objected to widening NATO’s membership, especially to include countries like Finland that have long borders with Russia. But as this week’s FRIFO shows, troops from the United States and other NATO states are already training on Finnish soil.
Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to join NATO on May 18. “You are our closest partners. And your membership in NATO would increase our shared security,”
Exercise Arrow is an annual, multinational exercise taking place in Finland, where visiting NATO forces from the United States, United Kingdom, Latvia, and Estonia, train together with Finnish Defense Forces.
Training operations include high intensity force-on-force engagements and a live fire exercise. The purpose of the exercise to enhance mechanized units operational and procedural performance, develop interoperability with participating forces and demonstrate the ability to cooperate with partners.
FRIDAY FOTO (April 3, 2015)
Send in the Cavalry.
(.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Opal Vaughn
U.S. soldiers in Stryker armored vehicles arrive at Smardan Training Area in Romania last month for a multi-national exercise known as Saber Junction 15. These soldiers are assigned to 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment.
The first phase of Saber Junction 15, which runs for the entire month of April, will include a deployment readiness exercise and airborne operations into Romania. The exercise will then move to the Army’s Hohenfels Training Area in southeastern Germany.
Saber Junction 15, includes nearly 5,000 troops from 17 nations that are NATO allies and partners: Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Sweden and, of course, the United States.
The exercise will test offensive, defensive and stability operations while promoting interoperability among participants. The exercise is part of a wider overseas project, Operation Atlantic Resolve, which seeks reassure NATO allies and partner nations of America’s dedication to peace and stability in the region, while sending a message to Moscow, saying Russia’s aggressive behavior in Eastern Europe will not go unchallenged
FRIDAY FOTO (April 22, 2011)
It’s 2011, Not 1120 A.D.
U.S. ir Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson.
The carpets, mud walls, beards and turbans … except for the plastic water bottles, the occasional wristwatch and — oh yeah, the machine guns and sandbags on the guard posts in the corners — it wouldn’t be hard to imagine this scene in 12th Century Afghanistan instead of the 21st Century.
With all the high tech attack and surveillance drones, satellite and wireless communication, Kevlar body armor and mine resistant vehicles in use by coalition forces, it’s easy to forget the conflict in Afghanistan is largely an infantry exercise. It’s also important to remember that success in any counter insurgency effort includes working with the local people.
Troopers from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, attended a shura, or consultive decision-making gathering, April 20 in Now Bahar District, in Zabul Province, not far from the Pakistani border. The 2nd Cavalry is one of the oldest regiments in the U.S. Army.
In this photo, residents of Now Bahar District listen as Zabul Deputy Gov. Mohammad Jan Rasulyaar speaks during the shura at the district center.
To view a Defense Department slide show of the shura, click here.
(Don’t forget to click on the photo to see a larger image.)
4GWAR 