SD National Guard Hosting 1 Big Exercise, Going Overseas For Another

     The South Dakota National Guard is taking part in two major exercises starting this weekend, one at home and one overseas.

     The South Dakota Guard is hosting the 38th annual Golden Coyote training exercise in the Black Hills from June 11-25 while some 110 members of the 155th Engineer Company are going to Romania for Operation Resolute Castle from June 12-July 1.

     Golden Coyote will involve about 900 combat-support and service-support personnel from 18 units in 10 states, including the Army and Navy Reserve as well as the Guard. Soldiers from Suriname in South America are also taking part. 

     The exercise will give the military units realistic training in support of overseas operations and homeland defense. 

     Engineer, medical, logistics, aviation, transportation, and maintenance units will train on individual and collective tasks and battle drills, combat patrols, urban combat operations, medical first aid, casualty evacuation and convoy operations..

    Operation Resolute Castle is an annual multinational-joint training exercise for Reserve, National Guard and active component soldiers to work with NATO engineer forces to finish European construction projects.

     The operation is completed by six engineer rotations and the host nation has alternated between Romania and Poland every year since 2015  to improve readiness and compatibility of military units.

      The South Dakota 155th will assist with 3 construction projects such as artillery range improvements, firing points, and moving armored targets over the 3 weeks.

Soldiers have been planning events and coordination meetings since Aug. 2021.

and occurs every year. It provides training opportunities