The Multinational Exercise Saber Guardian 2017 also included stops in Prahova this week, in the schedule set up by the US Armed Forces Command in Europe. Thus, “The Cavalry March” with American and Romanian soldiers had stops in Sinaia and Ploiesti, too; in the municipality of the county, a military technique exhibition was held.
On July 11 and 12, 2017, Prahova County was included, by stops in Sinaia and Ploiesti, in the route set up within the multinational exercise Saber Guardian 2017, where, within the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States of America, a march of the US Armed Forces is held, involving the movement of combat vehicle columns through several counties. The event was attended by more than 100 soldiers from the US Army, who presented together with the Romanian soldiers, a part of their equipment to the inhabitants of the two cities. The first stop was in Sinaia, on July 11, when the American and Romanian soldiers belonging to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the United States, to the 2nd Infantry Brigade and to the 2nd Mountain Hunters Brigade – Romania, presented part of the military technique of the two armies. They exhibited, for the public, on the Ferdinand Boulevard in Sinaia, 7 armored conveyors such as MCV (Mortar Carrier Vehicle), TAB (armored personnel carrier) and Humvee. The activities performed within the “Cavalry March” also consisted in actions of both establishing relations with the local authorities and laying wreaths in the memory of the pilots who were killed in the World War II, at the monument in the “Vulturul Libertatii” Plaza, an objective on the convoy’s route.
The second stop was in Ploiesti, on July 12, and it consisted in organizing an exhibition to present the military technique, in the downtown. It was a static exhibition of combined Romanian and American military technique, this action aiming to reflect the good cooperation between the US Armed Forces and the Allied Forces. Thus, in Ploiesti, hundreds of people, most of them with children, some of them even in the stroller, came to see the exhibited tanks and cars. Children were the most excited ones; they explored especially the tanks outside and inside, being accompanied by soldiers, and their experience was crowned in the end with a salute at the soldier’s hat or with a handshake, but photos were mandatory. Other more brave children, especially the boys, also touched the weapons, some of them looked through the telescope of the rifle, while others also tried the military vests, which weren’t light at all. Being a unique event in a lifetime, the elders also touched the cold metal of the tanks by their hands; actually, everybody surrounded the exhibition a few times, and in the end immortalized their presence near the soldiers and their military technique, especially near the American ones.
The multinational exercise Saber Guardian 2017 (SG17) is planned by the US Armed Forces Command in Europe and is led by the US Armed Forces in Europe. The exercise began on July 8 and will end on July 22, being organized each year – since 2013 until today – by rotation, on the national territories of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. SG17 refers to activities of establishing relationships between the Romanian and American soldiers with the local authorities and communities, from July 11 to 14, in garrisons placed on the itineraries to the deploying polygons and districts. This year, a total number of 18 international exercises will take place in the Black Sea region, being attended by approx. 40,000 soldiers, SG17 being the largest and the most complex one. Together, these exercises aim to show the superior joint and multinational capabilities of the US, of the allies and of their partners, highlighting their cohesion, unity and solidarity, in order to ensure the defense against any aggression.