WEBVTT

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We're thrilled to welcome these

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hundreds of soldiers from the Maryland

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National Guard and other units here in

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Croatia today . Croatia is a great NATO

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ally , and today in this exercise ,

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they're bringing together troops from a

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number of NATO allies , as well as

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other partners in the region like

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Bosnia and Herzegovina . Together ,

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these units are practicing that rapid

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deployment , that logistical

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coordination , and that battle

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readiness , which makes us stronger as

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an alliance , which helps us deter our

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adversaries , uh , and which ultimately

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creates stability . In a region at the

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national level , uh , this , this

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training is an invaluable tool to get

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after readiness and lethality , and it

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provides that not only to our soldiers ,

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but also the soldiers from Bosnia and

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Herzegovina . Uh , and then on the

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state side really , uh , for Maryland ,

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because we are state partners for 22

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years with Bosnia and Herzegovina , and

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the exercise like we're doing here is

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just a continuation of that effort of

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building that partnership , building

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those relationships . So in the future

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when we conflict we have coalition

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forces we can fight with because of the

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interoperability that's created at

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these training events . Our core

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objectives in these exercises is

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basically the first successful

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integration of the combined arms

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element from the brigade level above us

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we have the 28 US 28 ID as our higher

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echelon and the first German

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Netherlands as the second . So our goal

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is to To be successful in

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communicating and sharing the

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information in order to support the

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command and control during the exercise .