Maj. Anthony Sutter and Chief Warrant Officer Tom Golden are seeing changes take place almost daily as the Republic of Georgia travels the long road back from years of domination by the Soviet Union. Sutter and Golden are pilots with 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Combat Support. They continue to build the partnership between the two Georgias by teaching Republic of Georgia military pilots how to fly the UH-1 Huey helicopter.

Sutter and Golden are among the five-to-eight Georgia Guardsmen who have been traveling to Tbilisi regularly since 10 Hueys were given the former Soviet satellite country. The helicopters, donated by the Untied States and Turkey, will be used to for security missions along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceylon oil pipeline that is under construction.

Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, Georgia’s Adjutant General, recently visited the Republic of Georgia. He spent time talking to the Winder-based Guardsmen about the partnership program. Poythress said the program’s short-term goal is to get enough pilots and mechanics to keep the choppers flying. The country could add some small, fixed-wing transport aircraft in the future, but probably not much more, he added.

The state of Georgia has had a relationship with the Republic of Georgia since 1985 when civilians from the two countries stared visiting one another as part of the Friendship Force Exchange program. Georgia Guardsmen became part of that relationship when it launced the State Partnership Program and began traveling to the republic in 1995 to assist in humanitarian projects. Since 1999, the Guard has had an officer assigned to the Republic of Georgia Ministry of Defense as a full-time liaison. Assigned to that position is Army Guard Lt. Col. Lonnie Edinfield.

Not only are Georgia National Guard troops in the republic, but regular Army Special Forces troops are also there helping train the Georgian military. The U.S. offered the assistance, in part, because of threat of Al-Qaida terrorists and Chechen Muslim rebels hiding in the rugged Pankisi Gorge on Georgia’s border with Chechnya.

Poythress said Georgia’s military is being encouraged to restructure itself into more of a Western model and leave behind its Soviet training. "Their military is living with 87 years of Soviet legacy, and they are trying hard to overcome that mind-set," he said.