U.S. Soldiers Arrive in Poland With COVID-19 Protocols in Place

 Aug. 13, 2020 | BY Army Staff Sgt. Scott Longstreet

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, are participating in Phase II of Exercise Defender-Europe 20 at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland.

The unit, based at Fort Hood, Texas, arrived in Poland July 16.

"We are here executing a deployment readiness exercise," said Army Lt. Col. Ron Sprang, the battalion commander. "We will execute a gunnery skills table ... to improve our lethality as an organization."

The "Iron Horse" brigade is scheduled to conduct gunneries and live fire exercises at various lower echelons, up to the company level, to enhance its capabilities. The training will culminate with a combined arms live-fire exercise.

"We are excited to interact with both the Polish military and other American units here supporting Defender 20," said Army Maj. Brandon Kennedy, battalion operations officer.

The training will allow the U.S. forces to integrate with their Polish-NATO Allies.

"Interoperability is key," Sprang said. "We all come from different nations with different equipment and backgrounds. It is critical that we develop skills in order to fight together and build that teamwork and cohesion so we can integrate our systems, our personnel, and be able to communicate effectively so we can fight as a bigger, more powerful team against anyone who will stand against us."

Service members implemented a thorough COVID-19 screening protocol, which included daily screening up to three times through temperature and symptoms checks, along with restriction-of-movement measures. All soldiers will be tested upon arriving at the training area, with periodic checks throughout training.

"We exercised mitigation measures long before we arrived here in Europe," Kennedy said. "We had these measures in place not only for these events upcoming, but to also continue to protect our families and our forces back at Fort Hood."

Defender-Europe 20 is designed as a deployment exercise to build strategic readiness in support of the U.S. National Defense Strategy and NATO deterrence objectives. In response to COVID-19, the exercise was modified in size and scope.

Phase I of the modified Defender-Europe 20 was linked to Exercise Allied Spirit, which took place at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, June 5-19, with about 6,000 U.S. and Polish soldiers. In Phase II of the modified exercise, a U.S.-based combined arms battalion is conducting an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise to Europe that began July 14 and ends Aug. 22.

(Army Staff Sgt. Scott Longstreet is assigned to U.S. Army Europe.)