Blog Posts tagged with "Estonia"

On June 1, I had the honor and privilege to represent EUCOM during ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Puka and Voru Estonia. Here I witnessed both a glorious demonstration of the communities’ civic pride and an equally magnanimous gratitude for EUCOM’s partnership in completing these two worthy projects. A kinship with a people never met before developed easily over purposeful work done well and meaningfully.

Puka School Children performing native Estonian song and dance.

The first project was an approximately $317,000 renovation of the Puka School’s roof in Puka, Estonia. The school, built in the 1930s, has continually served as the consolidated school (grades 1-12) for Puka, teaching approximately 120 students every year. The original roof had seen its better days long ago and despite frequent repairs, the challenge to keep out rain was constant. Clearly, this renovation is a vast improvement and will undoubtedly protect Puka’s treasured school long past the time when the grandchildren of current students send their children to learn.

After a delightful and memorable performance of Estonian national song and dance by the school’s children, we had the ribbon cutting and plaque dedication by school and civic leaders, and  U.S. Embassy and EUCOM personnel.

The second project was a $259,000 exterior renovation of the South Estonia Hospital’s Special Needs Center in Voru. This project was the second and final renovation phase (previously the center had had an interior renovation done with European Union funding) to a facility that provides essential services to mentally disabled adults requiring assisted living.

South-Estonia Hospital Special Needs Center’s newly renovated exterior.

The dedication included a traditional dance by the center’s residents, a ceremony with local officials, and then breaking bread together in celebration. I left the center with a strong belief that EUCOM assistance had been put to important and necessary use and, moreover, that our assistance was highly valued and appreciated.

Looking at these pictures, I realize what a privilege it was to witness and take part in something that meant so much not only to Estonian civic leaders but more importantly to the students and residents whose lives will be directly and positively impacted by such quality of life improvement projects. No doubt, these renovations will help ensure that Puka and Voru children and adults will continue to receive services in secure and attractive buildings long into the future. I will remember this special June day and the warmth shared by many.

Mike C. Hartzell
Lt Col, USAF, BSC
International Health Specialist
EUCOM Command Surgeon's Office

Although the news tends to cover the myriad of crises that EUCOM is involved with, it often overlooks the vitally important and enduring missions that truly underpin the long-term success of EUCOM. Let me offer you an example. Part of EUCOM ‘s mission is to conduct work with our international military counterparts in order to build their military capacity. Sometimes we do this alone – military to military – and other times we find opportunities to work with other partners in the public or private sector.

A case in point: In early March, we teamed up with Project Hope, a non-profit medical service organization, to work with us and our Baltic allies in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on some of the most relevant, important issues facing all of our forces: wounded warrior care, veteran care, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are committed ISAF partners conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. These countries each rank in the top half of total ISAF troop contributions, as well as per capita fatalities. Lithuania leads a Provincial Reconstruction Tam (PRT) in Chaghcharan; Latvia has contributed soldiers to PRT and Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) missions for the last 4 years in Afghanistan; and Estonia is operating alongside coalition forces without caveats in some of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

Like most countries involved with the ISAF mission, the Baltic nations have experienced a relatively high amount of casualties, IED related injuries and PTSD. Like all contributors, they are confronting the challenges of caring for severely wounded, ill, and injured military personnel and their families post deployment.

EUCOM’s Military to Military Contact Program, one of EUCOM’s oldest and most effective security cooperation programs, began working with the Offices of Defense Cooperation in our Baltic embassies to plan an event with our allies which facilitates information sharing for pre- and post-deployment medical care, including the identification and treatment of TBI and building a Warrior Care plan.

The Project Hope mission includes educating health professionals, community health workers, and strengthening health facilities all over the world. For this event, Project Hope provided nationally renowned specialists in neurosurgery and psychiatry to team up with a director from the Department of Defense Wounded Warrior Program, a senior DOD policy analyst and U.S. Air Force Europe’s 3rd Air Chief of International Health. With the help of our ODCs, this team of experts traveled to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia where they worked alongside members of the Ministries of Defense and Health, along with civilian medical, hospital and university personnel.

What a success! This mission proved an important first step in a continued partnership of exchanges and collaboration on these crucial issues for soldiers and veterans who have served their nation and NATO proudly.

