US Soldiers participating in a week-long road march through Europe as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve took some time off to celebrate their faith with their Slovak counterparts:

“I often say that the relationship between Slovakia and the United States is manyfold we are friends, we are partners and we are also allies and an exercise

such as this demonstrates all three of those relationships,” [said Rudolf V. Perina, the charge d’ affaires for the U.S. Embassy in the Slovak Rep]…

The following day, Stryker Soldiers participated in a U.S. led Mass, in observance of the Slovak national holiday the Feast of the Lady of Seven Sorrows and participated a soccer tournament between the U.S. and Slovak Soldiers.

The US military generally does an admirable job of protecting the rights of service members to practice their faiths, even in the midst of major exercises, even when the religious practice is done in concert with locals, and even when the faith of US service members is counter to the faiths of locals.

Photo caption: U.S. Soldiers…join their Slovak counterparts to a Mass Sept. 15 at Malacky Air Base, in the Slovak Republic, in observance of the Feast of the Lady of Seven Sorrows, a local national holiday… (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Sharmain Burch, 2nd Cavalry Regiment Public Affairs)

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