“Working with U.S. forces, I'm really (impressed) with how we went straight from shaking hands to conducting missions in a very short amount of time, which tells a lot about our forces being interoperable and well suited for combined missions together,” a member of the Special Jaeger Battalion, Finnish Special Forces, explained about working with soldiers from the American 10th Special Forces Group.
“The mentality and the intensity with how we conducted these missions and how well we’ve actually been able to cooperate (speaks to that),” the Finnish soldier stated for an Army press release.
10th Special Forces Group focuses on the European theater as their area of responsibility and has always trained for winter warfare, but operating in the Arctic is a totally different ballgame and the militaries who really know how to operate there are from Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and America's newest NATO partner: Finland.
Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO, strengthening the alliance designed to deter Russian aggression. Finland shares an 800-mile-long border with Russia, and during World War II fought the "Winter War" against the invading Soviet Union in 1939.
To prepare for the training exercise with the Finnish Jaegers, the American Green Berets went through a five-week train up at Sweden's Subarctic Training Center before embarking on the multi-day Talvikotka 23 exercise in Finland.
“The exercise focused on deep strike operations, or neutralizing a target deep behind the front line," said the US Special Forces assistant detachment commander in a press release.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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