then Add to Home Screen.
Active-component Army units have assumed two European missions performed continuously by the Army National Guard for more than a decade.
Last week, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and supporting units from the 1st Infantry Division took command of Kosovo Force Regional Command-East during a ceremony at Camp Bondsteel.
They replaced the Florida Army National Guard’s 53rd Infantry Brigade.
The East command was last led by active-duty troops in September 2014, command spokesman Staff Sgt. Hunter Tate told Stars and Stripes.
During their nine-month deployment, the Florida troops conducted more than 4,500 multinational battle group patrols and 9,000 patrols in northern Kosovo, while logging about 1,900 flight hours, according to an Army press release.
As part of the scheduled rotation, elements of the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade replaced the Colorado Army Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment, the Army said.
The 1st Infantry Division helped establish KFOR in 1999.
Meanwhile, during a colors-casing ceremony (above) at 7th Army Training Command headquarters in Germany, the Vermont Army Guard’s 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain), also known as Task Force Luzon, relinquished command of Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine.
The JMTG-U mission began in Yavoriv, Ukraine, in 2015 and moved to Grafenwoehr, Germany, in 2022.
The ceremony marked the end of a decade of dedicated Army Guard units carrying out the mission.
For the past decade, rotating Army Guard units have trained the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the direction of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine and the 7th Army Training Command.
Under Task Force Luzon, JMTG-U conducted leadership, staff, platform and specialty training, according to an Army press release.
Since moving to Germany in 2022, the mission has trained more than 24,000 Ukrainian military personnel through more than 300 iterations of instruction covering 50 platforms and specialty events.
“The casing of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine colors marks a shift toward supporting training requirements for our Ukrainian partners on a more permanent and sustainable basis,” Col. Michael Weisman, a senior Army spokesman in Europe said after the ceremony.
Weisman added that the Army will continue coordinating support for Ukrainian forces through U.S. European Command and NATO Security Assistance and Training-Ukraine, in accordance with U.S. policy.
—By John Goheen
