KRTSANISI, Republic of Georgia -- The Marine-led Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program U.S. Task Force marked the completion of training for Republic of Georgia’s 1st and 2nd Brigade Logistics Battalions soldiers in a ceremony at Krtsanisi, Georgia March 24.
“I know personally many of the U.S. Task Force members feel this was the most rewarding thing they have done since they joined the U.S. military,” said Lt. Col. William M. McGowan, commanding officer of the GSSOP U.S. Task Force. “They believe that helping Georgia, a country that not long ago was a stranger to the United States, is the right thing to do.”
The GSSOP mission is to assist and enhance Georgia’s military capability to sustain its contribution to the effort in Iraq.
“Georgia is also helping the U.S. in many, many ways with the Global War on Terrorism. Both the United Sates and Georgia view one another as true friends today and for the future,” McGowan stated.
The Georgian soldiers will sustain and support operations under UN Security Council Resolution 1546 to protect UN forces in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 1st and 2nd Brigades soldiers started their training in January.
The units were trained in squad level tactics and battalion staff level operations.
The squad level training included, patrolling, weapons handling, convoy operations, military operations in urban terrain first aid and more, explained Staff Sgt. Roy Brady, a GSSOP U.S. Task Force trainer.
The staff training will help the Georgian staff handle command and control of their battalion, according to Capt. Jason P. Richter, the GSSOP operations officer and native of Rochester, Mich.
One of the challenges trainers faced during the GSSOP was the language barrier, Brady mentioned. Few people speak Georgian outside the Caucus nation’s borders. The training had to be conducted entirely through a team of interpreters, which presented a number of difficulties when communicating complicated military terms and concepts.
A primary effect of the GSSOP is that the new and improved Georgian Army in conjunction with U.S. trained Georgian law enforcement are more capable of securing the Georgian boarders, keeping the Caucus Region off the ever shrinking list of potential safe havens for terrorists.
With relatively little funding and few U.S. troops acting only in a training capacity, through the precursor Georgia Train and Equip Program and now the GSSOP, the U.S. is helping its Georgian ally in the Global War on Terror to become a strong and stable nation. Georgia is a key land route between Europe and the middle-East. A strong Georgia means one less road for terrorists to travel.
As with all Marine led operations, the GSSOP is at the cutting edge of 21st century warfare doctrine and is a foreshadow of the Foreign Military Training Unit of the newly formed Marine Special Operations Command being added to U.S. Special Operations Command.
Corporal Robert A. Green, a GSSOP U.S. Task Force trainer, was selected to join the FMTU immediately following his deployment with the GSSOP.
McGowan’s closing remark to the Georgian soldiers was, “on behalf of the entire Task Force I wish you God speed, fair winds and following seas. Semper Fidelis.”