JUNE 20, 2025 – Soldiers with the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Illinois Army National Guard, recently spent two weeks in Torún, Poland, training alongside members of the Polish Territorial Defence Force.
Since 1993, the Illinois National Guard and Poland have been partners in the Department of Defense National Guard State Partnership Program – an initiative that pairs Guard elements with partner nations worldwide for joint military training and subject matter expert exchanges.
The recent two-week training focused on sniper operations, combat medical care, the Javelin anti-tank weapon system, and remote observer techniques.
For the sniper teams, the goal was to strengthen leadership skills in employing and overseeing sniper sections as well as developing advanced sniper expertise.
“Our goal as a training team is to ensure we are equipping the Polish snipers with the tools to employ themselves against drones and thermal environments,” said Sgt. 1st Class Hussein Mashal, an infantryman with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry Regiment, Illinois Army National Guard. “By merging our techniques with theirs and the lessons learned from the Ukrainian war, we hope to strengthen their sniper employment capabilities and survivability.”
In the medical realm, Soldiers with the Illinois Army Guard’s C Company, 634th Brigade Support Battalion, shared casualty care treatment procedures – from the point of injury to the final point of care.
This iteration included complex training scenarios that allowed participants to triage and evaluate casualties in a realistic, stressful simulated combat environment.
“It’s always worth it working with the National Guard,” said Polish TDF 2nd Lt. Jakub Piotrowski, a medical team member and instructor. “We do the same things in different ways so it’s worthwhile to see how a different army is doing the same thing and then be able to cooperate with it.”
Javelin instructors echoed that sentiment.
“The Polish soldiers were extremely motivated and eager to learn,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nicholas Broden, a training noncommissioned officer with C Company, 1st Bn., 178th Inf. Regt. “They were always asking questions and were very hands on with the equipment.”
Previous training exchanges meant many of the Polish soldiers already had foundational knowledge of the Javelin systems. That allowed the training to advance quickly to more strategic and tactical discussions, said Broden.
For the forward observer teams – or remote observers – the focus was on establishing the fundamental skills for indirect fire coordination, a capability the TDF is actively strengthening as they expand artillery capabilities.
“We started off pretty basic with basic call for fire and then basic joint fires observer skills,” said U.S. Army Master Sgt. William Aitken, an operations NCO with the 33rd IBCT. “It’s kind of an abbreviated forward observer program for the TDF.”
The training also included high tech capabilities – such as employing small drones – combined with improvised concealment techniques to help Polish soldiers observe from a distance while staying hidden. The team practiced setting up hasty observation posts, coordinating drone feeds with command elements, and minimizing visual and electronic signatures – skills directly influenced by lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.
Overall, the training helped strengthen and continue the 30-plus year partnership.
“Our partnership with Poland, which began in 1993 and included 19 years of co-deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, is the gold standard of deployments,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Lenny Williams, the Illinois National Guard’s assistant adjutant general for Army. “We learn, we teach, and we develop new tactics and techniques together with each critical knowledge exchange event. Our capabilities have improved, we’ve expanded our capacity, and our partnership has grown even stronger the past two weeks.”
By Staff Sgt. Amber Peck
National Guard Bureau