We are learning more and more how TBI can lead to problems with PTSD, depression, drugs and alcohol, and seeing more clearly the tangible effects of the bloodless trauma from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We all grapple with these tough problems. Learning from each other – across nations and public/private sectors – and sharing lessons learned and best practices is the truest form of international and public-private cooperation. This collaboration with Project Hope and the Department of Defense in the Baltics embodied that spirit perfectly.

Adm. James Stavridis
Commander, U.S. European Command and
Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

More blogs on the Project Hope/Wounded Warrior Care visit are available here: Exploring Wounded Warrior issues in partner nations

and

*This is the final blog for this series; the first can be seen here and the second here.*

The final day of the Wounded Warrior team’s trip in the Baltics began with a visit to Magdaleena East Central Tallinn Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Estonia and the best hospital in Tallinn for rehabilitation.

The hospital tour -- provided by Dr. Heidi Gill, the head of the rehabilitation department -- highlighting their various rehabilitation areas and capabilities, was quite interesting because of the unique therapies available to patients. Certain therapies that are considered homeopathic in the U.S. are commonplace in the Baltic and Scandanavian countries; they use "mud" therapy, hydro-therapy and also extreme cold therapy which has shown to be effective with treating rheumatic disorders and severe depression. The temperatures in the severe cold therapy are well below -100 Celsius!

After the tour we were pleasantly surprised to see that the lecture facilities were the best out of all the previous places visited and we settled in for the day’s discussions. The group of Estonians who joined us came from quite diverse areas: most were from the Estonian Military Medical organization, others were local doctors, psychologists, nurses and social workers. The focus was on medical lectures followed by our entire team going on stage for an open panel question and answer session.

Dr. James Ecklund, former head of Neuroscience at Walter Reed and world-renowned neurosurgeon and expert on blast related brain injuries is interviewed.

Dr. Ecklund presented his lecture on blast induced brain injuries and was followed by Dr. Polo and his lecture that focused on traumatic brain injuries. Both lectures were specifically tailored to the audience and group discussion from the audience was light during the lectures. An important part of security cooperation is understanding the culture of the countries you are in; in Estonia people are less likely to ask question in large group settings. However, during the breaks or after presentations there will typically be very in depth discussions. Just as a predicted, during the breaks and after the presentation the team was vigorously engaged with the audience on a variety of topics. Although our schedule was tight we were still able to do some effective networking and generate ideas for future areas of cooperation.

After a quick stop for lunch the team began the 1.5 hour drive to Haapsalu, a beautiful city close to the Baltic Sea with a large castle partly restored and partly still in ruins. Haapsalu is also home to the Haapsalu Neurological Rehab center, the best neurological rehab center in the country. It also boasts a beautiful promenade and gorgeous views from most of the windows which adds to the restorative effects of the center. The view in winter is also beautiful but in more of an austere kind of way. The lake in front of the center is frozen and there were actually ice roads with cars driving over them while we watched from the large bay windows.

Dr. Kadri Englas, the head of their rehab department, and Priit Eelmae, the hospital director, met us at the entrance and talked a little bit out our team and the overall mission. The leadership at this center is outstanding and they are always looking for new ways to partner with the U.S.

Here I'm discussing a EUCOM Humanitarian Assistance project for an amputee care center/prosthesis lab that will be a joint project with the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonian Defense Forces and Ministry of Defense.

Priit told us about the hospital’s history and current capabilities. He stressed the work they have done with wounded Estonian Soldiers in their state of the art gait lab which is able to digitally capture how a person walks; they use this information to tailor rehab programs. This is particularly useful with amputees learning to walk again with their new prosthesis.

Priit and Dr. Englas then took us on a short tour of the center and highlighted their occupational therapy and gait lab capabilities.We finished the tour in the conference room and met with the rest of the medical staff which included physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers and nurses. Dr. Ecklund gave a custom tailored brief that focused on highlighting the injuries and resulting symptoms they might see with blast related head injuries. Dr. Polo followed with his presentation on the medical symptoms and treatment recommendations for mild to severe TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pam and David then discussed with the group what their specialties were and also ideas for improving assistance to families and veterans based on their understanding of the center's capabilities and focus. A healthy question and answer session and discussions for future cooperation ensued for about 45 minutes. We said our goodbyes and began the drive back to Tallinn.

It was a nice end to a long and productive day and week.

