GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – CENTAM Guardian 2025, an annual exercise co-sponsored by U.S. Southern Command and Guatemala's Ministry of Defense, neared its conclusion with a culminating event held May 22 at Mariscal Zavala military base here.
Attended by Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of U.S. Southern Command; Gen. Hermelindo Choz Soc, Guatemala's chief of national defense; and other senior leaders, the culminating event demonstrated the capacities developed by exercise participants as they responded – with Guatemala in the lead – to a notional security crisis compounded by a notional natural disaster.
During the demonstration, U.S. Marines and soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard and partner nations provided a blocking force while special forces from Guatemala and the United States raided a compound to capture a high-value target. An injured service member was evacuated by helicopter for medical treatment before civilian law enforcement officers rushed in to take custody of the target.
The two-week exercise, which included more than 900 members of military forces and civilian agencies from six countries this year, aimed to strengthen relationships among regional partners while improving domain awareness, interoperability, and humanitarian-assistance, disaster-relief and security processes, particularly in the tri-border area of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
All of the objectives were accomplished, the exercise director, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Innis Bryant, said.
“To the men and women of the joint force and to our partners as we continue to build together on our friendship and continue work on common security challenges – that's where the credit lies,” Bryant said. “We can have a good plan, but without the willingness and the professionalism of our service members working hand in hand with their counterparts for the past 14 days to accomplish our training objectives, none of this would have been possible.”
A key piece of the puzzle was provided by 22 members of the 321st Civil Affairs Brigade, a U.S. Army Reserve unit from San Antonio that supported a notional combined task force commander by providing a common operating picture of the security and disaster situations, including an assessment of host-nation capabilities and gaps, and where assistance had been requested.
“In simple terms, we're a conduit between the military, the civilian population, and agencies and organizations,” said Col. James Esquivel, the element commander. “We're that liaison that helps connect people and capabilities in order to achieve the desired outcome or resolution of the problem set.”
Esquivel described Guatemala's national humanitarian-assistance and disaster relief organization, known as CONRED, as “extremely well-organized and robust.” Even so, CENTAM Guardian “helps us better prepare for interoperability, collaboration and information-sharing, and it builds a stronger, unified team throughout the region,” he said.
While the civil affairs element was doing its work, others were training with Guatemalan and other partners, then responding together to various aspects of the notional situations.
The Arkansas Army National Guard contributed 45 soldiers from the 1st Platoon, Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment who formed a company with soldiers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
In the first week, the soldiers trained in tactical combat casualty care and marksmanship, with a focus on fundamentals and safety, said 1st Lt. Darcey Starling, the U.S. platoon leader. The soldiers also familiarized themselves with their different ways of organizing forces at the squad and platoon levels. In the second week, they conducted live-fire training and squad battle drills, culminating in a mission to seize an airfield.
During the mission, which Starling described as “the definition of teamwork,” Guatemalan soldiers cut a path through steep jungle terrain and installed rope lines for the U.S. soldiers who followed.
Starling's takeaway: “Soldiers across the military need to be ready to be adaptive to any environment as well as to be adaptive to operations across the world. Whether it's for readiness or actual conflict, we need to be ready to work with anyone to be able to accomplish any mission.”
Initially at a training base near Guatemala city, then at a base near the port city of San Jose, 45 members of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, a Marine Corps Reserve unit, trained with the Guatemalan paratroops known as paracaidistas. In Week 1, the training included unarmed, close-quarters combat as well as live fire on a variety of weapons from pistols to rocket launchers. In Week 2, it included orders and mission rehearsals, patrols, raids and military operations in urban terrain, setting the stage for three complete missions related to the scenario.
“We're from the Northeast, near Boston, so a triple-canopy jungle was a unique experience,” said Marine Maj. Ryan Hilgendorf, an assistant inspector instructor with the battalion and the lead planner for the Marine track of the exercise.
The combined training went well due to a shared interest in learning and mission success, Hilgendorf said; from the experience, the Marines gained an understanding of where they fit into military operations in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility.
“They can conceptualize, from flash to bang … a request for forces to the deployment of forces, and how the established relationship between us and the Guatemalans decreases the reaction time from the request to actual support on the ground.”
At multiple locations across Guatemala, approximately 150 members of U.S. Army and U.S. Navy special operations forces, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and their counterparts from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, trained together. The integrated training included small-unit and forced-entry tactics for the ground forces; small-boat interdiction and detainee operations for the naval forces; and collections, firearms and law-enforcement training for the civilians, leading up to a combined, joint raid and the capture of a high-value target.
At the Guatemalan army’s 3rd Infantry Brigade base in Jutiapa, medical professionals from the U.S. Air Force’s 355th Medical Group, the U.S. Army Reserve’s 7454th Medical Operational Readiness Unit and the 188th Medical Group from the Arkansas Air National Guard, as well as from Guatemala’s Ministry of Health, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, provided care at no cost to hundreds of people during a global health engagement
Following that, members of the same organizations, plus local firefighters and police officers and members of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, Guatemalan Red Cross and CONRED, trained for and then carried out a mass-casualty and patient-movement exercise there.
Of 30 notional patients, 10 were taken to a field hospital on the base, 10 were taken to a local hospital and 10 were airlifted by a U.S. HH-60 helicopter and a Guatemalan helicopter and small airplane to Guatemala's Central Air Command in Guatemala City, from which they were notionally transported by C-130 aircraft to trauma centers for treatment.
The readiness and flexibility of the U.S. service members as they integrated with their Guatemalan and other partners was impressive, said Maj. Edell Cruz Rivera, the operations officer of the 7454th MORU and the exercise medical planner.
“They looked as if they were operating as one element for months,” he said. “They were mindful and respectful of their partners' systems. They adapted our procedures … to operate as a combined task force.”
U.S. Air Force Southern Command coordinated the assignment of two C-130s from the Missouri National Guard's 139th Airlift Wing to the exercise. U.S. Southern Command's Joint Task Force-Bravo, at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, provided the HH-60 used in the mass-casualty exercise and culminating event; two CH-47 helicopters for transporting troops, air-assault capabilities and the culminating event; and a situational assessment team.
“One thing I noticed, and that all of the teammates on the ground noticed, is that the Guatemalans took ownership of their opportunity to show their strength as regional leaders in Central America,” said Maj. Alexander Adeleye of U.S. Air Force Southern Command, the air component lead for the exercise.
The Guatemalans themselves said they were pleased to be able to train at a time-sensitive pace, he added.
Behind all of the training was logistics, provided by 12 members of the 167th Theater Sustainment Command of the Alabama National Guard with support from two contracting officers from the 410th Contract Support Brigade from Soto Cano. The 167th TSC coordinated requirements for contracts, including contracts for water, meals and transportation, as well as latrines and showers. The contracting officers awarded the contracts, after which the 167th TSC conducted inspections to ensure they were carried out properly.
For service members from the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras, contractors delivered 9,442 meals and 9,039 cases of water.
The great majority of subcontractors – those who delivered goods and services – were Guatemalan, according to the contracting officers.
The process strengthened U.S.-Guatemalan logistical ties through necessary coordination, said Lt. Col. Jason Charlton of the 167th TSC, who served as the sustainment lead during the exercise. In addition, it was efficient for U.S. forces and contributed to the local economy.