----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 12:16 AM Subject: [STOPNATO] U.S. sponsors disaster-relief exercise in Romania STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM Support Antiwar.com http://Antiwar.com and also the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space http://www.space4peace.org +Make nonviolent peace. Speak truth to power. Pray for one another. Be merciful. Love your enemies. Forgive those who've hurt you. Come Lord Jesus Christ. Deo Gratias.+ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
Content-Length: 5211 Text Version CONSTANTA, Romania (Army News Service, July 18, 2,000) -- Approximately 2,500 troops from 13 NATO and other partner nations are participating this week in Exercise Rescue Eagle 2000 in areas surrounding Constanta, Romania. United States forces have joined participants and observers from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Slovakia and Turkey, Hungary and South Africa. The U.S. forces include a large contingent from the Tennessee and Alabama Army National Guard. U.S. Ambassador to Romania, Jim Rosapepe, visited the exercise and participated in a mass casualty drill July 17. Rosapepe shed his business suit and tie to don the apparel and simulated injuries of an earthquake victim during the drill. Wearing moulage to simulate a serious shoulder injury sustained in a major earthquake, and wrapped in a shoulder sling, the ambassador was processed and treated with other exercise participants before being taken by helicopter to the field military hospital for further medical treatment. "...I was handled and treated by a combined team of American, Romanian, and Moldaovan soldiers," he said. "I could see with my own eyes the kind of cooperation that we have in the PfP (Partnership for Peace) and in NATO." Romania has expressed its interest in pursuing a path toward eventual NATO membership, and the ambassador stressed the significance of the Rescue Eagle exercise in supporting that vision. "We in the United States in particular want Romania to be a strong candidate for NATO membership and these types of exercises are part of the process of strengthening Romania's candidacy for NATO," Rosapepe said. "I think you build relationships by working together, and joint exercises of this sort are what it takes for our American military, Romanian military, and other partners to develop the kind of partnerships that lead to partnership and alliance," he said. The exercise is designed to improve the ability of joint forces to accomplish humanitarian assistance and disaster relief-type operations, officials said, by using the scenario of a mock earthquake. They said training objectives are specifically aimed at small units and enhancing the abilities of forces to work together. "This is part of our effort to try to help the Romanian Military and our other partner countries to become modern, efficient and interoperable with NATO," Rosapepe said. "The leaders of the government of Romania, and the leaders of the United States very much want to strengthen our relations-- particularly in the military realm -- and bringing Rescue Eagle, which is one of the major exercises done in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace this year, is a very important signal." During opening ceremonies for the exercise July 12, Constantin Degeratu, consular of the President of Romania, stood alongside other dignitaries to highlight the importance of the exercise before the assembled nations' forces. "It is a very important day because the exercise is occurring in an unprecedented context, as today we are celebrating three years since Romania and the United States signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement," Degeratu said. "I am confident that the experience accumulated [in this training] allows us to start any kind of [humanitarian assistance] activity from the same level as our partner nations." Maj. Gen. David F. Bice, deputy commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe, from Stuttgart, Germany, represented the lead U.S. unit, and emphasized the significant future dividends the exercise will pay. "There is an old saying that a warrior's biggest fear is letting his buddies down," Bice said. "The result [of this training] is that we [partner nations] can look to each other in times of disaster or national crisis and say to ourselves, 'we won't let our partner nations down.'" The United States-sponsored, Romanian-hosted joint, combined exercise will occur through July 20, and includes some 800 active-duty and reserve U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. The second largest U.S. exercise of its kind this year in Europe, Rescue Eagle is being conducted in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace Program. The stabilizing effect of exercises of this sort was a common theme throughout the opening ceremony. "Through exercises of this sort our men and women in uniform can cement the bonds of fraternity and teamwork which promote peace and stability throughout this region of the world," Bice said. Speaking from the site of a massive tent camp erected to house the exercise participants, Gen. Mircea Chelaru, chief of the Romanian General Staff, echoed the same sentiment. "If this exercise has a main goal of intervention for humanitarian assistance, then there is nothing more humanitarian than keeping and preserving the peace status," Chelaru said. "We're looking to have as many exercises here as we can," Ambassador Rosapepe said. "Certainly the support that Romania provided to NATO in bringing rapid end to the war in Kosovo last year increased the interest that NATO has in exercises in the region." Link to original news item: http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Jul2000/a20000718eagleex.html
