Ohio Soldiers Display Interoperability at Platinum Wolf 2018
Members of the Ohio and Tennessee Army National Guards spent two weeks this past summer in Serbia participating in Exercise Platinum Wolf – an annual, multinational peacekeeping exercise led by the Serbian Armed Forces.
Platinum Wolf consisted of scenario-based training focused on military operations on urban terrain, civil security and operations, crowd and riot control, public law and order and the use of non-lethal weapons. Platinum Wolf 2018 was Serbia’s largest exercise to date.
With more than 500 participants, the exercise included members of the Ohio National Guard’s 838th Military Police Company, members of the Tennessee National Guard’s 269th Military Police Company and military service members from 10 partner nations – Bosnia, Bulgaria, Herzegovina, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Held in June 2018, initial planning for Platinum Wolf commenced in December 2017 and called for input from all participating countries. Preparation consisted of three planning conferences, along with ongoing weekly dialogue between the military unit leadership of each country.
Ohio has partnered with Serbia for the past 12 years as part of the National Guard’s State Partnership Program (SPP) and has participated in the Platinum Wolf exercises for the past three years. This year, Ohio’s CPT Trevor Ducey enlisted participation from the Tennessee National Guard to demonstrate to the Serbian troops the importance of collaboration.
“I just wanted to show our Serbian counterparts that while Ohio is a large State, we can’t do everything,” CPT Ducey explained. “I wanted to showcase the type of cooperation that exists between States, which can also be replicated with [other] countries. We’re always pushing for multinational engagement exercises. I hope that we showed the Serbian Armed Forces and other countries participating that the United States and the National Guard rely on other Service components and other States, just like they do within their areas of the world.”
Emphasizing the importance of strong relationships and teamwork with counterparts was not CPT Ducey’s idea alone. It was in fact, a major theme of this year’s exercise.
“The big thing is building partner capacity, and then security cooperation” CPT Ducey went on to say. “By doing those two things, we create interoperability. In the event of a real-world crisis, if Serbia and Ohio are in the same environment trying to protect civilians or buildings, it could be a collective thing. We can go in there, and we can all be on the same page, achieving success and saving lives no matter what the mission is.”
CPL Jennifer Seidel, a team leader with the 838th, said she believes the concepts of interoperability that are reinforced by exercises like Platinum Wolf are important for Soldiers to experience early on in their Army careers.
“In the military, some of the very first experiences that you get with other nations happen during deployment,” she noted. “Some of the Soldiers we took [to Platinum Wolf] are new to the military, and I think this is a great opportunity for those Soldiers to actually interact with other nations.”
CPL Seidel continued, “[Exercises like Platinum Wolf] allow us to build a foundation of respect and trust with other countries. We all develop a level of cultural understanding. I know that I’ve created relationships with people [in Serbia] and that’s something that we can continuously build on for years to come.”
The exercise was held at Serbia’s South Base, a training center designed by Ohio Army National Guard personnel. The center was opened in conjunction with the first Platinum Wolf and is designed to emulate Ohio’s Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center.
“National Guard engineers were responsible for designing a training center that meets the Serbian government’s want for becoming a regional peacekeeping training center for all area countries, along with their own deploying forces,” said CPT Ducey. “If you go look at Camp Ravenna, it looks just like South Base. We were happy to create an environment where people are able to train and safely deploy. It’s beneficial all around.”
During Platinum Wolf, soldiers from all participating nations had the opportunity to share best practices and learn new techniques that could be incorporated into their own forces.
“I personally loved going through with the Serbian counterterrorism unit and [learning] the room clearing techniques,” said SGT Joshua Condon, squad leader for Ohio’s 838th Military Police Company. “Their techniques are very similar to everything that we’ve trained on, but I loved watching them do it. That’s all they trained to do, so they are very smooth. You can see how, by operating on such a small level with so much repetition, you can get very good at those tactics. Our guys got to learn how to better move and communicate in that small, tight environment. I know they really enjoyed that.”
Having a diverse set of participants created a few challenges when it came to communication. But in working closely together, participants were ultimately able to see how similar their communication tactics actually were.
“The biggest hurdle we overcame was the communication barrier,” said 2LT Tim Kurfiss, platoon leader for the 838th. “There are a bunch of different countries sharing the same mission, but not necessarily speaking the same language. We had to make sure everyone had a good understanding of what was going to happen. Many of the acronyms and words that we use to describe things are the same, so that helped a lot.”
SGT Condon also commented on the units’ ability to surpass initial challenges and successfully achieve the group’s common objective.
“When we conducted cordon and search operations with the Romanians and Bulgarians, it was a big challenge,” explained SGT Condon. “But it was cool to see all the groups come together and overcome. There was a language barrier and there’s different opinions on tactics, but we were able to successfully coordinate the group training.”
Platinum Wolf 2018 was CPL Seidel’s second time participating in the exercise. She noted the importance of the soldiers having the opportunity to have down time together and socialize.
“You would look out and see soldiers from a couple countries tossing the football or having a conversation,” CPL Seidel explained. “By the very end of [Platinum Wolf], everyone was very comfortable with each other, and so when we had the different training, we were able to successfully complete them together.”
Overall, Platinum Wolf was deemed a successful exercise that further strengthened the partnership between Ohio and Serbia, while also serving to develop the skills and bonds of the participating soldiers.
“It was a complete success in the sense that we trained and met the requirements that we needed as a platoon, but it also significantly furthered our relationship with Serbia, the host nation,” said 2LT Kurfiss. “We accomplished what we needed to accomplish.”
This year’s Platinum Wolf exercise culminated with a distinguished visitors day, where notable military and government officials from multiple countries came to watch the closing event. The event incorporated everything the participants learned over the course of the training and displayed the teamwork built by the soldiers during the exercise.
“It was essentially a big combined training event that showed how the interoperability had progressed throughout the training,” explained 2LT Kurfiss. “It was teams from each country all working together with a different piece of the mission. It went over everything we had learned during the training.”
For SGT Condon, the success of Platinum Wolf not only showcased successful interoperability among the participating nations, it reinforced his commitment to the Guard and reminded him of the importance of maintaining positive relationships with our Nation’s partners.
“I talked to my command afterwards, because I was on the fence about [re-enlisting],” remarked SGT Condon. “After Platinum Wolf, I wouldn’t consider resigning. I want to be there. I look forward to all the cultural experiences.”
As plans for 2019’s iteration of Platinum Wolf begin to form, CPT Ducey hopes to see the exercise continue to develop and evolve.
“We want to continue to expand and show continued growth in the exercise,” CPT Ducey explained. “[For Platinum Wolf 2019] we’ve proposed a three-week engagement that includes night-time operations. It will include some medical scenarios and could also include some chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear scenarios and a cyber event as well.”
Just as Ohio Army National Guard leaders look forward to the next Platinum Wolf exercise, CPL Seidel said she is looking forward to the continued positive impact the exercise has for the members of both the Ohio National Guard and the Serbian Armed Forces.
CPL Seidel noted, “It does not matter what rank you are, how long you’ve been in the military, or which country you serve for – everyone gets an equal chance to make the most out of the experience.”
By Staff Writer Tatyana White-Jenkins
