Roughly 100 troops of the U.S. Army and approx. 350 soldiers with Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion and other units of the Lithuanian Land Force train in a cooperative Exercise Engineer Thunder 2015 at the Gaižiūnai Training Area.
Lithuanian and U.S. infantry personnel and engineers train to support each other while crossing mine fields, water and man-made obstacles, setting up defence fortifications, and hone skills of NBC protection and neutralisation of NBC pollution, and detection and neutralisation of IEDs.
"This is the first time a cooperative exercise is held for Lithuanian and U.S. military engineers, our battalion has been entrusted with the great responsibility of arranging the event," Commander of the Engineer Battalion Lt Col Arūnas Dzidzevičius said.
Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion of the Lithuanian Armed Forces organised the exercise and contributed roughly 200 soldiers.
An IED neutralisation team formed by military personnel serving across U.S. military bases in Europe takes part in the exercise on behalf of the U.S. Army. Other U.S. participants come from the Pennsylvania National Guard and the rotational U.S. forces deployed in Lithuania - TM Castle Engineer Company and Delta Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade, U.S. Army Europe.
The Lithuanian participants serve with King Mindaugas Hussar Battalion, Grand Duchess Birutė Uhlan Battalion, and one more unit of the Lithuanian Land Force responsible for providing protection from mass destruction weapons. Dog handlers from the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior had brought in their service dogs to help detect explosives.
Exercise Engineer Thunder kicked off at the Gaižiūnai Training Area on September 7 and will run till September 11.
POC - Captain Irmantas Genevičius, Head of S5 Section, Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion Headquarters, phone no: 00370 601 01 118, email: Irmantas.genevicius@mil.lt
Photo credits: Ieva Budzeikaitė, Capt Giedrius Strumilas
