A tale of an airfield and an olive oil factory
173rd Airborne Brigade
Maybe this olive oil factory in Bulgaria has a really, really long driveway. If not, there better be a 2LT nearby with a faulty compass, because it’s hard to see how an airfield and an olive oil factory could be conflated.
Which is just what happened over the weekend. During joint NATO exercises involving the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bulgaria, the paratroopers seized an olive oil factory. The article isn’t clear, but it sounds as if the factory was adjacent to the airfield. Perhaps the soldiers liberated some nice crusty bread and were in need of some rations of olive oil.
Despite the obvious humor in the incident, the owner of the factory was none too pleased. He’s apparently already filed a lawsuit.
Oops! Paratroopers raid Bulgarian olive oil factory by mistake
Soldiers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade mistakenly seized and secured a working olive oil factory in Bulgaria as part of a large-scale NATO exercise aimed at deterring Russian military aggression in eastern Europe.
“On May 11, soldiers entered and cleared a building next to the airfield that they believed was part of the training area, but that was occupied by Bulgarian civilians operating a private business,” according to a U.S. Army Europe and Africa statement released today. “No weapons were fired at any time during this interaction.”
Officials said that during the exercise, soldiers simulated entering and clearing multiple bunkers and structures across the decommissioned Cheshnegirovo airfield in Bulgaria.
The statement said the Army would “implement rigorous procedures to clearly define our training areas and prevent this type of incident in the future.”
“We sincerely apologize to the business and its employees,” officials wrote. “We always learn from these exercises and are fully investigating the cause of this mistake.”
Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva posted security camera video of the daytime raid on her Twitter account. She reported that the owner of the factory had filed a lawsuit after the event.
The paratroopers were conducting assault maneuvers following large-scale airborne drops conducted through Exercise Swift Response which took place in Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania.
Swift Response is part of the larger, umbrella exercise Defender Europe 21, an annual exercise that partners U.S. forces with NATO allies in multiple events across the continent.
The initial portions started in early May and will conclude later this month with Exercise African Lion in Morrocco.
Some video of the incident.
US special forces mistakenly storm a factory producing machinery for olive oil during #NATO drills in #Bulgaria. The owner has filed a law suit pic.twitter.com/3NRM558Q7g
— Dilyana Gaytandzhieva (@dgaytandzhieva) May 30, 2021
Thanks to Jeff LPH 3 for sending this one in.
Category: Army, Guest Link, NATO
OK, click on the video (you *have to) and in the first ten seconds……Dude…..bottom right of the frame….(“no fucks given…”)
“You boys lost?”
When they say special forces do they really mean “special” forces? Like jumped out of the short C130?
It’s all a matter of timing, 32 years ago they would have been hailed as heroes. Can’t imagine if someone from 1986 had read that article how confused they would be.
Imagine for a moment just how confused they’d be that we’ve got so many open socialists in Congress!
First rule of LGOPS,,,,UNLOCKED!
“D’oh!” –Homer Simpson
Kinda hard to fire rounds when you have blank adapters on! I don’t see any M.I.L.E.S gear though. I note the first fire team cleared it, and the follow on squad avoided. Wonder if they radioed that it was clear or the squad leader realized it was not on the agenda?
They had to cut Land Navigation from the Training Schedule so that the troops could march in The Gay Pride Parade.
Or to complete their annual online cyber training, or their annual online SHARP training, or their annual online extremist training , etc.etc. 😁
Overly enthusiastic response by the Spec 4 Mafia.
Ugh Oh, maybe a few ‘promote when ready’ OERs/NCOERs.
Somebody gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do. Was a former sailor called Popeye leading the assault? Hunting for Olive Oyl? Anybody ask Bruto where he was during all of this?
Ol’ Poe remembers another Swift Strike field exercise back in the early 60’s when the 101st jumped into rural South Carolina to run an op against the 82d. My unit missed the drop zone and landed in a huge field of ripe, ready-to-pick watermelons.
The damages were extensive and the very angry owner showed up later demanding payment for the destruction. Don’t know if he got reimbursed but I can say this:
It was one of the sweetest landings young Poe ever made…😝😝😝
Nice. Half the melons were smashed during the drop and the other half on the walk out.
Guy I was in the service with ended up on People’s Court (I never did see the episode) because he crashed his ultralight into some guy’s field and did like $10k in crop damage.
As ol’ Poe recalls, there may indeed have been an unusually high number of midnight requisitions from multiple melon fields for a coupla weeks…😜😜😜
I do believe a number of slower chickens went missing as well…
One of the wartime stories I’ve got from my Grandpa (34th ID from the LA Maneuvers through North Africa to the Rapido River) he and a couple buddies one night came along an Italian farmhouse. They’re able to negotiate a trade and get a whole chicken.
So they find a dark hole to hide in. Cook it under a concealed fire (strict light discipline), and are gnawing down on the first fresh meat they’d had in weeks.
One of his buddies says something about his piece being crunchy, so they risk some light. Turns out the dude was chowing down on the chicken’s head, having thought it was the wing or leg.
Different kind of fog of war.
I bet they got up very oily in the morning to start the raid. Oily to bed oily to rise makes olive oil fine. Know what I Mean Jelly Bean.
Airborne Son is shaking his head… and refuses to look at the video.
Does anyone speak Bulgarian? I want to know what the guy in the video are saying.
SOMEBODY done fucked up, I bet this is going to be legend for some years to come!
So where were the enthusiastic paratroopers while these guys were ambling through the factory? Maybe these guys taught 10th Mountain how to clear a room.