HOHENFELS, Germany -- In May 2015, the Latvian Army sent five soldier to participate in Operation Combined Resolve IV here in order to facilitate interoperability between Latvia and its NATO allies.
The Latvian cohort is one of ten NATO allies and three partner nations participating in Combined Resolve IV. The operation focuses on cooperative force-on-force engagements and maneuver training among the NATO participants.
The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division -- based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia -- is the main U.S. unit participating in the exercise. The Latvian team contributed three soldiers to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's operations section and two soldiers to the intelligence section.
"Our mission is to work with the Allies," said 1st Sgt. Andris Veiss.
Today's current operating environments often require a multinational effort and Veiss stressed the importance of teamwork.
"We are included with brigade staff. We are working together. Not like Latvian teams or Bulgarian, but like one big organization."
Veiss said their primary goal was to integrate with the brigade staff to see American logistical and operational procedures.
"Not all procedures are the same as ours," said Veiss. He stressed the importance of learning and practicing NATO standards to better understand other Allies' tactics, techniques, and procedures in order to work better together.
Veiss said the experiences gathered in Combined Resolve IV will allow for more fluid operations in the future. Veiss also expressed his intent to take the information learned during the operation back to his unit.
"We are doing something similar but maybe we can take their [American] knowledge and incorporate [it] in our knowledge."
Multinational cooperation has a unique set of challenges. Veiss acknowledged the difficulties of working in a foreign environment especially with regard to the language barrier. However, Veiss stressed the importance of talking to each other and fostering mutual understanding.
The Latvians routinely conduct training operations with other nations on varying scales of size, said Veiss. Combined Resolve IV, however, provides the Latvian troops and other NATO participants the opportunity to work in a coalition structure on a large scale and allows a greater depth of mutual understanding and increased interoperability.
Combined Resolve IV is taking place at the U.S. Army's Joint Multinational Training Command at the Hohenfels and Grafenwoehr Training Areas, May 12 -June 6.
Combined Resolve is a series of bi-annual U.S. Army Europe exercises designed to train participants to function together in a multinational and integrated environment and train U.S. Army rotational forces to Europe to be more flexible, agile and better able to operate alongside Allies and partners in the region.
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