WIESBADEN, Germany -- U.S. Army Europe's first multinational Chief of Staff, German Army Brig. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, will successfully complete a historic assignment next week.
Laubenthal assumed his position Aug. 2014 and has been implementing the Strong Europe vision since. He will relinquish his position to Brig. Gen. Kai Ronald Rohrschneider Jan. 26.
During his tenure with Army Europe, Laubenthal witnessed many changes and developments within the command.
"I believe over the last two and a half years we have made significant achievements in terms of operational unit readiness and individual readiness," he said.
Laubenthal humbly referred to his achievements during tenure as Chief of Staff as not a single person's achievement, but a team effort.
Some highlights he noted included setting the pace with the European Reassurance Initiative and Operation Atlantic Resolve for NATO to consolidate and synchronize actions between the Allies, to achieve unity of effort, cohesion and mutual support.
Some other highlights included widening the horizon for exercise planning with Allies and partners from one to three years at the Combined Training Conference; broadening the Public Outreach Program and the Intern Program; establishing an effective staff process run by a General Officer Steering Committee for operational continuity, and improvement of budget efficiency.
Originally commissioned as an Armor officer, Laubenthal's assignment to Army Europe was far from his first experience with U.S. Forces. He deployed twice with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan, to support Kosovo Force or KFOR, and has trained and worked with US and NATO Forces on multiple operations and exercises during his 35 years of military service.
"You need to know your ally and your friend at least as well as your enemy because of trust and confidence, shoulder by shoulder, side by side, in combat operations and even exchanging our own forces or U.S. Forces with German formations strengthens and it is a matter of trust and confidence," he said. "Having exercised this, having done this on deployments, there is a kind of friendship grown which is absolutely vital."
Having a direct link within a command via his position eased communications on top level military leaderships between the German Army, U.S. Army and NATO, Laubenthal remarked.
"I often communicate directly with NATO LANDCOM, our natural partner, and it is a huge sign of symbol of trust and confidence to place me in this role," he said. "It is a bridging role between the U.S. Army headquarters and German Army headquarters. Any information we want to convey, I am just a phone call away from the Army command, to inform (Army Europe Commanding Gen. Lt. Gen. Ben) Hodges and then he informs U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley," he said. "We don't need a very long complicated procedure through the attaches, it's point to point and it makes it very easy."
Although Laubenthal found familiar territory in some aspects of the position, he had new challenges in other areas such as personnel, budget and logistics. He also discussed the challenges of the Regionally Allocated Forces and the importance of speed of assembly.
"There are 4000 nautical miles outside of Europe and everyone knows that they are here within three days not three hours, therefore it's critical to get those units to Europe to prove the concept that the U.S. forces is necessary to deploy these forces quickly and over time get the right set of forces over to Europe," he said.
"The speed of assembly to mass forces is what tests the 3/4 arrival," Laubenthal said, commenting on the nearly 4,000 U.S. Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division "Iron Brigade" out of Fort Carson, Colorado, who have rotated to Europe as part of continuous, "heel to toe" troop rotations to bolster ties with NATO allies.
"I think it's a great opportunity not just for the U.S. but also for NATO to see how long it takes, what it takes, what limitations and regulations … exercising how this works and what we can improve," he said. "I think it's very critical that we set the pace in Europe to show our allies in Europe how we do it and I believe there will be more following our example."
Planning for the future of USAREUR, Laubenthal discussed the achievement of significant objectives during his time with the command coming to fruition in the upcoming year.
"One way is the artillery live firing event which we will reconnect in 2017, in which we have a cooperation of nations for artillery systems," he said. "We bring them together, put them under U.S. command, and then we will have five to seven nations hopefully participating or at least observing how we can organize and execute digital fire. This is one of our critical interoperability events in 2017 and we are looking forward to seeing the results."
As for continuing to keep the position multinational, Laubenthal absolutely supports.
"The U.S. needs support and cohesion in Europe, and Europeans need the U.S. support in terms of deterrence against any kind of adversary. This is what we exercise and execute, very symbolic, with this kind of position herein U.S. Army headquarters," he said.
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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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