GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany -- Senior leaders from 22 U.S. Army and Air Force National Guard states and military leadership from partner nations met for the 2016 European Command State Partnership Program Conference here July 19 -- 21.
The SPP links U.S. states with partner countries around the world to promote access, increase military capability, improve interoperability and enhance the principles of responsible governance. Conference attendees had an opportunity to attend forums and build existing and new relationships, with topics spanning military, political, economic and social issues.
"We may have different equipment and different haircut standards, but we also have the same values, we have shared values of democracy, rule of law, and in many of our cases, shared challenges that we have decided we can solve together," EUCOM commander Gen. Curtis Scaparotti said while addressing the conference.
"Because we share these values we can leverage full military operational capabilities while freely exchanging ideas in shared pursuit of stability prosperity and security," he continued. "This is why all 50 states, 3 territories and the District of Columbia have partnered with over 70 nations around the world."
The EUCOM SPP is part of a U.S. National Guard program in existence since 1993 and it partners U.S. states with foreign countries. The EUCOM program is a component of the global SPP, which assists the Theater Security Cooperation program of each of the six U.S. geographic Combatant Commands. This year is the conference's third year, but the relationships of SPP partners much older.
"Most of our U.S. guardsmen have long standing relationships with the countries their state supports, some over 20 years. If we have strong relationships and if we have strong trust between nations, we can accomplish just about anything," said Brig. Gen. Bill Hall, director of the EUCOM SPP, and an Arizona Army National Guardsman, who helped organize the conference with a team from EUCOM's policy, strategy, partnering and capabilities directorate.
"Relationship building is hard to measure, we are very big about measuring things in the military, but at the end of the day when we conclude the conference, we either have made new relationships or build and strengthen our relationships we had previously," Hall said.
Scaparotti agreed, citing the strength of these enduring connections. "It's these relationships and trust that get you through the crucible of conflict," he said.
Rather than U.S. Soldiers training other nations' soldiers, partnership events involve the sharing of concepts, idea and lessons learned.
"Whether we are renovating elderly care facilities in Romania, remodeling schools in Croatia, exercising squadron deployments in Arizona, discussing cyber defense and intelligence in Slovakia, flying (unmanned aerial vehicles) over Latvia, or conducting a water gap crossing in Texas, we are bridging gaps to enable military operations to support interagency efforts and to provide opportunities for growth," Scaparotti said. "And in today's world, we are ensuring collective defense in a very challenging environment."
Conference attendees concurred that the conference strengthened not just military to military interoperability but bonds between countries themselves via interpersonal relationships.
"I enjoy working with organizations and implementing change. What is more important is we are forging friendships," Maj. Gen. Singh, adjutant general of the Maryland U.S. Army National Guard and conference attendee said.
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