Major Christopher E. Mackin
Bilateral Affairs Officer/Deputy Chief
US Office of Defense Cooperation, Estonia

*This is the second in a series, the first can be seen here.*

While visiting Lithuania the Wounded Warrior team and the two physicians from Project Hope drove out to Vilnius University Emergency Hospital (VUEH) located 15 minutes west of the capital, Vilnius. The day’s mission was to deliver medical lectures about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to the staff at a local hospital there.

This Soviet-style hospital with 2000 beds was built in 1986 -- just 5 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. There were sharp contrasts from this hospital versus the Kaunas Hospital we visited yesterday. It was clear there was less focus on the mindset of the patient and their families, unlike the Kaunas hospital with sunlight and warm pools for therapy. I believe Americans take for granted the way our hospitals in the states greet us as we walk in, either as a guest or a patient; perhaps it’s what we have learned about welcoming our patients and their families. VUEH felt cold. It was a colder atmosphere and the hallways were dark and sterile.

What the Vilnius University Emergency Hospital had going for it was the way the hospital was nestled into the tall pine forest on the outskirts of town. When we were on the 9th floor we were able to see the foothills of Vilnius and the city skyline. American architects and construction crews can learn a lot from the Europeans about leaving the natural trees and surroundings near the intended building.

Our first meeting was with Dr. Saulius Rocka, one of Vilnius’ neurosurgeons. He brought our team to the surgeons’ morning meetings. As introductions were made, the Director for the Surgery Department handed out long stem roses to the women in the audience as part of “International Women’s Day.” Pam McClelland from Department of Defense Family Support was a pleased recipient. This was a practice since the Soviet times and persisted through the years.

Our meeting with the surgeons described the previous night’s activities. Our physician team members were able to follow along due to the medical terms sounding very familiar with a Lithuanian ending. One of the morning cases involved a patient with Neurocysticercosis – a parasitic infection of the central nervous system that results from ingestion of eggs from the adult tapeworm, often from undercooked pork. This is very rare in the US, but still makes a great case in educating newer physicians.

Dr. Polo gives his presentation.

Dr. James Ecklund, a world-renowned neurosurgeon and Dr. James Polo, our psychology consultant, were both supported by Project HOPE and gave presentations describing lessons learned dealing with head wounds and the psychology of the patients. We were very pleased to have several members from the Lithuanian Military Medical Services, as well as the Ministry of Defense attend these lectures. The team felt there were plenty of new ideas and enthusiasm with the group of 3rd year medical students from the local area. These future physicians hold the torch for the care and well being of Lithuania.

At the end of the day, the US Embassy Public Affairs team asked us a very profound question: “I have many friends who served in Afghanistan in the 1980’s with the Soviets. They cannot sleep at night and are having trouble with drugs and alcohol. What is Lithuania doing with these patients?” The Baltics need to address this issue. These people are Lithuania’s, sons, brothers, uncles, fathers and grandfathers. These men did their job and now it’s time to help relieve the suffering. We had similar issues in the United States and we learned from our mistakes. We are hoping we can share these lessons with the Baltic countries. We view this as an excellent area for future cooperation.

The team is now prepared to address these issues in Latvia and Estonia.

So as the flower brings joy and shows a sign of new life, the hope for this team is to bring new life to a medical system needing support for their patients.

Stephen Timmons, Lt Col
Bilateral Affairs Officer
US Embassy Lithuania

Wounded Warrior, Veteran care, traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. All are powerful terms capable of eliciting intense emotions from military service members and civilians alike. For the Baltic nations of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia supporting International Security Assistance Force - Afghanistan it is a term they are becoming more familiar with.

Baltic Bilateral Affairs Officers frequently work together on regional security cooperation issues and realized the overarching concept of veteran care is something the military leadership in the Baltics required assistance developing. Through the auspices of the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), Project Hope and the EUCOM State Partnership Program (SPP) we set out to familiarize the Lithuanian Military Medical organization and their Ministry of Health with veteran care.

Dr. James Ecklund, Pam McClelland, Lt. Col. Paul Bostrom, Dr. James Polo, and David DuBois

The team members on this project are from diverse backgrounds and all converged on Vilnius, Lithuania, where the events began. David DuBois and Pam McClelland came from Washington, D.C., and represent the Department of Defense Wounded Warrior Program. Their specific specialties are Transition Assistance Programs and the Office of Family Support & Policy. Dr. James Ecklund and Dr. James Polo are both retired colonels from the US National Capital Region and are nationally renowned specialists in neurosurgery and psychiatry. Lt. Col. Paul Bostrom from the 3rd Air Force, Surgeon General Chief of International Healthy Division represents EUCOM. The Bilateral Affairs Officers, Lt. Col. Steve Timmons and Maj. Chris Mackin, round out the team representing the U.S. military in Lithuania and Estonia.

