U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew Haines, a mortarman with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, assigned to Black Sea Rotational Force (BSRF) 14-2, fires a Romanian AK-47 assault rifle May 13, 2014, during a live-fire exercise as part of Platinum Lynx 14-5 in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania.
Platinum Lynx was a bilateral exercise between U.S. Marines and Sailors and Romanian Land Forces soldiers designed to build familiarity and interoperability between the U.S. and its Romanian allies through squad- and platoon-level infantry training. BSRF is an annual multilateral security cooperation activity between the U.S. Marine Corps and partner nations in the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions designed to enhance participants? collective professional military capacity, promote regional stability and build enduring relationships with partner nations. (DoD photo by Lance Cpl. Scott W. Whiting, U.S. Marine Corps/Released). Original public domain image from Flickr