Santa Maria (RS) – During his stay in Rio Grande do Sul, where he accompanied Operation Taquari to help the Civil Defense in assisting flood victims, the Commander of the Army, Army General Tomás Miguel Miné Ribeiro Paiva, also visited the Santa Maria Garrison between September 13 and 15.
On Wednesday (13/09), together with the Southern Military Commander, Army General Hertz Pires do Nascimento, the Commander of the 3rd Army Division (3ª DE), Division General Paulo Roberto Rodrigues Pimentel, commanders of Major Units and senior officers, General Tomás visited the facilities of the Regional Maintenance Park of the 3rd Military Region (Pq R Mnt/3).
“We have a high level of maintenance and management that enables our armored force to be very operational and very capable. That makes the commander very proud,” commented the General.
Afterwards, at the Southern Training Center (CA-Sul), the Army Commander gave a lecture to senior officers and then went to the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) company, where he was received by the directors and was shown the line of products manufactured by the brand, as well as visiting the workshop facilities where the armored vehicles are maintained.
On Thursday 14, General Tomás received the gala honours, consisting of a horse escort of students from the Santa Maria Military College, a Guard of Honour and a salute by troops from the 1st Mechanized Cavalry Brigade (1st Bda C Mec). After the honors, the Commander went on to Rosário do Sul, where he accompanied the 6th Armored Infantry Brigade’s (6th Bda Inf Bld) Readiness Force certification exercise (FORPRON), Operation Steel Fists.
At the Tenente de Lacerda firing range, real shots were fired from Leopard 1A5, Gepard, M109, M-113, Guarani and Cascavel armored vehicles, as well as 120mm Heavy Mortars. The recently launched pop-up target and moving target line technologies were also demonstrated.
“Few armies in the world have the opportunity to have a proper training camp, to be able to certify an armoured FORPRON that mobilizes more than a thousand soldiers and countless armoured vehicles. This attests to our troops’ professionalism, responsiveness, dedication and ability to overcome climate change and quickly adapt to the terrain,” said General Tomás.
Friday (15/09) was the day to gather the troops in the courtyard of the 29th Armoured Infantry Battalion (29th BIB), in the Boi Morto district of Santa Maria, for a centralized Military Physical Training (MPT). After warm-up exercises with the 700 or so soldiers present, General Tomás led a 7-kilometer run along Avenida do Exército, passing by CA-Sul and the 1st Combat Car Regiment (1st RCC).
Closing out the schedule of activities on Friday, the Army Commander visited the 7th Armored Infantry Battalion (7th BIB), currently located in Santa Cruz do Sul, his first unit as an officer.
Source: Southern Military Command