This was the first time most of the team members set foot in the Baltics and many among us were not sure what to expect.

Bright and early Monday morning we traveled from Vilnius to Kaunas to visit the Lithuanian Military Medical Service at the headquarters. The Lithuanian Military Medical leadership provided a detailed brief on their history and current capabilities. Established in 1918 after World War I, their current facilities were constructed in 1919, the facility and organization underwent renovations and improvements in 1927-1933 to become one of the best-equipped hospitals in all of Lithuania.

Their organization was re-established in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union and has underwent extensive modernization to become a highly professional and capable force able to support peacekeeping, combat and humanitarian assistance programs worldwide since 1995.

The Lithuanian military medical services are quite active in supporting coalition forces with more than 150 medics deployed to various operations since 1995. They have also deployed several physicians and nurses to Iraq and Afghanistan. The brief was very interesting and informative and I was surprised at how extensive their military medical capability is compared to other nations in the region.

The Lithuanians were quite interested in the programs DuBois and McClelland briefed and followed up with many questions.

After the briefs, our group traveled to the largest hospital that was built prior to World War II located in Kaunas, Lithuania. We met with the director of the hospital who proceeded to give a very in depth tour of the entire hospital. The most interesting aspect of the visit was learning that the military cooperation with this hospital is very close. All of the military medical physicians and most of the medial personnel were educated in this hospital and also work part time there. We saw that the patients have great water rehabilitation centers with a variety of heated pools and baths. The director was very eager to point out the number of American manufactures of equipment and supplies. We raced through the underground tunnels and toured the hospital in less than 60 minutes and I bet we walked more than two miles! It is a good thing the underground tunnels have a heated walkway, temperatures in the winter months can be very cold reaching -20 C (4F); that's not comfortable if all you have to wear is that paper hospital gown!

Afterwards, our team drove back to Vilnius in time to meet with the Ministry of Health to pave the road for future plans and cooperation. There’s another blog coming about that day’s visits too.

Major Christopher E. Mackin
Bilateral Affairs Officer/Deputy Chief
US Office of Defense Cooperation, Estonia

Note: This is the first in a series of blogs about the team's trip around the Baltic countries. Stay tuned for more!

And so began the Afghan-NATO offensive into Helmad province, known as Operation Moshtarak – which translates roughly as “Together.” We are focusing on the area around a town called Marjah, where there has historically been a great deal of insurgent activity and heroin production.

Soldiers from six nations gather to hear the three senior officers involved in commanding Operation Moshtarak, Brigadier James Cowan; Commander 11 Light Brigade (UK); Brigadier General Moyaiyodin Ghori, Commanding Officer 3rd Brigade Afghan National Army; and Colonel Shirin Shah Afghan National Civil Order Police. Images by: SSgt Mark Jones (British Army)

There are about 10,000 troops directly involved, including about 5,000 Afghan Army and Police, and about 5,000 NATO forces – U.S., British, Danish, and Estonians – under tactical command of 2-star British General, Nick Carter and Afghan 1-star Shir Mohammad.

We are working very hard (and thus far have been successful) in minimizing civilian casualties. This has been at the heart of our strategy since last summer, and is different than any of the large operations that were conducted over the previous years in Afghanistan.

To accomplish this, we have been in extensive consultation with the people of the area – notably through Shuras and other local processes – and have truly listened to them. We seek to prevent any civilian casualties and in return have received a great deal of support.

At Camp Bastion the six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak are conducting battle preparations.

Tragically, while troops were in contact with insurgents Sunday, two rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launched at insurgents firing upon Afghan and ISAF forces impacted approximately 300 meters off their intended target, killing 12 civilians in Nad Ali district, Helmand province. We deeply regret this tragic loss of life and will ensure we do all we can to avoid future incidents. The use of the HIMARS has been suspended until a thorough review of this incident has been conducted.

It is important also to know that this is the first Afghan-led operation of this scale. It was fully briefed to President Karzai by his military and police leadership and approved by him. They have real ownership and are partnering with us in approximately a 1:1 ratio of forces.

