BUJANOVAC, Serbia --
The Marines of 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, Force
Headquarters Group, Marine Forces Reserve, joined 3rd Civil Affairs Group, FHG,
MARFORRES, and six other partner nations for the opening ceremony of exercise
Platinum Wolf 2016 at South Base in Bujanovac, Serbia, May 9, 2016. The opening
ceremony has brought together service members from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Macedonia,
Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia and the United States to train in the use of
non-lethal weapons capabilities and build lasting partnerships.
The ceremony marked the start of
the training period for the partner nations and allowed each of the nations to
be welcomed and thanked for their participation by Col. Sladjan Stamenkovic,
executive director of the participating Serbian Armed Forces.
“We had an initial formation and
opening ceremony for all of the nations represented, both the U.S. and six
Balkan partner nations were here,” said 1st Lt. Jonathan Stinson, platoon
commander, 4th LE Bn., FHG, MARFORRES. “The Serbian commander welcomed us and
gave his opening remarks.”
The opening remarks included the
goals of the exercise and the aim which is to increase interoperability and
promote ways to ensure peace operations function smoothly.
“We are doing joint peacekeeping
operations training,” said Stinson. “Serbia contributes to the U.N.’s
peacekeeping force, so we are envisioning training that would be both
humanitarian operations and also those level two level three block war
operations. Specifically what the Marines are bringing is a lot of non-lethal
weapons experience and crowd control experience to emphasize those other than
lethal means to keeping the peace and promote stability.”
Over the next two weeks the
nations will build relationships and work to hone their skills in multiple
small unit tactics, techniques and procedures. The training will focus on
peacekeeping operations including non-lethal weapons training and humanitarian
operations. The exercise will conclude following the completion of a
culminating field exercise.