GTEP Aids American War on Terrorism – US Military Official Says

(Tbilisi, May 31, Civil Georgia) – U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer, Georgia Train and Equip Program [GTEP] commander, says improving the Georgian military will ultimately aid the American war on global terrorism.

US Department of Defense press service reports quoting Lt. Col Robert Waltemeyer that US military instructors involved in GTEP have no intention of going near the Pankisi gorge themselves, but they’re preparing the Georgian troops to operate in “Pankisi-like conditions,” where terrorist groups allegedly linked to al Qaeda are hiding.

The most American trainers on this mission are noncommissioned officers [NCO]. Waltemeyer told the Pentagon reporters that he made it clear to Georgia’s military leaders at the outset that American NCOs are “the backbone of our military force in the United States, and that’s how they were going to be applied here.”