U.S. Army Soldier trains Lithuanian volunteers in Eastern Europe

PABRADĖ, Lithuania — U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Sarver doesn't sound like a man who is bragging when he says: "being able to train this organization and help with their training is one of the best things in my career."

Sarver, a cavalry scout from Bland, Virginia, has spent the past five weeks at a multi-national training area in eastern Lithuania teaching members of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union how to clear buildings of potential enemies. The LRU is a 20,000-strong volunteer organization that trains civilians to defend their country alongside the Lithuanian military — a force structure built for a country that shares a border with Belarus and Russia and remembers, in living memory, what it is to be occupied.

Sarver is assigned to Chosen Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, and is deployed to Pabradė Training Area in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve under V Corps, the U.S. Army's forward-deployed corps in Europe and the headquarters for American rotational forces on NATO's eastern flank. He arrived not fully grasping what his presence meant for Lithuania. Then his unit was tasked with running close quarters battle training for the LRU.

"Today we are conducting a raid on two buildings," he said. "We are bounding from building one to two, conducting close quarters battle inside the buildings, and clearing the objectives."

The students are not professional soldiers. They are civilians — teachers, mechanics, students, retirees — who volunteer their weekends and evenings to train for a war they hope will never come. When Sarver started working with them five weeks ago, the class was still learning the basics of urban warfare. Now they are moving through buildings as full squad-sized elements.

"They have grown tremendously through the process," Sarver said, reflecting on how the class had started with the fundamentals of moving through structures and clearing rooms under controlled conditions. "Now we're sending them through squad-sized elements together and they're knocking it out efficiently."

What surprises him is the hunger.

When asked what stands out about working with the LRU, hunger is the example he talks about first. Not the difficulty of the training. Not the language barrier. Not the long days. The hunger.

"They are craving for more knowledge," he said. "Outside-the-box questions, all the time. Every bit of knowledge they can get in the time we have with them."

Asked why they push so hard, Sarver paused before answering.

"What drives them is they have a step-up mentality in this country," he said. "And they do step up, and take actions that need to be taken when no one else can."

Pabradė Training Area sits about 35 miles from the Belarusian border. The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union works in close cooperation with the Lithuanian Armed Forces and other state institutions.Riflemen are integrated into the Lithuanian military in wartime as specialists in fields ranging from drones and cyber defense to medical support, logistics and engineering. The LRU is a core element of Lithuania's comprehensive national defense system, which holds that the country's security is strengthened not only through armed service but through civil, humanitarian and educational contributions from its citizens. Sarver's job is to make sure the Riflemen training with him are ready for the role they would play alongside the regular force.

"My goal for them is that it doesn't matter the difficulty of the room," he said. "They have the tools, the power, and the knowledge to attack it properly, effectively, and get it done right." He has watched the transformation happen.

"I love to teach," he said. "And I'm getting to teach them. I'm watching them transform from civilians into soldiers."

V Corps is the U.S. Army's only forward-deployed corps, serving as the senior tactical headquarters for Army forces in Eastern Europe to deter conflict and provide combat-ready forces alongside our NATO allies. V Corps is operationalizing and expanding the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line with Allies, rapidly integrating emerging technologies into training and tactical plans.