It is crucial to know that the military phase of this is NOT the decisive part – it is the introduction of governance and the follow-on economic activity that will be key. Again, that will be Afghan led but supported by the rest of the coalition. In that sense, the military part is not the “main event,” but rather the enabling function.

As Stan told me, and I agree fully, “this is only a step on a long road - and there will be twists, turns, and plenty of improvised explosive devices along the way.” I couldn’t agree more. The key will be to be steady in the four things upon which we’ve focused for months now:

- Protecting and partnering with the Afghan people

- Effectively communicating, both in Afghanistan and our nations

- Balancing civilian and military efforts

- Training and empowering the Afghan security forces

It is clearly “early days” in this operation, but as a model for how we seek to conduct operations, it is off to a good start.

Adm. James Stavridis
Commander, U.S. European Command and
Supreme Allied Commander Europe

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the national delegations at Combined Endeavor 2009’s regional site at Bülows Kaserne, Fredericia, Denmark. Delegations at this site are from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden with additional support personnel from the United States, Austria and Germany.

BÜLOWS KASERNE BASE, Denmark — Swedish Army Capt. Stefan Eklund runs fiber optic cable to his nation's workspace. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez)

Bülows Kaserne is nestled on the shoreline of Fredericia, which is surrounded on three sides by ramparts. These fortifications figure prominently in Danish history and tied to the defense of the kingdom. Construction started in 1650 and is central in the story of the battle to free Fredericia on the 5th and 6th of July 1848.

Our visit started with a briefing by the Danish delegation chief, Lieutenant Colonel Erik Schwensen, providing an overview of the site and his responsibilities as host for the delegations in Denmark. We then participated in the daily coordination video teleconference with the other regional site in the Netherlands and main site in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

BÜLOWS KASERNE BASE, Denmark — Danish Army Lt. Col. Erik Schwensen looks over the ranks of nine countries during the Combined Endeavor opening ceremony Sept. 3, 2009 at Fredericia, Denmark.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez)

The highlight was visiting each delegation and learning of the tests they had scheduled for the week, the challenges in establishing the test network and the ad hoc partnering and experimentation that was taking place. They all emphasized the challenges introduced to the exercise with having delegations and their equipment spread between three locations, vice what had become the norm with one primary location in Germany. All wanted me to clearly understand the distributed architecture to support this year’s exercise injected a level of complexity that if not managed properly, could easily distract from their stated aim of testing, validating and documenting interoperability interfaces.

Overall I was most impressed by the genuine enthusiasm, passion, pride, teamwork and excellence evident in the working relationship between these professionals, each with their national objectives, but always willing to assist others where they could.

Denmark is the host at Bülows Kaserne and much of their effort was focused on site support and connecting the three exercise locations together with their satellite communications equipment…this is huge and critical task for overall exercise success. Their interoperability testing was focused on their preparation for support of the NATO Response Force.

Finland’s focus was on preparation for their responsibilities to the European Union Battle Group (EU BG) in 2011 with partners from Ireland, Sweden and Estonia. Testing for the exercise is focused on interoperability for this division sized force. Of interest was also their test of the NATO STANAG 5066, that defines how to send e-mail over HF radio, using four different radios. Most impressive was the description of a very simple, but elegant, solution to allow two nation’s secure radios to interoperate while allowing each nation to use their own methods of securing the radio transmissions with their national crypto. Simply brilliant! I was also pleased and surprised to discover that for the past five years they have conducted their own internal Finnish Combined Endeavor as a national C4I interoperability exercise. All of the lessons learned are folded back into the training objectives for their communications and signal forces.

Slovenia was involved in robust testing of single channel HF radios supporting IP networks and command and control. One C2 system being tested is used at the company and platoon level for situation awareness and can swap tracks of forces via HF, VHF, SATCOM and IP networks. I was most impressed that Slovenia is also testing elements of recent Microsoft enterprise capabilities for their tactical forces that we have not yet fielded within the HQ USEUCOM network enterprise. When delays in establishing the testing network, which were outside of Slovenia’s control, threatened their ability to complete some of their key test objectives, the cooperative spirit of their partner delegations sprang into action to ensure their partner would have the opportunity to achieve their exercise objectives. This spirit of cooperation is just one example of the teaming and partnership throughout the site.

