MAGAZINE
SPRING 2020
LOYAL BONUS & EAGLE METEOR :
OCTOBER EXERCISES REFINE & TEST NRDC-ITA AND LANDCOM
By Lieutenant Colonel Travis DETTMER , U . S . Army , LANDCOM PAO
IZMIR , Turkey — For nearly two weeks in mid October the staff of NATO Allied Land Command conducted operations inside the bowels of a mountain located a short drive away from their Izmir headquarters . Their purpose was to assist NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy ( NRDC-ITA ) in execution of Exercise Eagle Meteor ( EAME ) 19 as the higher control ( HICON ) while , simultaneously , conducting battle staff training during Exercise Loyal Bonus ( LOBO ) 2 / 3 .
The experience , gained during the October 18-25 , 2019 exercise , proved both challenging and rewarding for both the Italy and Turkey-based NATO commands . In an era of renewed purpose for the NATO Alliance in the face of increased posturing and competition from potential adversaries , the two events served complementary purposes . communication , and personalities are all stressed in training environments and we get to see what works and what doesn ’ t work .” The exercise was a formative experience for the staff as a whole . “ We have several training objectives for Loyal Bonus ,” said U . S . Army Lieutenant General J . T . Thomson , Commander LANDCOM as he laid out his commander ’ s intent during a pre-exercise briefing in late September . “ Number one , test and refine our SOPs , our TTPs , and our processes . Secondly , execute our battle
For LANDCOM , one objective of LOBO was to “ test the command ’ s capability to operate as a Multi-Corps Land Component Command ( MC-LCC ) and give us practice in that role ,” said U . S . Air Force Meteorology Officer Major Ben Wauer , Operations Center Battle Captain for the exercise .
“ Training like this helps any unit put the theories and plans developed in the office to the test and see how well the machine works ,” Major Wauer said . “ Processes , procedures ,
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