Taiwan Troops Training at Camp Grayling, Michigan

I stumbled across something unexpected this month. My wife's military ID was due to be replaced/updated and the closest military base is Camp Grayling, Michigan.

We get there, it's very small base facility area, just a few buildings in the middle of 'No-Where' Michigan. But, it is surrounded by 148,000 acres of woodland, lakes and firing ranges used for Joint Military training.

After we get her ID updated, we go to the 'PX' which is a combination convenient store and uniform shop about the size of a 7-eleven (very small). While driving there, I notice troops walking along the road in a dark green camo pattern I've never seen before. I chalk this up to new uniform for the Army. No big deal. Nothing serious.

When we get inside the PX, my American sonar ears hear the very distinct sound of Mandarin Chinese being spoken among the new camo uniformed customers. I resist the urge to adopt my Steven Seagal (tm) karate stance I learned from watching 'Under Siege' and start paying attention to these new soldiers. They are smaller than most Americans, Asian features and I don't recognize the unit insignias on their uniforms. I wasn't sure how many of these Chinese I can take down by myself, it would be like fighting a class of 5th graders. So, I remain calm and go to the cashier to pay for my slurpy.

The cashier tells me this is the annual 'Northern Strike' training exercise and soldiers from all around the world come to this small base every summer for about 3 weeks of field exercise. The troops in the store are Taiwanese not Chinese.

On our way off the base we see even more of these troops. Norther Strike 24 hosts National Guard units from 32 states, comprised of about 6000 personnel and an unknown number of Taiwan soldiers. Using National Guard training facilities to train foreign troops is a quiet, non-public, way to support our allies without drawing too much attention to it.

If you have any experience at Camp Grayling or have seen this kind of foreign unit training at your local military base, leave a comment. I wonder how common this is?

Photo Credit: DoD