The team from Estonia included personnel that were charged with the responsibility to establish their national signal and communications training center for the military. CE09 is the first deployment for Estonia’s new tactical communications system called ESTTACS. In addition to validating their new kit with their regional partners, they were also responsible for network traffic monitoring for the network in Denmark supporting this element of the exercise. Additionally, they also brought a special team to evaluate new HF radio equipment that might complement their current capabilities.

Sweden was in tight collaboration with the other EU BG countries testing HF and C2 systems. They were also conducting tests with Finland on TACOMS (Tactical Communications Standards for Joint Operations). The TACOMs website describes the initiative as, “…neither a NATO program nor a NATO funded project. Rather it is a project comprised of NATO nations and non NATO nations, operating outside the normal NATO infrastructure, and funded by the Nations themselves. However, NATO prescribes the projects Military Operational Requirements and Technical Requirements…” This project is an opportunity for collaboration and innovation between the 16 partner nations.

Ireland was keen on preparing for international peacekeeping operations. They too were very interested in the additional capabilities for HF as well as NATO compliant C2 systems. During the mid planning conference for the exercise, they decided to modify, through a very quick turn development, their national friendly force tracking capability to be interoperable with NATO’s friendly force indicator protocol. Initial testing indicates success.

No doubt I’ve not done justice to all of the accomplishments I witnessed in my short visit to Bülows Kaserne, but the biggest take away of the day was that Combined Endeavor demonstrates that we are all, as the US European Command motto states…“STRONGER TOGETHER.”

Next stop...Combined Endeavor's site in The Netherlands.

Brigadier General David A. Cotton
Director, Command, Control, Communications
and Warfighting Integration (J6)
Facebook: dacotton
Twitter: DavidACotton

Tomorrow, I'll be gathering my gear and moving into my temporary home at Banja Luca, Bosnia-Herzegovina to do my part within EUCOM's Combined Endeavor 09 exercise.

The Combined Endeavor series of exercises are more workshop, display and information exchange than tactics, techniques and troop management. Combined Endeavor -- CE for short -- allows communicators from all over Europe, as well as Canada, the United States, a once-yearly opportunity to test out, experiment, and share communications breakthroughs with their counterparts. When a disaster occurs is the wrong time to figure out that one nation's "commo gear" can't talk with another's. Or that one has to have two, three, or even four phone "devices" around because for some reason there was no coordination to share simple things like phone directories, emergency radio frequencies, push-to-talk numbers, and emergency beeper numbers among those who needed them beforehand. We Americans experienced this back during the aftermath of "9-11" in New York City and later after a series of hurricanes in our southern United States destroyed much of several of our largest coastal cities.

THAT is what CE is really all about: figuring out before disaster occurs, how best to communicate between nation's basic communication systems; is there anything on the horizon better than what we're using and how does it work -- and CAN IT WORK with systems which were purchased back in the 80s? In the 60s? In the 40s? It goes a little bit further than that.

Let's say supposedly, country "X" is fielding a new communications system and there's only one or two people in their country who knows anything about that system. Country "Y" remembers their own growing pains from their experiences with that system four years ago. The two countries can get together on their own, sure, and exchange people, information and equipment between each other. However, it's a lot better to do that exchange whereby other nations surrounding them can see how tough fielding the new equipment can be and how much support there is for that equipment to be taught during something like CE.

That too, is what CE is about. There's no firing ranges, no explosions (we hope!), no fighting. A simple exchange of information, resources, tools and techniques geared to get everyone "speaking together", maybe not with one voice but with the capability to hear and talk with one another.

As the public affairs officer for the exercise, my emphasis will be in part on communication with others as well. This blog, for instance, will be used by participants and leadership of CE09 to talk and listen to all of you about this important exercise. In addition, I will be posting daily images and video collected from our "media operations center" to further illustrate the importance of the exercise and how it's a great use of EUCOM's valuable capital - human and financial. I will also post content on world-wide internet resources like Facebook and Flikr, again so that those in other nations as well as our "home team audiences" can see and understand a bit more about CE09 and it's place as a EUCOM value-added program.

I am thrilled to be able to share my experiences with all of you while I'm there. But I'm not going to be the ONLY one you'll "hear" from, trust me. We have people within the communications community (the people who REALLY know their stuff with regard to the outcomes of this event) on tap to share with you their impressions and thoughts about the exercise and it's progress. I will also be reaching out to my Bosnia-Herzegovina counterparts and asking them to post here as well. I trust that through our social media and traditional media methods, that you will talk with us about the exercise too.

