Army National Guard engineers from North Carolina are deploying to Staseni, Moldova, for Exercise Cornerstone 00-1, a combined engineering exercise with soldiers from the Moldova armed forces, starting Saturday and continuing through late August. Active duty Army engineers from Europe and U.S. Navy Reserve SEABEES from South Carolina will also participate in the project.
The exercise is being conducted in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace program and as part of the State Partnership Program between the State of North Carolina and Moldova.
The National Guard and Moldova engineers will reinforce their vertical construction skills and small engineer unit skills be constructing a medical clinic and conducting small unit training exercises. The clinic will provide a basic level of medical care for more than 640 children ranging from infants to teenagers.
This exercise is the first ever conducted in the Republic of Moldova. It is the seventh Cornerstone exercise conducted in Europe. Previous Cornerstone exercises were conducted in Albania, Romania, the Republic of Georgia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Macedonia.
Cornerstone exercises are designed to enhance regional stability by employing U.S. reserve component and active duty forces in combined engineering construction operations with the armed forces of host nations. Cornerstone 00-1 will provide a valuable opportunity for U.S. and Moldovian military participants to learn more about each other.
The Partnership for Peace program expands and intensifies political and defense cooperation throughout Europe, increases stability, diminishes threats to peace and builds strengthened relationships by promoting the democratic principles that underpin NATO.
For this exercise, members of the 130th Engineer Brigade, V Corps, based in Hanau, Germany, will direct and oversee the overall operation. The 505th Engineer Brigade from the state of North Carolina Army National Guard and Naval Construction Force Support Unit Three (NCFSU-3), a Reserve unit based in Fort Jackson, S.C., are assisting. The Republic of Moldova
will contribute 65 engineers and soldiers to help with the construction, participate in combined tactical engineer training, and provide security, transportation and other logistics as required.
For more information, visit the U.S. European Command web site at http://www.eucom.mil/exercises/00/Cornerstone/index.html (no longer available)
