Post by JustJohn or JJ on Feb 4, 2022 6:56:37 GMT -7
Europe
US advance troops land in Poland to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank
by John Vandiver
• Stars and Stripes • February 4, 2022
STUTTGART, Germany — An advance group of U.S. troops landed Friday in Poland, where 1,700 soldiers from the Fort Bragg-based 82nd Airborne Division will take up positions aimed at reassuring allies worried about potential Russian aggression.
“This is a strong signal of allied solidarity in response to the situation in Ukraine,” Polish Defense Minster Mariusz Blaszczak said in a statement announcing the arrivals.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the U.S. forces landed in Poland, but commercial air traffic radar trackers showed Air Force C-130s landing in Rzeszow, a southeastern Polish town not far from the Ukrainian border.
Airmen unload equipment from a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane in Poland, in preparation for the arriving 82nd Airborne Division troops. About 1,700 Fort Bragg-based troops will be deployed to Poland, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. military already has about 4,000 service members operating in various parts of Poland on a rotational basis, including hundreds of soldiers supporting a NATO mission just 50 miles from Russia’s military enclave of Kaliningrad.
In addition to the 1,700 Fort Bragg-based troops being deployed to Poland, roughly 300 others will be based in Germany, where a joint headquarters is expected to be set up. Those troops are intended to augment the Army’s recently established V Corps, which became fully operational last year.
“An XIII Airborne Corps task force adds scale and capabilities to our operations here in Europe,” U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement.
In the coming days, 1,000 soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany, will depart for Romania in connection with President Joe Biden’s decision to boost troop levels along NATO’s eastern flank.
U.S. European Command and USAREUR-AF have declined to provide details thus far about troop arrivals in Poland and Romania.
In Romania, the U.S. already has 900 troops carrying out a wide range of missions, with much of the activity centered around Mihail Kogalniceau Air Base, which hosts elements of the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.
The Navy also as an Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System site at Deveselu, Romania and the U.S. Air Force operates a drone facility at Campia Turzii, a Romanian air base.
www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2022-02-04/us-troops-from-fort-bragg-land-in-poland-4623974.html
STUTTGART, Germany — An advance group of U.S. troops landed Friday in Poland, where 1,700 soldiers from the Fort Bragg-based 82nd Airborne Division will take up positions aimed at reassuring allies worried about potential Russian aggression.
“This is a strong signal of allied solidarity in response to the situation in Ukraine,” Polish Defense Minster Mariusz Blaszczak said in a statement announcing the arrivals.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the U.S. forces landed in Poland, but commercial air traffic radar trackers showed Air Force C-130s landing in Rzeszow, a southeastern Polish town not far from the Ukrainian border.
Airmen unload equipment from a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane in Poland, in preparation for the arriving 82nd Airborne Division troops. About 1,700 Fort Bragg-based troops will be deployed to Poland, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. military already has about 4,000 service members operating in various parts of Poland on a rotational basis, including hundreds of soldiers supporting a NATO mission just 50 miles from Russia’s military enclave of Kaliningrad.
In addition to the 1,700 Fort Bragg-based troops being deployed to Poland, roughly 300 others will be based in Germany, where a joint headquarters is expected to be set up. Those troops are intended to augment the Army’s recently established V Corps, which became fully operational last year.
“An XIII Airborne Corps task force adds scale and capabilities to our operations here in Europe,” U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement.
In the coming days, 1,000 soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany, will depart for Romania in connection with President Joe Biden’s decision to boost troop levels along NATO’s eastern flank.
U.S. European Command and USAREUR-AF have declined to provide details thus far about troop arrivals in Poland and Romania.
In Romania, the U.S. already has 900 troops carrying out a wide range of missions, with much of the activity centered around Mihail Kogalniceau Air Base, which hosts elements of the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.
The Navy also as an Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System site at Deveselu, Romania and the U.S. Air Force operates a drone facility at Campia Turzii, a Romanian air base.
www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2022-02-04/us-troops-from-fort-bragg-land-in-poland-4623974.html
