{"id":534217,"date":"2025-07-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=534217"},"modified":"2025-07-15T14:21:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:21:42","slug":"family-ties-siblings-strengthen-readiness-relationships-during-african-lion-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=534217","title":{"rendered":"Family Ties: Siblings strengthen readiness, relationships during African Lion 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Back to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DODJI, Senegal \u2014 For many service members, participating in an international military exercise can feel like joining a larger, multinational family. For U.S. Army<\/a> Maj. Carolyn Vandeventer and her younger brother, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Stuart Vandevick, that sentiment is literal.<\/p>\n

The siblings were both deployed to Senegal in support of African Lion 2025<\/a> (AL25), U.S. Africa Command\u2019s largest annual combined joint exercise. Vandeventer, a logistics officer assigned to the 79th Theater Sustainment Command (Forward)<\/a>, U.S. Army Reserve, based in Vicenza, Italy, and Vandevick, a key member of the exercise\u2019s mayor cell assigned to the 561st Regional Support Group<\/a> in Elkhorn, Nebraska, are sharing a rare opportunity to serve together while supporting multinational training at Centre d\u2019Entra\u00eenement Tactique 2 (CET2) in Dodji.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s iteration of AL25 emphasizes readiness, interoperability and relationship-building to enhance warfighting capabilities among partner nations. In that spirit, the Vandeventer siblings reinforce a core principle of the exercise: strong teams are built on trust, collaboration\u2014and sometimes, family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started off as a joke over Thanksgiving,\u201d said Vandeventer. \u201cI told Stuart, \u2018Hey, your new unit falls under mine now. Want to come to Senegal?\u2019 But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as a joke soon turned into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve both been in the Army for over 19 years,\u201d said Vandeventer. \u201cBut we\u2019ve never actually worked the same mission\u2014until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vandevick quickly accepted the offer.<\/p>\n

Tasked with overseeing base operations and sustainment efforts as part of the mayor cell, his responsibilities complemented his sister\u2019s strategic role in managing logistics at the operational level. Together, their coordination added a personal dimension to an already complex multinational effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Carolyn here makes the mission more personal,\u201d said Vandevick. \u201cIt underscores how building trust and close relationships\u2014whether with a sibling or a multinational partner\u2014is essential to overcoming challenges and getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their shared experience also illustrates the broader objective of African Lion: strengthening ties and improving readiness across allied and partner forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrican Lion thrives on personal connections that reinforce military cooperation,\u201d said U.S. Army Col. Matthias E. Greene, the senior U.S. officer for AL25 in Senegal. \u201cHaving siblings serve side by side underscores our emphasis on building genuine partnerships at every level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Senegal, AL25 featured field training exercises, live-fire ranges and medical readiness operations conducted by troops from C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Senegal and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Across the wider theater, more than 10,000 participants from over 50 nations took part in coordinated activities across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Vandeventer said having her brother nearby was both operationally useful and personally meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019ve both been in the Army a long time, working together here has felt natural,\u201d she said. \u201cHe understands how the mayor cell functions from his background in a regional support group, and that\u2019s helped me tremendously. We\u2019re in sync in a way only siblings can be\u2014sometimes it feels like we can read each other\u2019s minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the mission, she says, the deployment offered something even rarer: time together.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than Thanksgiving, I hadn\u2019t seen him in years,\u201d she said. \u201cServing overseas, I don\u2019t get many chances like this. Getting to video call our parents from the same place\u2014from a continent away\u2014was something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their bond hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the dining facility or the tactical operation center (TOC) will see us interact and ask someone nearby, \u2018Wait, are they related?\u2019\u201d Vandevent said, laughing. \u201cThe looks on their faces are priceless. I\u2019ll give Stuart a big bear hug\u2014definitely not standard between a field grade officer and an NCO\u2014and we\u2019ll both say, \u2018Yes way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

African Lion 25 reinforces U.S. and partner nations\u2019 readiness and collective resolve to ensure peace through strength.<\/p>\n

About African Lion<\/strong><\/p>\n

AL25, the largest annual military exercise in Africa, brings together over 50 nations, including seven NATO allies and 10,000 troops to conduct realistic, dynamic and collaborative training in an austere environment that intersects multiple geographic and functional combatant commands. Led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) on behalf of the U.S. Africa Command, AL25 takes place from April 14 to May 23, 2025, across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia. This large-scale exercise will enhance our ability to work together in complex, multi-domain operations\u2014preparing forces to deploy, fight and win.<\/p>\n

About SETAF-AF<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) prepares Army forces, executes crisis response, enables strategic competition and strengthens partners to achieve U.S. Army Europe and Africa<\/a> and U.S. Africa Command<\/a> campaign objectives.<\/p>\n

Follow SETAF-AF on: <\/strong>Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> & DVIDS<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) DODJI, Senegal \u2014 For many service members, participating in an international military exercise can feel like joining a larger, multinational family. For U.S. Army Maj. Carolyn Vandeventer and her younger brother, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Stuart Vandevick, that sentiment is literal. The siblings were both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=534217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534218,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534217\/revisions\/534218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=534217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=534217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=534217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}