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	RI National Guard Advances State Partnership with Royal Bahamas Defence Force
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        <h1 class="title">RI National Guard Advances State Partnership with Royal Bahamas Defence Force</h1>
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            <div class="image-caption">NASSAU, Bahamas (June 20, 2018) Members of the Rhode Island National Guard and Rhode Island Air National Guard look out from the back of a C-130 while flying over waters off the Bahamas during a surface search exercise looking for a distressed vessel as part of Tradewinds 2018. Tradewinds is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored exercise that provides participating Caribbean nations the opportunity to improve security and disaster response capabilities. This year’s focus is on countering transnational organized crime in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class​ Melissa K. Russell/Released)</div>
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            <div class="image-caption">NASSAU, Bahamas (June 20, 2018) Staff Sgt. Chris Jacobs (left) and Senior Airman Nicholas Agosta, both of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, talk while preparing their C-130 for a flight over waters off the Bahamas to conduct a surface search for a distressed vessel as part of Tradewinds 2018. Tradewinds is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored exercise that provides participating Caribbean nations the opportunity to improve security and disaster response capabilities. This year’s focus is on countering transnational organized crime in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class​ Melissa K. Russell/Released)</div>
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            <div class="image-caption">NASSAU, Bahamas (June 20, 2018) Staff Sgt. Chris Jacobs, of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, stands inside his crew’s C-130 as they prepare to fly over waters off the Bahamas to conduct a surface search for a distressed vessel as part of Tradewinds 2018. Tradewinds is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored exercise that provides participating Caribbean nations the opportunity to improve security and disaster response capabilities. This year’s focus is on countering transnational organized crime in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class​ Melissa K. Russell/Released)</div>
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    <div><b>By Navy Reserve - Navy Public Affairs Support Element West </b> <span class="date">/ Published June 21, 2018</span></div>
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    NASSAU, Bahamas – Forty members of the Rhode Island National Guard (RING) participated in a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored joint, multinational and interagency training exercise in the Caribbean, June 4-21, in support of the state’s long-standing partnership with the Bahamas.<br />
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The Rhode Island-Bahamas partnership, established in 2005 through the Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program (SPP), links the RING with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) in a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship to enhance, influence and promote access in the region.<br />
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“This exercise provides an opportunity for soldiers and airmen who aren’t deployed to get up to speed and experience new opportunities outside the normal scope of work for a traditional guardsman,” said U.S. Army Maj. Christopher J. Ahlemeyer, a RING international affairs officer and the Rhode Island SPP director. “Getting out from behind a desk allows for broadening of skill and perspective, both as a person and a professional soldier.”<br />
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This engagement not only prepares local servicemembers for state and federal recall, it also supports U.S. national security goals and geographic combatant commands and embassy security cooperation objectives. RING and RBDF were matched given their comparable size, focus and mission.<br />
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“We’re [RING] the state partner so we want to make sure we have an enduring relationship in place,” said Ahlemeyer. “We provide the consistency [to U.S. Northern and Southern Commands] necessary for mission effectiveness in the region.”<br />
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SPP began in 1993 with partnerships between designated state National Guard’s and independent former Soviet republics, in coordination with U.S. European Command. Since then, it has grown significantly, with 74 partnerships across all six geographic combatant commands.<br />
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During the exercise, which took place in the Bahamas and St. Kitts and Nevis, RING worked with joint U.S. and partner nation forces to increase regional cooperation in complex multinational security and humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.<br />
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“We provided logistics command and control, a cyber range, cyber and communication teams, and two C-130 aircrafts with pilots and flight crews,” said Ahlemeyer. “We basically oversaw all life-support operations as the main cell lead for [the RBDF] Coral Harbour Base.”<br />
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The Caribbean-focused exercise featured a total of 1,700 military and civilian personnel from 22 partner nations.<br />
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Nations that participated include: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, France, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and the United States.<br />
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