SR12 Cultural Day promotes cross-nation appreciation

Photographs and letters rest at the foot of a Virgin Mary statue at the Saint Jakov holy site, Medjugorje, during the Shared Resilience 2012 Cultural Day tour June 3. Visitors of the site can leave items like these as prayer requests. This area became known in 1981 when six Catholic children reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Now, the area sees approximately one million pilgrims per year. More than 500 military members from nine nations are participating in SR12, the annual U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff sponsored exercise, May 28 - June 8. The goals of the exercise are to strengthen interoperability, facilitate training in crisis response and disaster management, and validate the readiness of deployable military medical and humanitarian assistance teams. The exercise, in the spirit of partnership for peace, directly supports U.S. European Command's theater cooperation efforts and strategy for active security with European countries.