Visiting on a two-week tour, a German Army officer and a British Army Soldier were introduced to differences and similarities in the U.S. Army way of life at Camp Atterbury, Ind. this week.
Capt. Christian Pellengahr from Erfrut, Germany with the Wehr Bereichs Kommande III and Cpl. Kevin Johnson from Leeds, Britain with the150th Reg. 207th Squadron, British Territorial Army Volunteers visited with the 713th Engineer Company from Valparaiso, Ind. for demolition demonstrations after some familiarization with the M16 rifle at the firing range. Both soldiers are participants with the International Military Officer program, gaining contacts with officers and enlisted alike from allied host nations with the United States.
“The idea is to make additional contacts with foreign military,” said 1st Lt. Eric Holtzleiter from Anderson and Commander for the 938th Military Police Detachment in Gary, Ind.
“There is a large need for host nation support and MPs to work with many different groups.” Holtzleiter, an Officer with the Anderson City Police Department, is scheduled to tour with foreign military hosts overseas in August. He added that each soldier in the program is mobilized and tasked with escorts from their host nation, and then paired with someone of equal position and rank.
“I think I did pretty good,” said Johnson after returning from firing the M16. “It’s quite a bit different from our own rifle. It gives me some good experiences for understanding a different country’s military.” He said that one difference was how the U.S. Soldiers’ battle update brief was different here and how the assembly of certain weapons were more complicated.
Pellengahr was impressed with the availability of resources. “It is interesting to me how it works in your army,” he said. “Compared with our military, everything is bigger and larger. In Germany there are more restrictions on use of land and our camps are smaller because local cities are so much closer. We have to contact civilian authorities and schedule our exercises within certain times.”
“It’s an opportunity to train and see our counterparts and learn from each other,” said Holtzleiter. “Joint Forces Headquarters picked several positions but they’re only picking 12 for this year for Indiana.”
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