TBILISI, Georgia (May 13, 2015) -- Paratroopers, from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, along with Soldiers from the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division and the Georgian 1st Infantry Brigade, trained together on close quarters battle skills during the second day of Exercise Noble Partner at the Vaziani training area, May 13.
Exercise Noble Partner is a combined U.S. Army Europe-Georgian exercise designed to enhance U.S. and Georgian NATO Response Force interoperability in the context of military-to-military relationships.
While American and Georgian military doctrine might be different, the training at Noble Partner focuses on the unified NATO doctrine, to strengthen Georgia's contribution of a light infantry company to the NATO Response Force.
Close quarter battle tactics, and techniques are used to train Soldiers on how to safely enter, clear and secure rooms or buildings, by defeating the enemy while minimizing friendly casualties.
"No room is the same, it's like a puzzle, so today we are running all sorts of scenarios," said Cpl. Lee Starks, a paratrooper with Troop C, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. "The Georgian soldiers are up-to-date on the basics, so we are doing more advanced training."
The 173rd and Georgian Soldiers have deployed together in Afghanistan, but as the brigade is the U.S. Army's Contingency Response Force in Europe, and the Georgians are part of the 2015 and 2016 NATO Response Force, they must be ready to work together again, and on short notice.
"It is important for us to train together now, so when the time comes for us to deploy together, we will have already developed our mutual tactics and techniques," said Sgt. Nathaniel Watkins, a sniper team leader also with Troop C. "We will also already have that relationship and this training continues to strengthen our partnership."
The training, held at an urban warfare site within the training area, was broken down into three different modules: individual combat movements, two-man team tactics inside a small room; and then a practical four-man exercise, where mixed teams of U.S. and Georgian Soldiers tactically approached a building and cleared it with what they had learned together earlier in the day.
The instructors made sure that the three different units were equally distributed so that they could get experiences with soldiers from other teams than their own.
"We are integrating the teams of U.S. and Georgian Soldiers," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason P. Orgis, the training noncommissioned officer in charge, also with Troop C. "While this training in is universal, they all have to be proficient working with each other."
As a forwardly-positioned unit in Europe, the paratroopers, from the 173rd, are uniquely skilled at working with soldiers from all over Europe, the Middle East and even Africa.
"We are getting a lot of experience working with other nations as part of the 173rd," Watkins said. "Each time we train with another partner or ally, we learn new things - and learn to work together."
Besides learning from foreign soldiers, the American paratroopers are also getting experience teaching to audiences other than their own.
"I'm learning a lot teachings these classes, as we training with the Georgian soldiers," Watkins said. "In order to be a good [noncommissioned officer], team leader and future squad leader, I need to be able to learn how to adapt and instruct all sorts of people and all sorts of scenarios."
Even with the linguistic and cultural challenges of training partner soldiers, Watkins said the training was going well.
"The Georgian soldiers have been extremely receptive to us being here," he said. "You can tell that they want the training and enjoy working with us."
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, is able to provide ready forces to deploy anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa and Central Commands' areas of responsibility within 18 hours of alert.
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