Photo By Staff Sgt. S.T. Stewart | Brig. Gen. Dorin Ionita, Chief of Training and Doctrine of the Romanian Land Forces,...... read more read more
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MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, Romania – The final wave of U.S. Marines from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment arrived on deck to join the rest of the approximate 500 troops comprising Black Sea Rotational Force 15 who assumed authority from BSRF 14, at Mihail Kogalniceanu, Feb. 9.
The Marine rotational force will continue providing theater security cooperation with NATO allies and partners in Eastern Europe, an enduring mission for the Marine Corps since 2010.
"We appreciate the professionalism and devotion of all who participated," said Romanian Brig. Gen. Dorin Ionita, Chief of Training and Doctrine of the Romanian Land Forces. "This type of
exercise represents the interoperability of the Romanian Land Forces. Thank you to BSRF 14 and good luck to BSRF 15."
With the uncasing of the colors, 2nd Bn., 8th Marines assumed authority from the Marines of 2nd Bn., 2nd Marines, signifying the turnover of a new rotation of BSRF.
“I am looking forward to working with the Romanian military and improving our relationships,” said Cpl. Evan Sargent, an infantry rifleman with BSRF 15. “We are pretty excited about the six months coming up and all the training opportunities we are going to be able to have.”
Black Sea Rotational Force 15 is able to respond to a broad range of military operations in the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe area of responsibility, including crisis and contingency response, U.S. Embassy reinforcement, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, along with building allied and partner military capacity.
“I think one of the greatest things we will learn is the sharing of cultures and ideas,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Stevenson, the oncoming commanding officer of BSRF. “We have spent the last decade or so in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that has improved cultural awareness for those countries, but Marines generally do not deploy to Eastern Europe. A lot of what happens out here and the different cultures that exist here are unknown to many of my Marines. I hope they come back with a better appreciation for the cultures that exist.”
During the six-month deployment, the Marines and sailors with BSRF 15 are scheduled to conduct more than 50 military-to-military engagements and the multilateral and “Platinum” series exercises.
“I hope that we are taught as much as we teach,” said Stevenson. “We constantly revise the business and the way we conduct ourselves. By learning from others we are able to incorporate what is best from what they do into the best things that we do and make us a stronger force in total.”
The outgoing rotation of Black Sea Rotational Force committed to Operation Atlantic Resolve and conducted eight multilateral exercises, six being the Platinum Series, in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia that demonstrated NATO allied and partner-nation commitment to collective security. In total, BSRF 14 conducted 32 military-to-military engagements, training with U.S. Embassies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Bucharest, Romania, and more than 35 community relations engagements.
“The number one thing I would say is the proficiency of the Romanian military forces is impressive,” said Lt. Col. Joel Schmidt, outgoing commanding officer of BSRF and the commanding officer of 2nd Bn., 2nd Marines. “We were able to do the exact same training we do at home and it was a learning experience for us learning from them and them learning from us. It’s a unique time in history and we can no longer do everything singularly, so our partnership signifies to everybody how we gain strength through that.”
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.13.2015 12:07 |
| Story ID: | 154460 |
| Location: | MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, RO |
| Web Views: | 1,167 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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