Capt. Constantin Spinu
First published in
SFOR Informer#154, December 19, 2002

Exercise Joint Resolve concluded with a joint military capabilities exercise at Camp McGovern. The Carabinieri Special Weapons And Techniques (SWAT) team conducted a fast rope exercise from U.S. UH-60 Black Hawks stationed at Eagle Base. Once on the ground, members of the 104th Cavalry had to subdue a large and unruly crowd of role-playing civilians.

Brcko - The last day of Joint Resolve, Dec. 3 was the most spectacular one, even though the weather was not kind to the soldiers. The cold rain and mud just offered more realism to the scenario. US Soldiers, Italian Carabinieri and Military Policemen from Romania and Slovenia took part in a well-organised joint training exercise.
The scenario
A violent crowd has formed, establishing a barricade and taking a hostage. Negotiation attempts with civic leaders and local police have failed. The Multinational Specialised Unit (MSU) deployed to the scene. US forces established security around deployment area, called 'green box'. In a Crowd Riot Control (CRC) formation the MSU negotiated the removal of the barricade and successfully dispersed the crowd. US personnel continued to provide green box security and prepared for possible escalation of hostilities by establishing a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) and pre-positioning them within striking distance of the demonstration. After receiving the signal from the MSU, the Carabinieri SWAT team, supported by the U.S. UH-60 Black Hawks, conducted fast rope entry in the vicinity of the objective building, forced entry to it, secured the hostage and evacuated area via armoured vehicle. But unidentified gunmen fired on and wounded an MSU soldier. The QRF was ordered to move forward in support of the MSU. A CRC platoon immediately deployed to the threatened area. Ground MEDEVAC (Medical Evacuation) team extracted the wounded soldier as soldiers from Multinational Division North (MND-N) deployed and conducted cordon and search.
A birthday present
At first glance the scenario looked very slick, but much preparation had gone into the exercise beforehand. US Capt. Jack Wallace was in charge of the co-ordination of the involved troops. He could be considered as the director of this show: "Considering it was the first time we organised such an exercise, everything went well. MSU and MND-N are now prepared to intervene in a similar situation." Almost 100 Carabinieri were involved in this exercise. "For us it is nothing new, because we have done this several times. It is our job. That is the reason I can say that today's exercise was a very good one," said Capt. Claudio Rubertá, Coy commander, MSU. For the US soldiers this was a first. "I couldn't imagine before how interesting such an exercise is, we should do it more often," said Spec. David Sokorai. Probably the happiest participant in the exercise was Spec. Daniel Carden. Dec. 3 was his birthday. Therefore his colleagues have dedicated the success of this exercise to him. "All I can say is that I am very happy," confessed Carden. "This exercise was very educational for me. We do not work with soldiers from different countries every day. It was a great experience and this was the best present for my 24th anniversary." And 1Lt. Jim Perrin, troop commander, thought the same: "It is always a great challenge to work with so many nations: Italians, Romanians and Slovenians. Maybe next time will be others." The 'rioters' in the exercise were played by two Military Police platoons, MSU from Romania and Slovenia. Their role was to ensure an atmosphere very similar to a real situation. "It was not a very easy job," explained 1Lt. Razvan Tudose, platoon leader, Romanian Army. "We had to act like an unruly crowd and despite the difficult weather we did well. It was very interesting to work with the Americans and of course with our friends, the Italians."

Related links:
Nations of SFOR: US, Italy
Training and Exercises