US, Greece strengthen defense ties

  • Published
  • By By Staff Sgt. Nancy Kasberg
  • American Forces Network Kaiserslautern
ELEFSIS AIR BASE, Greece --  U.S. and Greek service members participated in Stolen Cerberus III, April 3 to 15 at Elefsis Air Base, Greece.  

The field training deployment provided different scenarios which enabled the allied services to work together and gain a better understanding of how each other operate. 

"Greece offers us the opportunity to fly at different altitudes that we don't normally do back home," said Capt. Frank Zientek, 37th Airlift Squadron mission commander. "Out here, we're able to do our contour flying, which takes us 300 feet above the ground through mountainous terrain that we don't have in Germany due to restricted air space and weather."

Throughout the two-week combined-forces training, Greek armed forces and personnel from 37th AS, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, shared best practices. They gave advice on techniques for static-line jumps, high-altitude low-opening paratroopers, high-velocity container-delivery systems, heavy-equipment airdrops and combat-rubber raiding-craft airdrops. Greek land and special operations forces were able to jump from U.S. aircraft, under the supervision of a joint team of U.S. jumpmasters.  

"Working with allied jumpmasters allows U.S. forces the ability to interoperate," said U.S Army 2nd Lt. Sophia Rickard, 5th Quartermaster Theatre Aerial Delivery platoon leader. "Essentially, understanding practical work inside the aircraft dictates the efficiency of exiting paratroopers."

After training with the U.S. this rotation, Greek riggers successfully rigged a Humvee and airdropped it for the first time on unimproved surfaces. These types of surfaces include dirt and grass strips, which are used during combat and humanitarian operations when paved runways are not available. 

"The Humvee airdrop is symbolic of another milestone in United States Air Forces Europe and the 37th AS," said Capt. David Pierce, 37th AS deployed forces commander. "Last year we fell short of our goal to successfully airdrop a Humvee, so our team made a concerted effort to achieve that goal with the Greeks in Stolen Cerberus III. The hard work paid off with the successful delivery of a Humvee rigged by Hellenic army riggers and dropped by U.S C-130Js."

The exercise was a great learning opportunity for the Greek armed forces.  Greek Capt. Vasilis Mosios, said he hopes they will continue to train together in similar environments.

"I personally learned many things from the U.S. Air Force about procedures, briefs and C-130J models," Mosios said. "I hope these exercises continue because you never know when you're going to need an ally in Europe, back in the states or whenever the air force will call you to operate."

This is the third year in a row that the U.S. and Greeks have conducted exercise Stolen Cerberus out of Elefsis Air Base, Greece, reinforcing the strength of the partnership.