Service members met with representatives of the Georgian military at the Reserve Support Unit building aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Dec. 15, to discuss upcoming training with their country.
The Service members are part of Black Sea Rotational Force 2011, a special purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force that will conduct peace-keeping-operations training and counter-insurgency training with 13 militaries in the Black Sea region.
“The idea is building relationships; it’s about training them and bringing them to a different level, said Lt. Col Nelson Cardella, the commanding officer of the Black Sea Rotational Force 2011. “The main mission of the BSRF is to make sure we have a great working relationship with these nations and they’re comfortable working with Marines at any level.”
Cardella compares the training to skills a police officer would have, ranging from escalation of force to crowd control. The service members of the special purpose MAGTF will train foreign militaries on marksmanship and military tactics.
“The Marine Corps has a great history and are great fighters,” said Georgian Army Col. Zurab Tomauri, the co-director of the Agile Spirit 2011 Exercise. “We’re very proud to train with them and get experience from them.”
The Georgian military and the Black Sea Rotational Force 2011 training evolution is called the Agile Spirit 2011 Exercise. Each country will have their own designation.
“It’s bigger than just Georgia, there are so many other countries doing the same thing on different levels,” said Cardella. “We want to have friends in the region, not enemies. That way we can prevent terrorists from growing and being around these nations.”
This is the second year the special purpose MAGTF will deploy to the Black Sea region.
“We started with a very small unit, and already a year after we’re beginning to see the benefits and the fruits of that labor. It makes sense to keep growing because it creates a great relationship in the Black Sea area,” said Cardella.
The Marines and sailors of Black Sea Rotational Force 2011 will perform intermediate location training for three months beginning in January to teach the unit about cultural awareness and how to train foreign militaries while deployed.
The next time the two militaries will meet in a much different environment, ready to train and learn from one another with a foundation built in a conference room here at Miramar.
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