U.S. Army Europe
March 2, 2015
US, Polish forces hone interoperability skills
By 1st Sgt. Jim Wagner
DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland: On a sunny, winter morning, with the last of the morning’s frost dissipating into fog, U.S. troopers and Polish infantrymen met at the edge of the airfield here to await the UH-60 Black Hawk’s arrival and the beginning of medical evacuation training.
This is the latest in weeks of training between Dragoons assigned to K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment and Polish infantrymen from 3rd Company, 1st Infantry Battalion, 12th Mechanized Brigade. The training will culminate in an upcoming live-fire exercise as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
Operation Atlantic Resolve is a NATO exercise led by the U.S. to test the alliance’s interoperability with Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian military forces while demonstrating their commitment to a safe and prosperous Europe.
The Medical Evacuation (medevac) training was spearheaded by a Black Hawk flight crew from B Company, 3rd Battalion, 158th Assault Helicopter Brigade, based out of Katterbach, Germany. In the hours prior, Troopers from 2 CR prepared for the day by going over their training schedule before loading into Strykers and heading to the airfield. Meanwhile, the Polish moved out in their armored personnel carriers and plotted their own training points on a terrain map at the airfield’s edge.
Similar tactics, with different execution, is one of several challenges facing military members as they seek to streamline operations conducted in a joint coalition environment. Where the end goal is the same, getting the details right between forces and using different doctrine to achieve that end state can result in miscommunication and a potentially failed mission.
Polish and U.S. forces have trained for more than a year to hone their interoperability skills with the medevac training being no exception. Both militaries have spent years developing the most efficient means of removing injured troops from the battlefield and each have their preferred method of achieving that result.
For the Black Hawk air crew, responsible for the safety and security of all members involved, that meant providing instruction to Polish infantrymen using U.S. medevac procedures; watching for and responding to flight crew hand signals, removing thermal blankets (used to stabilize the injured soldier’s core body temperature) from the litter before it is sucked into the helicopter’s rotor blades, etc.
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The lessons learned by military members of both armies will suit them well, not just in training, but in real-world situations in which they may find themselves in the future…
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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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