Oklahoma National Guardsmen Reflect On Mission To Train Ukrainian Troops

As the fighting in Ukraine intensifies, members of the Oklahoma National Guard are watching on from thousands of miles away.

"It's tough. It's heartbreaking to see," said Colonel Colby Wyatt, with the Oklahoma National Guard.

Col. Wyatt said he has a lot of friends in Ukraine, in part because of a deployment to Ukraine five years ago.

"I saw a lot of similarities between their people and our people," he said.

In 2017, three years after Russia invaded Crimea, Wyatt and members of the 179th Infantry and 279th Infantry were deployed on a mission called JMTG-U or Joint Multinational Training Group - Ukraine.

Members of the Oklahoma national guard and military from other NATO countries were sent to Ukraine to train the soldiers in combat, defensive tactics and security.

"To kind of give you a picture of what the Ukrainian forces were at the time, they were small, a little bit underfunded and they would come in with about 11 day boot camp for their brand new soldiers," said Wyatt.

Over the next few months, the guard trained the Ukrainians and set up a force where they could teach themselves and others in the future. That same year, News on 6's Alex Cameron traveled to western Ukraine to watch and report on the guard in action.

"To see that help being delivered by Oklahomans was really meaningful for me, and it meant a lot to be able to report it back here to people in Oklahoma,” said Cameron.

Five years later, Wyatt and Alex said they're thinking about all of those they met.

“Knowing that we succeeded in our mission, we can only hope that that is passed on to other forces in Ukraine," said Wyatt.