| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus |
| American military group arrives in Tbilisi |
| 2002-05-19 |
| A group of 70 American servicemen, comprising 50 instructors and 20 technical experts, arrived in Tbilisi May 19 in a military transport plane that took off from a U.S. Air Force base in Germany. During the next few days they will be familiarized with the conditions of their work in Georgia. Thought this would already be well under way... U.S. Army Colonel Robert Voltmyer, the head of the group of American instructors, reported in a Tbilisi airport that the instructors will from May 27 start training Georgian Armed Forces General Staff officers and commanders of the anti-terror units. The training of nearly 100 staff officers and 100 anti-terror unit commanders will last for two months, Robert Voltmyer said at a briefing. From August it is planned to start implementing the main phase of the American program called Training and Equipping Georgia's Armed Forces. In the course of over 12 months about 2,000 Georgian servicemen under vigilant supervision of the overseas experts would be taking up special courses in tactical and fire drill. I'd imagine the delay had as much to do with coordinating with the Russians as with the Georgians... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |