US Army 101st Airborne soldiers deploy to Ukraine

Personnel of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division arrived in Ukraine on May 2, as part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U) mission. They deployed to the International Center For Peacekeeping and Security in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine.

Over 130 soldiers from the division’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team “Strike” have replaced the Tennessee Army National Guard 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which had been providing training to Ukraine’s troops at the center, commonly known as the Yavoriv training range, since August 2018.

The new rotation at Yavoriv will last 9 months.

The United States is by far the largest provider of defense assistance to Ukraine, followed by Canada and Great Britain.

“The Tennessee guards did a good job fulfilling their mission on training Ukrainian combat formations as part of the JMTG-U and were decorated by Lieutenant General Pavlo Tkachuk, chief of the Petro Sahaydachniy National Academy of Ground Forces,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The JMTG-U mission, which has been run since 2015 and is overseen by the U.S. 7th Army Training Command based in Grafenwoehr, Germany, is tasked with training and equipping Ukrainian soldiers. It is also focused on training center development and doctrinal assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The deployment of the American division’s units was initially announced in early April.

According to the U.S. Army, the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team task force will be comprised of soldiers from each of its seven organic battalions. This formation will be deployed under the title “Task Force Carentan,” in honor of the Battle of Carentan, which occurred during World War II shortly after the Allied landing in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. As a result of that battle, the French town of Carentan was liberated from Nazi troops by the 101st Division’s 502nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which is now deployed to Ukraine.

The 502nd Regiment’s JMTG-U mission to Lviv Oblast is a fitting way to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

During the deployment, Task Force Carentan will be assisting in developing the Ukrainian armed forces’ training areas and will help provide realistic training under a NATO inter-operable framework.

“These train-the-trainer efforts will allow Ukraine to assume full training responsibility at the Yavoriv Training Center sometime in 2020,” the 7th Army Training Command also said.

“Most of the personnel deployed to Ukraine are leaders with many years of experience capable of providing decent training,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry quoted Task Force Carentan leader, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Tracy, as saying during the ceremony of authority transfer.

“I hope this will be a good opportunity for sharing experience,” Tracy added.

The 101st Airborne Division, nicknamed “Screaming Eagles” and globally known for their famous sleeve insignia depicting an eagle’s head, was formed in 1942. Apart from spearheading the D-Day airborne landings in Normandy, they also have a rich combat history in Europe — namely during Operation Market Garden, the liberation of the Netherlands, and the Ardennes Offensive of 1944-1945.

The formation’s legacy during World War II was dramatized in a number of iconic TV series and war dramas, such as “Band of Brothers” by the HBO channel and Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” movie.

The division also later participated in a number of major battles in the Vietnam War and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan more recently.

Due to its very high level of training and extremely demanding requirements on personnel, the division is widely-regarded as elite and has been repeatedly honored as one of the most combat-potent formations of the U.S. Army.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Lviv Oblast deployment is not the 502nd Regiment’s first return to Europe since World War II.