CINCU, Romania -- The roar of gunshots and explosions echoed through the mountains of Romania as Marines and the Romanian military moved forward together to bring the fight to the large enemy force waiting in the valley.
Machine gun fire ripped through the air and anti-tank missiles slammed into simulated targets at the height of the live-fire combined arms exercise.
The Black Sea Rotational Force 14 Marines were participating in CINCU-14, an exercise designed to promote interoperability with the Romanian military, Sep. 14-26 at Cincu, Romania.
The exercise consisted of military-to-military training, live-fire ranges, fire support coordination training and sharing tactics, techniques and procedures.
Prior to the live-fire attack a weapons familiarization course was held, where each military set up weapons systems for the other military’s troops to handle and practice with in a live-fire area.
It allowed us to become familiar with their weapons systems and show our capabilities for future exercises, said Capt. Matthew Deffenbaugh, 2/2 Weapons Co. commander.
The live-fire range, which concluded Cincu-14, had Marine rifle platoons, a Combined Anti-Armor Team and a platoon of 81 mm mortarmen firing weapons in synchronization with Romanian land and air forces. The troops of both countries moved in coordination with one another via rehearsed actions and quick communication. Anti-tank missiles, small-arms fire and Romanian armored vehicles and planes were just some of the weapons that pounded the range at Cincu.
“It was a good example of the partnership and capabilities that we built over the past two weeks to be able to integrate during a live fire evolution as complicated as this one was,” said Deffenbaugh.
Cincu-14 helped Marines and Romanian forces work together on a tactical level, building understanding of troop movements as well as weapons systems between the Marines and Romanian military.
“We had a lot of interoperability between Romanians and Marines,” said 1st Lt. Richard Benning, 2/2 CAAT platoon commander. “It exposed the marines to other tactics and [procedures] that our foreign nation partners use.”