Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 119

(Photo by Staff Sgt. Brett Miller, North Dakota National Guard)

A 173rd Airborne Brigade paratrooper ( left) waits with a Canadian paratrooper to board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for a parachute
jump exercise 22 June 2014 during Operation Atlantic Resolve at Adazi Training Area, Latvia.

work to implement the troop movement over the
next 48 hours. Before Campbell got up to deliver
his remarks, President Ilves pulled him aside and
asked that he divulge to the audience the U.S. plans
to send troops to Estonia. 3 As he addressed those in
attendance, Campbell departed from his scripted
remarks to confirm to the crowd that American
forces were inbound to their country, to stay and
train with their Estonian counterparts for an
indefinite period. The audience expressed relief as
they stood in applause of the general.4 Some in the
crowd openly wept.5

Assessing the Information
Environment
When Russian forces seized control of the
Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in late February,
2014, it was a reminder to the NATO nations
on Russia’s border of the benefits of the military
alliance.6 NATO responded in early March by exercising military options in the air and on the sea.7
A U.S. deployment of F-16 fighter aircraft and Air
Force personnel to Poland for training exercises,
MILITARY REVIEW  January-February 2015

stepped-up air policing over the Baltic states, and
enhanced maneuvers and joint-exercise participation by a U.S. guided-missile destroyer in the
Black Sea were the first pieces put into play on the
Western side of the chessboard. For U.S. Air Force
Ge n. Phillip Breedlove, commander, U.S. European
Command (EUCOM) and NATO’s supreme allied
commander, Europe, the first few moves were relatively simple.
“The tougher piece is, how do we do the assurance piece on the land?” Breedlove told the
Associated Press in early April as he was developing his recommendation to employ ground forces
in Eastern Europe.8 “Because these are measures
which are more costly (and) if not done correctly, might appear provocative.” The United States
would have to proceed cautiously to shore up
support for its NATO allies without escalating an
exceedingly tense situation.
A few weeks later, roughly 600 U.S. paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in
Italy, were en route to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania,
and Estonia as part of what would later be dubbed
117