Members of the Ohio National Guard will run the Belgrade Marathon, having accepted the challenge of Serbian special forces

Members of the Ohio National Guard landed on Tuesday at the “Colonel Pilot Milenko Pavlović” military airport in Batajnica with an American air refueling plane KC 135. More than 20 members of the Ohio National Guard came for training with the Serbian Army, continuing their 17-year cooperation.

They decided to participate in the Belgrade Marathon after the good results of the Serbian special teams in America.

“In response to the dominance of Serbian special forces at the regional competition “The Best Warrior” last year in Ohio, we brought members of our marathon team to impress you all. I will run with them and it will be my first marathon in my life,” he told RTS Col. Jeffrey Massman, director of the Ohio National Guard’s State Partnership Program.

The last time they were in Serbia was in September of last year, when Guard Commander General Harris attended the promotion of officers of the Serbian Armed Forces.

“This time we are here with a team of cyber experts who will try to unite academic institutions, companies, government and military institutions, in order to create a comprehensive cyber security organization for the people of Ohio and Serbia. We also have pilots and operators of our KC-135 fuel tank, who will be able to practice various types of operations together with their colleagues from Serbia. Also, we have members of the medical team that will go to the VMA,” said Colonel Masmen.

The Serbian Armed Forces and the Ohio National Guard have been cooperating since 2007, so far several joint exercises have been carried out in the field of cyber security, as well as the preparation of forces to go on peacekeeping missions.