File:Know Your Defender Spc Leonardo F Carrasco (8409044).jpg

English: Meet Spc. Leonardo F. Carrasco bridge crewmember with the 43rd Multi-Role Bridge Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade (MRBC) out of Ft. Cavasos, Texas, who was deployed to the Drawsko Combat Training Center in Poland, as part of Immediate Response 24, May 15, 2024.

Carrasco’s unit is responsible for the construction of bridges across water obstacles, lakes and rivers using the Improved Ribbon Bridges (IRB). This greatly increases the speed of troop and equipment movement, but for extra speed, they can use bridge components to ferry individual vehicles and equipment across.

“They need us to move and get assets across the river. Without us, a large enough ravine can stop the entire movement and they won't get their assets across,” said Carrasco.

This native of Palestine, Carrasco enjoys his time in Ft. Cavasos since he gets to do his job, but misses his home country.

“I really love my job. We get stuff moving every day,” said Carrasco.

He enjoys the opportunity to work with Polish and British soldiers as part of the NATO mission to support DEFENDER 24.

DEFENDER is a Dynamic Employment of Forces to Europe for NATO Deterrence and Enhanced Readiness and is a U.S. European Command scheduled, U.S. Army Europe and Africa conducted an exercise that consists of Saber Strike, Immediate

Response, and Swift Response. DEFENDER 24 is linked to NATO’s Steadfast Defender exercise, and DoD’s Large Scale Global Exercise, taking place from 28 March to 31 May. DEFENDER 24 is the largest U.S. Army exercise in Europe and includes more than 17,000 U.S. and 23,000 multinational service members from more than 20 Allied and partner nations, including Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Rigo Cisneros)