CAMPIA TURZII, Romania --
U.S. Marines and soldiers currently deployed to Eastern Europe for Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 conducted parachute training with Romanian airborne forces, June 2 – 3. The Marines and Romanian forces are scheduled to take to the skies again for additional training, June 8 – 9.
During the training, a pair of Marine Corps KC-130T Hercules aircraft dropped about 75 Romanian paratroopers from heights ranging from 1,250 feet above ground level to nearly 10,000 feet mean sea level, while U.S. Army jumpmasters offered their expertise for the execution of the event.
“It’s fun working with Romanians,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Ben Lipton, an Army Special Operations Command static-line jumpmaster from U.S. Army Europe. “There is a language barrier, but we have a common nomenclature. All paratroopers train similarly, they just accomplish it in different ways.”
The Romanian forces conducted both static-line and military free fall jumps. In a static-line jump, a troop’s parachute is automatically deployed as he exits the aircraft, where as in a military free fall jump, the paratrooper must deploy his own parachute.
“It’s always nice to jump from a C-130,” said Romanian Capt. Claudio Rotaru, a Romanian paratrooper who participated in the training. “I have a very good opinion of training with the U.S.”
The aircraft, one each from Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234, out of Fort Worth, Texas; and VMGR-452 out of Newburgh, N.Y., are currently deployed to Romania as the air combat element of the Black Sea Rotational Force Security Cooperation Marine Air-Ground Task Force. Both 4th Marine Aircraft Wing squadrons are deployed to Romania with a compliment of reserve and active-duty Marines.
“The aircrew have been very motivated and extremely flexible,” said Lipton, who said the training event was his first time working with Marine aviators. “I’d be excited to work with Marines again.”
For the Marines of VMGR-234 and VMGR-452, training with Romanian forces in Romanian air space also created a unique experience.
“There’s some give and take, but both sides were able to do that equally to get the job done,” said U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mario Helpley, a native of Phoenix and a tactical systems operator with VMGR-452, of working with the Romanian land and air forces. “The Romanians’ ‘can do’ and ‘get the job done’ attitudes match up quite well with Marine Corps philosophies.”
But Black Sea Rotational Force’s support of the Romanian airborne training wasn’t limited to the skies. Communication Marines from 1st Tank Battalion, deployed out of Twentynine Palms, Calif., served as the aviators’ eyes and ears on the ground. 1st Tank Bn. forms the core of the Security Cooperation MAGTF deployed for Black Sea Rotational Force.
“This was all about the mission – get the mission done, and get it done safely,” said Lance Cpl. John A. Lamecker, a field radio operator with 1st Tank Battalion, who supported the training. “The Marines were ready to train, and the Romanians were ready to learn. The Romanians knew what they were doing, but this helped give them a little more experience.”