EUROPE [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 76]

“Essentially 12 years of high- end, high-tech counterinsurgency fighting has driven us together as a military force unlike ever before,” Breedlove says. NATO is powerful enough to deter

a direct Russian attack, Stavridis says. The greater worry is a kind of hybrid warfare on the Baltic nations, per- haps with cyberattacks or trying to incite insurgency in NATO countries with large Russian-speaking popula- tions such as Estonia.

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78 MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2015

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Access and embrace From January through mid-March, Lightning Troop trained with the Algirdas Mechanized Infantry Bat- talion, part of Lithuania’s Iron Wolf Brigade. Squad- through company- level training included multiple live-fire exercises and a full-spec- trum operations exercise. Except for a protest staged by the Communist Party in the Czech Republic, Americans were embraced warmly by every nervous nation they drove through. Freedom of movement is impor- tant to show in these tense times in Europe, says Breedlove. He recalls being in Europe as a captain in the early to mid-1980s when the U.S. Air Force had 10 fighter wings there and the Army had two corps with multiple divisions. “Every time you went down the autobahn you would see a road march. Now you don’t see that, ever. “One of the things we need to re- learn in Europe,” says Breedlove, “is our ability to move freely about as military people.” It reassures allies, he suggests, and sends a different message to Putin.

MO

— Contributing Editor Tom Philpott writes the syndicated weekly news column “Military Update.” His last feature article for Military Officer was “Future Focus,” April 2015.