| Ohio, Serbia partnership strengthened during historic visit |
BELGRADE, Serbia - Despite the nine-hour red-eye flight, Maj. Gen. Gregory L. Wayt wore a warm smile as he descended from the Ohio Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft early Sept. 15 and embraced his good friend, Lt. Col. Gen. Zdravko Ponos, chief of Serbian Armed Forces. Though just over a year had passed since their initial meeting, the two greeted one another as old friends, a term they often use to describe one another. In fact, both routinely refer to the National Guard Bureau's State Partnership Program, which brought the two men-and the two militaries-together, as the State "Friendship" Program. "This is the culmination of the first year with a great program," Wayt said. "When we began a year ago, our goal was to make this partnership the best of all 56 state partnerships. There's no doubt we've done that. There's no other partnership that's done what we have." So far, the Ohio National Guard and the Serbian Armed Forces have conducted 21 exchanges, four in the United States and the remainder in Serbia. The first exchange, in September 2006, sent Wayt to Serbia to meet with Ponos and other senior military leaders to discuss ideas and expectations. "At first, they were skeptical," Wayt said. "But from the beginning of this partnership, I talked openly with the press and Serbian Armed Forces. I told them this was going to be a mutual cooperation and we were going to learn from each other. Colonel G (Lt. Col. Goran Desancic) asked 'What are you going to learn from us?' I told him, 'Your soldiers are professionals. We understand and respect that. They've been in combat and they've had experiences our Soldiers haven't. We're going to learn from that.'" The most recent exchange was the largest to date, with about 40 Ohio Soldiers and Airmen traveling to Serbia for a weeklong exchange of information and ideas between each country's special forces, medical, joint task force, Air and public affairs personnel. "This has truly been an historic week, and I'm really proud of it." Wayt said. "I asked General (Mladen) Cirkovic (Serbian Land Forces commander-in-chief) when the last time this many U.S. Soldiers were on Serbian soil. His recollection was World War II." From the moment the delegation landed in Belgrade, personnel from each of the functional areas quickly met up with their Serbian counterparts. While the largest single delegation-a small unit exchange consisting of 16 Soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group-immediately departed for southeast Serbia, to meet up with their counterparts in the Nis-based 63rd Parachute Battalion, the bulk of the delegation remained in the Serbian capital. Throughout the week, delegation members in Belgrade conducted and received informational briefings, toured military and government facilities, shared ideas and began planning future cooperative efforts. The delegation also was treated to cultural tours and official events including a Sept. 15 graduation ceremony of the Serbian military academy. The ceremony featured an introduction of the first class of female military academy cadets, a group of more than 30 that included four student pilots. Wayt and a small delegation met with Cameron Munter, the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, at the American Embassy Sept. 17 to discuss the Ohio-Serbia partnership. The program's stated goals, which include building relevant, long-term relationships and fostering trust and friendship between partners, are largely being met, Munter said. "There's no doubt this is an important program," he said to Wayt. "We have to keep pushing ahead with a long-term vision. You guys have done terrific work." While Wayt met with Munter and other high-level officials, additional exchanges were being conducted among the rest of the delegation members. Medical Col. Terry Johnson, commander of the Ohio Army National Guard Medical Detachment, visited the three major military hospitals in Serbia during his visit. He said he was impressed with what he saw. Johnson discussed with his counterparts the expanding role of military medical personnel with particular emphasis on civil-military operations. He explained the Ohio National Guard's annual participation in Operation New Horizons, which sends doctors and medical personnel to Central American countries to provide medical care to underdeveloped communities as well as hands-on training for medical personnel. "The Serbian military also does civil-military cooperation and now we have ideas about how to marry these processes," Johnson said. "We're moving quickly from the realm of ideas to action. I think our cooperation is only limited by our imagination." Operations Brig. Gen. Jack E. Lee, Joint Task Force 73 commander, and his senior enlisted Soldier, Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Glauner, also met with their Serbian counterparts who were conducting a war exercise at their joint operations center. Following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005, Serbian military officials scrutinized Ohio's participation in relief efforts from warning order through mobilization, said Serbian Col. Milan Mojsilovic, assistant operations officer. They planned the war exercise based on what they learned from Ohio's response. "We focused on the work of staff officers," Mojsilovic said. "We ran a joint operations center that was responsible for the war exercise. This was the first staff war exercise that was staffed and realized like that of our partners." Air As JTF 73 personnel observed the war exercise, Lt. Col. Greg Schnulo, director of staff, Air Joint Force Headquarters, and the KC-135 flight crew from the Columbus-based 121st Air Refueling Wing, toured the Serbian 204th Air Base at Batajnica. Their objective was to assess differences and similarities between the Serbian and U.S. Air Forces and to look for opportunities to export additional training, Schnulo said. The airmen discussed challenges specific to their units, particularly maintenance issues related to aging aircraft. "We had much to share, especially as our aircraft are also getting older," Schnulo said. "For example, the KC-135 that we brought is a 1960 model. We are often constrained by regulations on maintenance and we are very impressed with the Serbian air force's resourcefulness and would like to learn from that." Lt. Col. Tiomir Arbinja, deputy head of logistics, Air, said he and his staff would like to continue discussions on organization, life and work on base, flight training, firefighting and other training. "In the near future I would like to see more blue uniforms as with a small unit exchange," Arbinja said. "All discussions were open and with goodwill and all confirmed with each meeting that we are taking quick steps toward true partnership." Public affairs As the Belgrade-based delegations met throughout the week, one found their members actively working together. The two public affairs delegations not only exchanged information, they coordinated on the Sept. 20 joint press conference in Nis and produced photo and video CDs, DVDs and presentations together throughout the visit. They also made plans for further coordination, including hosting a potential Serbian public affairs delegation in Ohio to integrate the staffs in a number of public affairs and government events, including a joint information center exercise with other civil agencies in Ohio, said Mark Wayda, Ph.D., director of government and public affairs for the Ohio National Guard. "A JIC is a medium we use to coordinate information during crises," Wayda said. "But we're already moving beyond exercises as we've made plans moving forward. We will be creating content for each others' websites, we'll publish each others' news and we'll share products and resources. This partnership has already begun to make our agencies better." Culmination Ohio's Belgrade-based delegation came together Sept. 20 and traveled about 140 miles southeast to Nis, home of the Serbian Land Forces Command headquarters as well as the command's Special Brigade, a joint tactical unit comprised of reconnaissance, anti-terrorist, parachute and diving elements. Here, they witnessed the culmination of the weeklong small unit exchange between the two militaries' Special Forces troops-a joint training display and exercise also attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic and other dignitaries. The Nis-based troops had spent the previous week training together on medical, weapons firing, survival techniques and parachuting, including a static-line jump from a Russian AN-26 cargo aircraft. A second jump, planned for the exercise, was canceled because of the weather. Tadic presented each of the Ohio troops with the Serbian parachutist badge and Wayt presented the U.S. parachutist badge to the Serbian troops. "Joint parachute training builds special camaraderie between Soldiers," said Maj. Larry Henry, Company B commander. "It was a great honor for my Soldiers to receive the Serbian parachute badge." Two days later, the Ohio troops re-boarded the KC-135 to return home, chatting enthusiastically amongst themselves about their experiences, lessons learned and perhaps most importantly, the friendships and camaraderie developed over the preceding week. Soon after, Wayt received a text message from Desancic. "Sir thank you!" it read. "Yesterday during ceremony I saw Ohio flag and felt like I saw Serbian flag. Thank you for that feeling. Please convey regards to all of our friends." |
