Face of Defense: U.S., Indian Troops Train Together

By Army Staff Sgt. Mylinda DuRousseau

1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division

RANIKHET CANTONMENT, India, Oct. 1, 2014 – It was a cool mountain morning, the sun was beginning to peek through the fog that had settled in the valley where residents of a small village were tending to their livestock and setting about their daily routine.

Soldiers of the U.S. and Indian armies kept a watchful eye from the tree line and waited for their signal to move.

The soldiers had spent two weeks living, working and training side-by-side and were now taking part in the final field training exercise of Yudh Abhyas 14, a bilateral, peacekeeping exercise focused on low-intensity, counter-insurgent actions. The purpose of the exercise was to improve the ability of all forces involved to respond to a wide range of contingencies related to United Nations missions.

Working together

“The entire exercise we’ve been working together as a combination of the Indian and U.S. Army to strengthen relationships,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Justin Crose, the executive officer for 5th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. “We’ve been training together on counter insurgency tactics.”

In the 10 years since exercise Yudh Abhyas began it has grown from platoon-level operations to brigade-and battalion-level operations. This year the training focused on combined training events within three key elements: a command post exercise, a field training exercise and expert academic exchanges. Soldiers from 5-1 CAV and the Indian Army’s 2nd Battalion, 9th Gurkha Rifles participated in the field training exercise and1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division Soldiers and members of the California National Guard took part in the command post exercise.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. James Hayes, 5-1 CAV squadron commander, and his Indian army counterpart watched as a platoon from 5-1 CAV and 2/9 Gurkha Rifles moved down the mountain through the dense forest that surrounded their objective the morning of Sept. 29.

“Both of us are mature, professional militaries,” Hayes said. “There are some differences, but really what I’ve learned over the last two weeks is there are more similarities than there are differences.”

Weeks of training, marching

After weeks of training and a long night of foot marching in the rain over treacherous terrain, the time had come to finish the simulated mission. When full effort in negotiations had failed the order was given to use the minimum force necessary to save the lives of hostages and successfully complete the peace enforcement mission.

A family of monkeys was perched in the trees above as the platoons began to move closer to their objective, a building known to be housing hostile dissidents. Suddenly the quiet morning was filled with shouts of “Put your weapon down!” and “Hands up!” Hayes listened as reports of three captured detainees came across the radio.

The soldiers put their training to use as they continued with their mission and successfully secured the captives’ weapons and escorted them out of the village.

Exercise Yudh Abhyas 14 took place in the area of Ranikhet Cantonment, Utterakhand, India, approximately 200 miles northeast of Delhi from Sept. 17-30. Yudh Abhyas is a U.S Army Pacific Command-run exercise designed to improve the ability of all forces involved to respond to a wide range of contingencies related to United Nations missions. Its goal is to build on the past nine years of exercises and move toward increasing in scope and complexity next year.