Combined Endeavor is a EUCOM-sponsored communications interoperability exercise. For the first time, a Partnership for Peace nation will be hosting the main effort. I am happy to be a part of the effort as one of the last events on my "performance calendar" under my current set of orders to EUCOM's public affairs directorate. I look forward in sharing my impressions and thoughts with all of you -- through this blog, products produced here, and items posted to EUCOM's Facebook and Flikr (a photo sharing site), and follow us on Twitter at #EUCOM.

LTC Mike Walton
U.S. European Command Public Affairs

Well, the Tandbergs worked between here and Stuttgart! What's a Tandberg? It is a point-to-point (or multipoint) teleconferencing tool used by many commercial firms as well as by many nations. The screen looks like a portrait-sized computer screen (in other words, a normal computer screen turned 90 degrees) and there's a camera embedded into the top of the screen. With this tool, individuals can sit at their desk and communicate with any number of others for video conferences.

Part of the preparation for this exercise calls for the using such great tools by the staffs on both the EUCOM end in Germany and all three locations of CE this year.

The other accomplishment today thanks to the great work, led by the personnel assigned to the US Army Europe (USAREUR for short), the Combined/Joint Command and Control Center (or "CJ Triple C") is fully wired to support controlling testing activities between Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The CJ-Triple C is where participating nations' leadership can observe and direct the overall exercise activities. Completion of the communications infrastructure in the CJ Triple C means that we're only a few days away from the start of a very complex communications exercise.

There are other important wirings going on today but these are the two biggest.

LtCol Rick Dollesin
Exercise Director, Combined Endeavor

Things are going well as Kozara Barracks is being transformed into a large telecommunications site to support the Main Operating Base of Combined Endeavor 2009 (CE09). We are finalizing contracts, continuing to build the main operating base infrastructure, and installing several networks which will serve as the backbone for our daily communications during the communications interoperability testing. There are as many Bosnia and Herzogovina military support personnel on the ground here as there are members from the CE staff and early participants!

Working around electronics -- and their containers -- is a little dangerous. Safety is paramount among all participants, staff members and visitors whether here at Kozara Barracks or at the other two sites involved in CE09. However, together with our host nation counterparts, we are continuing to make CE09 a positive experience for all participants and visitors alike.

LtCol Rick Dollesin
Exercise Director, Combined Endeavor

CE – Combined Endeavor – is a large telecommunications exercise sponsored by EUCOM but planned and executed by our partner nations. This year, 2009, we are moving the exercise out of Germany for the first time in our 14 year history to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a big enough challenge planning this exercise, but this year we add the challenge of building a new infrastructure to support the exercise.

To make this a bigger challenge, while our main site will be in Bosnia, we will have two other operational sites – one in Denmark, the other in the Netherlands. This creates new technical challenges we’ve not had before, particularly creating multi-national communication networks over satellite long-haul connections.

To prepare all of this we hold a series of planning conferences. The initial conference was in Tallinn, Estonia. This week we are conducting the mid planning conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia (the exercise, in September, will be held in Banja Luka, 5 hours Northwest of Sarajevo). The Bosnians are clearly putting much effort into preparing for the exercise, and it has the highest level of attention in the Ministry of Defense. The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Defense, the U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, the Bosnian Chairman of the Joint Staff, and several governmental ministers. Interestingly, it was also attended by the Commanders of the NATO and EU forces in Bosnia.

As a side note, the city of Sarajevo was very pleasant. It is clean, orderly, and quiet. All the people we met were very friendly – more the impression of a small town than a rather large city. We had a nice dinner the first evening at a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed local specialties. The city still shows the evidence of the war – 15 years on and many buildings are still heavily pock marked with small arms and larger caliber fire. There are, also, many newer buildings. Revitalization is evident, but the world-wide economic problems have clearly halted much of that work.

The CE final conference before the exercise will be in Montenegro. By the end of this conference we will be nearly ready to support about 1200 Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen from 39 nations at three sites in order to conduct roughly 1000 military telecommunication tests over a two week period. The goal of all this? To have European forces better prepared to support coalition operations whenever and wherever needed – to learn in an exercise how to make all their different communication systems work together so we don’t have to figure it out after it may be too late. Good communications is the enabler of operations – that’s what CE is about – good comms.

COL Dan Matchette, USA
EUCOM J-69, C4I Interoperability