HOHENFELS, Germany -- Every hour of every day, U.S. Army Soldiers train somewhere in the world. There's only one place on earth, however, that provides them combat training opportunities side-by-side with NATO Allies and partner-nation armies in an environment that incorporates non-English-speaking civilians occupying villages filled with homes and stores.
The realism provided by these components here at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center amplifies the standard training provided elsewhere on operations, mobility, offensive and defensive operations by incorporating civilians on the battlefield, or COBs, and the opportunity to promote interoperability by working with military members from other nations.
This month, JMRC is hosting Saber Junction 15, a multinational training exercise that incorporates 4,700 participants from 17 countries in an evolving series of situational exercises and force-on-force training. The U.S. Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment comprises the bulk of U.S. forces training at JRMC during Saber Junction.
'UNIQUE TRAINING OPPORTUNITY'
"JMRC provides us a very unique training opportunity," said Col. John V. Meyer, 78th Commander of the Regiment. "Not only do we have, as a regiment, our Title 10 requirements to train, man and equip to be ready to deploy, fight and win -- JMRC provides us the opportunity to not only do this as a U.S. formation, but it provides us an opportunity to do this across the Alliance with 14 member nations. We're not only working on training readiness inside of the regiment, we're working on improving readiness across all the Allied formations outside of the regiment to overall strengthen the Alliance."
Still other nations are working alongside the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, which is stationed at Hohenfels. The division's Soldiers hone their infantry skills while role-playing as oppositional forces, known as OPFOR, during the training. In essence, they refine existing skills and learn new ones in conjunction with providing realistic training to visiting service members.
This month, those visitors include the 2nd Cavalry Regiment as well as service members from Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Sweden.
"They get multinational exposure (here), especially for the support squadron ," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Crawford, an observer-coach-trainer for the Adler Team, one of 13 OCT teams at JMRC. "They're not only going ahead and supporting their organic forces here, but they also mitigate through national caveats of what they can and can't supply and what they can and can't recover. So, they go through all those muscle movements here, unlike JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana) and NTC (National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California), where they don't have the multinational capabilities in order to bring it in for the full-scale training."
JRTC, NTC and JMRC comprise the three major combat training areas for U.S. Soldiers, but JMRC stands out as the only one outside of the United States.
Beyond the close proximity and easy access to NATO forces for working toward interoperability, JRMC boasts a varied area for rural and urban training, with 200 miles of roads and more miles of trails weaving through the area.
"It's a lot more diverse than what we typically see downrange," said Spc. Laronn Horton of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment's Regimental Engineering Squadron Military Intelligence Troop.
The center's 40,017 acres of training space also encompasses 1,345 buildings, including the remains of nearly a dozen small villages from World War II, which, during training times, are filled with local civilians hired as COBs to role-play everything from townsfolk to protesters.
REMEMBER THE PAST, TRAIN FOR THE FUTURE
The multinational environment of the area is not new, although it has evolved. The base was founded in April 1938 by the German Army for military training. More than a year later, Unteroedenhart, which falls within the training area, housed more than 3,000 interned Polish soldiers. In World War II, about 7,000 prisoners of war from the U.S. and Britain stayed in the same area. Today, multinational soldiers sleep in the same buildings when they're not in the field.
When they walk to shower or eat, it's typical to spot numerous patterns and colors of camouflage as military members from across the continent come together for the training.
The blend of nations allows Soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment to not only prepare for future missions but remember the past and reflect on how it influences operations today.
"What makes (the 2nd Cavalry Regiment) unique is the 178 years of history that occurred prior to us, where these Soldiers are training with their multinational allies. They're continuing the legacy of the Soldiers who came before them," Meyer said of what is the longest continuously serving regiment on active duty for the U.S. military.
Seventy years ago this month, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment rolled into the area that is now JMRC, but not for training. Serving under Patton's Third Army during World War II, the regiment entered the area with nine tanks. After limited resistance from German and Hungarian soldiers, the regiment liberated the American and British prisoners held in the area.
Now, at Saber Junction 15, American, German and Hungarian soldiers join with military members from 14 other countries as allies focused on building a stronger Europe.
"As it stands now, any unilateral training is a thing of the past. Our training with NATO forces seeks to increase our interoperability with our neighboring allies," Meyer said.
It's all about looking to the future and embracing the opportunities provided by JMRC to do so.
"We are training and developing leaders to deploy, fight and win in the real world," Meyer said.
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