Gainesville Times, GA

Georgians prepared in fight, Guardsman says
Dawsonville man helped train army

A stretcher team carries a simulated Georgian army casualty through
rotor wash into a waiting Blackhawk medical evacuation helicopter.

POSTED Aug. 17, 2008 1:56 a.m.

As the clash between Russian and Georgian soldiers continues half a
world away, a Dawsonville member of the Georgia National Guard said he
is concerned for the Georgian soldiers he got to know last month
during three weeks of military exercises in their country.

"There’s a personal connection there because of being able to work
with these folks and I’m concerned because their line of work takes
them into harm’s way," said Maj. John H. Alderman IV, a public affairs
officer with the Winder-based 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment.

"So I’ve been worried about them but I also know that they’re going to
do the best that they can, and they’re going to do their job well. And
they’re going to serve their country the same way I serve mine."

Alderman, who graduated in 1995 from North Georgia College & State
University and lives in Dawsonville, returned with his fellow guard
members Aug. 2 from exercises in the country of Georgia. The
multinational exercises had been planned since 2006.

Members of both the 121st and the Glenville-based 122nd Rear
Operations Center, along with other American forces, spent much of
July in the Asian country of Georgia. Some 1,000 Americans and 1,000
soldiers from the countries of Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia and
Azerbaijan took part in Immediate Response 2008, featuring coalition
forces who will be going to Iraq. "Interoperability," or learning how
to work together, is the goal of the annual exercise, Alderman said.

Alderman said until last week, the country of Georgia represented the
third-largest contributor of coalition forces in Iraq after the United
States and United Kingdom. The Georgian army forces began returning
home from Iraq when Russians invaded the country on Aug. 8. "It was
great to work with (the Georgians). We’re good partners and they’ve
been a huge support in the war on terror down in Iraq," Alderman said.

During the July exercises, the 121st worked with the Georgian army,
participating in live-fire exercises, practicing maneuvers and taking
a Combat Lifesaver course, Alderman said. The 122nd trained the
commander of a Georgian army brigade and his staff in how to deploy
and lead their troops, he said.

Alderman said the forces were "fully integrated" during the exercises,
teaming Americans and Georgians side by side. This required using
interpreters and hand signals to communicate, both very valuable
skills for coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Alderman said.

One of the members of the Georgian army Alderman worked closely with
lived for a time with relatives in Atlanta ‘ whose sister city is
Tblisi ‘ and pointed out that behind New York, the largest number of
people from the country of Georgia living in the United States reside
in the state of Georgia.

Both Americans and multinational forces also were able to pick up a
few words of each other’s languages, which sometimes is all that is
needed when dealing with civilians and others in foreign lands,
Alderman said.

"That’s great training, too, because many of the places we go in the
world, that’s going to be the case. When we’re on the ground in Iraq,
we have to be able to communicate with Iraqis," he said. "It’s a great
opportunity for soldiers to understand that language matters and if
you can learn 10 or 15 words, that makes a difference."

In addition to dealing with language barriers both with civilians and
among themselves, the maneuvers practiced by the multinational forces
included scenarios that might be common on the ground in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Scenarios included establishing a relationship with a
local police chief in a mock village and raiding a simulated insurgent
bomb-making facility, he said.

"If you’re in a village and someone attacks you, they’re not attacking
you in a vacuum on a chessboard where there’s two armies. They’re
attacking you in a place where people live and they sell things and
they bring their kids to get water and take them to play soccer or
whatever," Alderman said. "Because of that, these simulated
situational exercises are designed to let them deal with that and they
have to understand that that’s part of the battlefield and they have
to be careful … and how do you operate in that environment."

Other than the purely military exercises, Alderman said part of the
training also includes time to learn about the culture of the host
country. Alderman said he and fellow soldiers got to explore the
country of Georgia and meet its people during the three weeks spent
there.

American soldiers not only attended Mass at a Georgian Catholic
church, but also visited an orphanage outside the capital of
Tblisi. The director of the orphanage showed Alderman and fellow
troops a decade-old photo that showed members of the Georgia National
Guard when American forces last visited the country.

To his amusement, Alderman said that on the road to Tblisi, he saw
local farmers selling watermelons out of the trunks of their cars ‘ a
reminder of July in the state of Georgia.

The country of Georgia is located on the Black Sea between Russia and
Turkey on a confluence of rivers and cultures. It was one of the first
Christian nations, established as a kingdom hundreds of years before
the Crusades. The Caucasus Mountains separate Georgia from Russia in
the region of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

The capital is a fairly modern city, Alderman said, and the heart of
Tblisi is very Western in appearance with shops, restaurants and book
stalls. But outside the capital, it is very clear that parts of the
country are deep in poverty, Alderman said. Many areas don’t have
paved roads.

The city and other parts of the country also feature monasteries and
citadels that are centuries old. Icons of St. George, often depicted
in Christian religious art across Europe, also feature prominently
across Georgia, Alderman said. Even the country’s flag is a
St. George’s cross.

Georgia, currently embroiled again in conflict with Russia, has a long
history with its neighbor. As Russia expanded its territory to take
over its neighbors, Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in the
early 1920s and was a key strategic site for the Soviets. After the
Cold War ended and the Soviet Union began to break apart, Georgia
declared its sovereignty in 1992. Some breakaway provinces, such as
South Ossetia, retain close ties to Russia.

Alderman said the Georgians’ tensions with Russia weren’t a focus for
himself or his fellow soldiers. They were simply concentrating on the
task at hand: training coalition forces for deployment to Iraq. As a
matter of fact, Russians were conducting exercises in their own
country and in the Bering Sea with Norway and the U.S.

"We were there for an exercise," Alderman said. "We were there to do
our job."

Alderman said the Soviet stamp remains visible across Georgia.
Soviet-era bases and military machinery now are in Georgian hands. In
Tblisi, many buildings clearly are Soviet architecture, including
buildings with friezes featuring hammers from the hammer and sickle
that was the symbol of the Soviet Union.

He said much of the construction was similar to what he had seen when
he was deployed to Iraq in 2005.

"But the Georgian flag is all over the place and the people are very
happy and very friendly," Alderman said.

The country of Georgia "is making its mark," Alderman said. "They have
chosen to align themselves with the West."