U.S. battalion to deploy with Romanian troops - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

U.S. battalion to deploy with Romanian troops

For the ninth time in the last four years, soldiers of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, are prepping for a deployment to Afghanistan with their NATO partners from an infantry battalion of the Romanian Land Forces. The American soldiers will be under the tactical command of a Romanian officer.

The U.S. battalion, a heavy infantry unit that serves as the opposing force for the Joint Multinational Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany, has supported the International Security Assistance Force since 2005 by alternating company rotations to Afghanistan, according to Capt. Caleb Hyler, Bravo Company commander.

The JMTC, part of U.S. Army Europe’s Joint Multinational Training Command, prepares U.S., multinational and NATO partners for combat deployments and other military missions anywhere in the world.

To date, more than 1,200 soldiers from 1-4 and a smaller contingent of sailors from Mobile Unit 8, a Navy explosive ordnance disposal unit from Sigonella, Italy, have partnered with Romanian forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. soldiers normally serve six- to eight-month company rotations of 170 members apiece.

Maj. Greg Cannata, an observer and controller with JMTC who recently returned from Afghanistan, said the Romanian forces typically are mechanized or mountain infantry battalions.

The Romanian unit now preparing for an early 2010 deployment is the 33rd Infantry Battalion, a mountain battalion that last served in Afghanistan in 2007.

In 2006, two years after becoming one of the first former Warsaw Pact nations to join NATO, Romania agreed to provide troops, with U.S. augmentation, for a permanent mission in Zabul province of southeastern Afghanistan.

This is the same region now assigned to the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division.

Hyler said the battalion task force operates in the northern district of the province, maintaining combat outposts along Highway 1, a major transportation corridor that rings Afghanistan.

U.S. soldiers assigned to the task force operate under the tactical command of Romanian officers, while administrative support is provided by the major U.S. Army unit in the region, currently the 5th Striker Brigade Combat Team, according to Cannata.

During the past few years, U.S. Army Europe has conducted a major campaign to improve the professionalism of the noncommissioned officer corps of the new member nations of NATO and nations seeking to join the alliance.

Cannata said Romania is widely regarded as having made good strides in that regard, “and from what we have seen, we certainly think they are on the right track.”

To support that effort, the Romanian army has an NCO professional development system similar to the U.S., including a sergeant major academy.

Most officers enter the Romanian army through a commissioning academy and subsequently have opportunities for high-level education as they progress through the ranks.

Hyler, who recently returned from an Afghanistan deployment in which he served as a battle captain in the task force joint tactical operations center, said Romanian forces are in the process of replacing their Soviet-era weapons and equipment with materiel used by U.S. and NATO forces, such as variants of the M1151 high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle, mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles and other systems designed to counter improvised explosive devices.

Cannata said one of the motivating factors in Romania participating in the joint battalion task force “is the opportunity to get in close with American systems and personnel, and develop similar capabilities and improve their military.”