More than 300 U.S. soldiers arrived Thursday in Germany from their base in Texas in the first test of a new American strategy to rapidly deploy U.S.-based troops to Europe to bolster the NATO deterrent against possible Russian aggression. Today there are some 34,000 American military personnel stationed in Germany, down from a Cold War high of more than 250,000. Following the Russian annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the U.S. has again been increasing military activity in Europe concert with NATO allies. "Our ability to rapidly surge combat-ready forces into and across the theater is critical in projecting forces at a moment's notice to support the NATO alliance," U.S. Army Europe said in a statement. I was in a different battalion and we trained in Eastern Europe, actually part of our unit was in Poland," said Colonel Chad Chalfont.

Source: Fox News March 21, 2019 11:42 UTC