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McKiernan addresses AUSA audiences

By Ray Johnson
U.S. Army, Europe, Public Affairs
October 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Army News Service, Oct. 12, 2006) – U.S. Army, Europe, will continue to provide trained and ready forces to fight in the war on terror, said the command’s top officer here Oct. 11 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual convention.

“We must ensure combatant commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan have every capability they need against adversaries who are unconstrained in trying to achieve their ends,” said Gen. David McKiernan, USAREUR commander.

Addressing several hundred attendees, the general focused on current and future concerns, such as transformation, coalition partnering and training.

McKiernan said USAREUR is modifying its forces and installations to accommodate the Army’s transformation to modular brigade combat teams as its primary war fighting unit, and to provide joint and combined multinational training facilities.

For example, the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment stood up in Vilseck, Germany, last month, he said, and the 173d Airborne Brigade Combat Team, headquartered in Vicenza, Italy, will complete modularization over the next few months to become USAREUR’s other permanently stationed BCT.

In 2007, the command will begin testing plans to rotate BCTs through eastern Europe for what will be known as Joint Task Force-East, the general said. Under the plan, brigades will rotate in and out of forward operating bases and training areas in Bulgaria and Romania, two of NATO’s newest members.

McKiernan said the arrangement benefits all involved. Stateside BCTs will hone their deployable skills while various European armies, including those of the former Warsaw Pact, will be offered opportunities to enhance their capabilities.

“Our coalition partners look to us as a model, as to how a military needs to perform today and how it needs to perform tomorrow,” he said. “They are learning our system of growing noncommissioned officers and how we adapt to a changing world.”

Helping to drive part of USAREUR’s transformation is the Joint Multinational Training Command, which McKiernan said “is right out the back door for the 2nd SCR, which will help them stand up as a fully networked brigade combat team.”

He said JMTC is the principal training center for USAREUR and U.S. Air Forces, Europe, and an increasingly attractive exercise area for allied forces.

Despite the number of USAREUR Soldiers deployed to fight in the war against terrorism, the command has maintained a packed exercise schedule, McKiernan continued. Recent exercises critical to strengthening security and building cooperation between partner countries in Europe teamed USAREUR troops with forces from Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. The command is also engaged in an ongoing training project with the Republic of Georgia.

“To ensure that we can sustain the full range of tomorrow’s global commitments, we must build future coalitions today,” the general said. “USAREUR is all about making this happen.”