Sky Soldiers, Italian allies conduct Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise in Pordenone

A paratrooper with 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade picks up his assault pack after completing a sustained airborne jump in Pordenone, Italy, as part of an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise or EDRE. The brigade was joined by their Italian allies, strengthening the goal of Interoperability between the Allied Nations and bolstering our commitment towards peace and security in Europe. The 173rd Airborne Brigade provides ready troops to deploy within 18 hours, anywhere in the U.S. European, Africa, or Central Command areas of responsibility. (U.S. Army photo by 2LT Steven R. Siberski)

PORDENONE, Italy - U.S. Army paratroopers from the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, joined by their allies from the Italian Folgore Brigade, parachuted into Pordenone, Italy, Jan. 14 as part of an Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise.

An EDRE is a no-notice, rapid deployment exercise designed to certify the battalion’s ability to alert, marshal and deploy while serving as the Army's Contingency Response Force in Europe, said 1st Lt. Joseph Gelinas, executive officer for Company B, 1st Battalion.

“We’re getting better as a unit every day,” said Gelinas. “We are Army contingency response ready but with each EDRE it gives us the chance to test our subordinate leaders and teach the new people who’ve joined the team how we do it.” 

The EDRE builds upon the individual and collective training the battalion conducted last year, such as Operation Atlantic Resolve and NATO Exercise Steadfast Javelin II, and continues to build strong bonds with their Italian sister unit.

“We’re going to have a squad plus of paratrooper-sappers from our Italian brothers attached,” said Gelinas. “All of our exercises we do with our NATO ally are an opportunity to practice our interoperability and to ensure that the multinational force that we will use to accomplish these missions is rehearsed and ready to go.”

The Italian paratroopers enjoyed sharing their training areas and increasing their mutual capabilities with their American partners as well.

Two squads integrated with some of the U.S. platoons to perform an airborne assault, then moved into enemy territory to secure a compound, said Italian army 1st Lt. Marco Falchi of the Folgore Brigade’s 8th Parachute Assault Engineer Regiment. 

“We will perform an airborne assault and then move into enemy territory together as we move toward the objective,” said Falchi, describing the mission. “It’s better this way we can learn each other’s tactics, training and procedures so that in the future we can collaborate together.”