A Croatian Contingent in “Saber Strike 2017” EX in Lithuania

The Exercise  “Saber Strike 2017” is one of the largest exercises in 2017 organised by the US EUCOM. It is engaging forces from  18 NATO nations (a total of 10,500 members) and is conducted in Lithuania,  Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
The Multinational Support Battalion, composed of the armed forces of the Republic of Croatia, the U.S.Army and the Norwegian Armed Forces is commanded by Colonel  Ivica Raguž, the Head of the Planning Department of the Support Command of the Croatian Armed Forces. The Support Command has detached a RSOM (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement) Platoon, a CIS squad and ROLE -1team, and the equipment (two semi-trailer lorries for container transport, a gantry crane, a cistern trailer, a van and ambulance vehicles and containers with the equipment).
The members of the Croatian contingent set up a camp named “Peter Herceg Tomich“ with twelve Alaska shelters for accomodation and work. The camp name derives from the U.S. national hero of Croatian origin –  Peter Herceg Tomich, a seaman who during the attack of the Japanese navy on Pearl Harbor saved the crew of the USS Utah risking his own life. The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt posthumously awarded him with the Medal of Honour, the highest U.S. military decoration.  The Navy Senior Enlisted Academ Academy at Newport was also named after him (“Tomich Hall”), whose best performing students receive the “Peter Tomich Award”.
“Saber Strike being one of the largest exercises organised by the US EUCOM  in  2017, we agreed with our U.S. partners in the Exercise to name the camp after a hero who brought the two nations together. The Croatian participants have presented themselves as honourable and committed servicemen interoperable with the Allies and partners, and contributing with their forces to the collective effort towards enhanced  deterrence and defence capabilities of the Alliance. Alliance, “said Colonel  Raguž.