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U.S. troops still in
Georgia
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, August 12, 2008
 Tracy J. Smith/Courtesy of the U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Noble of the Georgia Army National Guard takes part in field training alongside Republic of Georgia soldiers during Immediate Response 08 at Vaziani Military Base, Georgia, in July. The training wrapped up Thursday. |
U.S. personnel responsible for training members of the Georgian military
remain stationed inside the volatile country, where fighting erupted Friday
between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
The U.S. European Command said on Monday that there were no plans at this
time to withdraw the U.S. military trainers from the country. There are still
127 U.S. trainers in Georgia, where the American forces had been preparing the
Georgian army for operations in Iraq.
Meanwhile, U.S. civilians started to make their way out of the country over
the weekend, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi.
Convoys carrying family members of diplomats, government workers and ordinary
citizens bound for the embassy in neighboring Armenia continued on Monday.
Tom Mittnacht, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, said the office
was not releasing the number of evacuees it has received so far. But the numbers
do not seem to be exceptionally large.
"We’re working on a few convoys," Mittnacht said.
Upon arrival in Armenia, families are taking up residence in hotels while
they wait things out.
"We’re here to provide them with any assistance we can," Mittnacht said.
Regarding the military personnel, EUCOM stated that they are not engaged in
the conflict and are removed from where the fighting is happening.
In addition to the trainers, 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based
Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st
Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd
Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National
Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry recently participated in "Immediate
Response 2008."
That exercise, which had the U.S. troops operating from Vaziani, concluded on
Thursday. That base, near the capital of Tbilisi, was bombed by Russian aircraft
over the weekend, Georgian officials said.
As for the roughly 2,000 Georgians currently deployed to Iraq, they are now
being redeployed to their home country for support. The first of those soldiers
departed Iraq over the weekend, according to the military.
The Georgians had made up the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in
Iraq.