Army Pvt.2 Eric M. Lemke, 23, of Champlin is a cavalry scout with the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany, and has worked with the Joint Task Force - East in Romania and Bulgaria. He is being deployed to Afghanistan in spring 2010 for reconnaissance work. Photos by Air Force Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo

For now the days are mostly the same for Eric Lemke, 23, of Champlin. Get up early, run about five miles every morning, maintain and work on U.S. Army strikers and clean and maintain weapons to be full functional.

But when Army Pvt. 2 Lemke returns home to his family this Christmas in Champlin he hopes to change things up and sleep-in and eat some home cooked meals.

The 2004 Champlin Park High School alum has been stationed in Vilseck, Germany with the U.S. Army for the past 10 months. When he's not training or working with other foreign soldiers, Lemke likes to travel.

"It's nice seeing different cultures," Lemke said. "There's definitely been a language barrier, but some places are pretty good and many of the younger people speak English."

So far Lemke has been around southwest Germany and Austria. He's also worked in Bulgaria and Romania with foreign armies supporting the efforts of the Army's East Joint Taskforce, a multi-national taskforce designed to make stronger allies of Romania and Bulgaria.

Lemke has been working as a cavalry scout with the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regimen at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania.

According to an Air Force and Army press release, the Taskforce operation hones soldiers' skills from all three nations and helps the people living in some of the poorest areas of the two European countries.

Soldiers from all three countries trained together with armored vehicles, a variety of weapons and combat lifesaving skills. They also practiced the coordination needed to go into and clear a hostile urban area. Soldiers took time to visit a number of local villages and allowed children to explore the vehicles they were using.

"It was really different," he said of working with other armies. "We got to see their equipment and see how it worked. I remember one time we did a route reconnaissance into a couple Romanian cities, which was cool to go into cities where people would wave at you."

Lemke said some of his work in Germany now is learning Scout skills for future reconnaissance work in Afghanistan.

"Reconnaissance is observing the enemy from a distance and reporting on what we see to higher command who makes an accurate decision on how to deal with the enemy," Lemke said. "Scout skills hasn't been done in a few years and none of that was done in Iraq."

Lemke said being in the military is a totally different lifestyle than civilian life.

U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment show children in Babadag, Romania the gear and vehicles they are training with. The soldiers include Army Pvt. 2 Eric M. Lemke, 23, of Champlin. Lemke is a 2004 Champlin Park High School graduate.

"Army life is very, very structured; you got to be here at this time," he said. "When we're out into the field we're working non-stop with only a few random moments of down time otherwise."

Lemke said he joined the Army to have a good job and solid paycheck. None of his family or friends has served in the military.

"What's rewarding being in the Army is the education and training you get," he said. "It keeps you in shape plus you have the availability to be able to travel."

Besides family, friends and food, Lemke also misses his old car, a Pontiac Grand Prix GT. When he comes back home for good, hopefully in February 2012, Lemke would like to pursue a career in painting cars and go to school for that. He was studying art at Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park before going into the Army.

Lemke will be deployed to Afghanistan this coming spring and isn't concerned about deployment.

"We've been training hard and I'm confident we know our job well," Lemke said.

For now he keeps in touch with loved ones via phone and Internet and is grateful to talk with them as much as he can.