Nebraska Guard troops headed to Germany to train Ukraine soldiers

Gov. Jim Pillen and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts joined Guard leaders and relations for a sendoff ceremony on the headquarters of the first Squadron, 134th Cavalry Regiment on the unit’s base close to Yutan, Nebraska.

“Your mission forward is admittedly necessary,” Pillen stated. “I do know you’re going to be extremely profitable.”

Maj. Cody Cade, who works as a historian for the Nebraska Nationwide Guard, will lead the workforce in its work on the Grafenwoehr Coaching Space in southeastern Germany. The Nebraskans will assist train their Armed Forces Ukraine counterparts as a part of a brand new combined-arms coaching program.

That coaching is designed to raised put together the Ukrainian forces to launch an offensive or counter any surge in Russian assaults. They’ll be gone for as much as one yr.

Many members of the Ukrainian armed forces are civilians who have been rapidly despatched to front-line fight models regardless of having little or no navy coaching.

“It’s a singular mission that can have real-world penalties for the individuals of Ukraine,” Cade stated.

In a January go to to Grafenwoehr to mark the beginning of the combined-arms coaching, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, described it as a key to serving to Ukraine retake territory within the jap and southern a part of the nation.

“This assist is admittedly necessary for Ukraine to have the ability to defend itself,” Milley stated.

The U.S. had been doing combined-arms coaching inside Ukraine earlier than the Russian invasion, Cade stated. However after the warfare started, U.S. Nationwide Guard and particular operations forces serving as trainers left the nation.

The brand new coaching is a continuation of that effort, which additionally entails different European allies. Beforehand, the U.S. had targeted totally on coaching Ukrainian forces the right way to use and keep sure weapons techniques, together with howitzers, armored autos and the Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket System, often known as HIMARS.

The Nebraska workforce gained’t be the primary Guard troopers the Ukrainian forces have labored with. Ricketts stated the California Nationwide Guard has a military-to-military relationship with Armed Forces Ukraine that dates again 30 years. The Nebraska Nationwide Guard has comparable partnership applications with the militaries of the Czech Republic and Rwanda.

To assist the Ukrainians after the Russian invasion, California Guard leaders arrange a 24-hour emergency operations heart to supply every day recommendation. Additionally they despatched ballistic vests, helmets and moveable area hospitals to Ukraine.

“The Ukrainians have fought bravely for the previous yr. And a big a part of that was due to the coaching they obtained for the final a number of a long time from the California Nationwide Guard,” Ricketts stated. “The aggression of Russia can’t be allowed to face.”

Cade stated the troopers will depart Monday for a number of weeks of preparation and coaching in Arkansas and Texas earlier than heading to Germany.

This would be the longest deployment of Capt. Jon Gronewold’s 15-year Nationwide Guard profession.

“I’m excited to help the Ukrainians’ battle for freedom,” he stated. “It truly is such mission, to assist others who’re in want proper now.”

Gronewold stated it’s exhausting to depart behind his spouse, Emily, and 14-month-old daughter, Ada, in Lincoln — though cellphones and the web make it potential to maintain in nearer contact than when Gronewold’s father, retired Brig. Gen. Scott Gronewold, deployed to Bosnia and Iraq twenty years in the past.

“There’s a bit of me that’s extremely pleased with him,” Emily Gronewold stated. “However having a daughter now, it makes me emotional pondering that he’ll be lacking a yr of her rising up.”

Scott Gronewold stated it’s tougher to ship a son off on deployment than to go himself.

“What he’ll see, the experiences he can have, they’re distinctive,” he stated. “Their mission has real-world implications. I instructed (Jon), what you do issues.”

This report contains materials from the Related Press.