Recent odc activities 2008 

Illinois National Guard Information Sharing Exercise

28 May 2008

Illinois National Guardsmen conducted unit level information sharing exercise 7-20 May vicinity Wedrzyn Training Area Poland.  Members of the Illinois Army National Guard’s 233rd Military Police Company, Springfield, Illinois conducted familiarization scenarios on peacekeeping operations to over 200 soldiers from the 16th Mechanized Division, Polish Land Forces.  This is the seventh iteration of the event since 2003 with specific focus on peacekeeping scenarios that Polish soldiers may face during deployments across the world.  The United States European Command Mil-to-Mil (M2M) program funded this event to assist Polish Armed Forces professional development and NATO interoperability intiatives.  Since 1993, the Illinois National Guard and Polish Armed Forces have participated in a partnership program that provides for the sharing of ideas between two nations.  Regionally, Poland receives the most U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance funding and is also the sixth largest FMF recipient in the world. To date this includes over $285 million in direct FMF grants and more than $3.9 billion in FMF loans. Additionally, Poland has received more than $31 million dollars under the Combined Education Training Program (CETP) which includes: the International Military Education Training (IMET) Program; Military to Military (M2M) Program; State Partnership Program (SPP) and Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP). Poland utilizes U.S. support to help transform and modernize the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland.