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YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, Wash. - Soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade, participated in Rising Thunder 2014 with members of 12th Brigade, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force at Yakima Training Center, Washington, Sept. 2-24.
Rising Thunder is an annual training event conducted between both U.S. and Japanese forces for the past 16 years.
The three-week training exercise consisted of urban assault courses, sniper classes and heavy artillery scenarios.
During training, the two forces observed and demonstrated their warfare strategies and practices to one another. The Japanese were able to utilize their heavy artillery on the ranges along with the U.S. troops.
On Sept. 8, B Company, 4-23 Infantry, conducted an urban assault course with members of the JGSDF and showed their Japanese counterparts the way they move to a location when engaging the enemy, clear rooms and maneuver through urban terrain.
“The way they go about their operations is very different than what’s natural to us,” said Spc. Kyle Clark, an infantryman with B Company.
Clark, a native of Indianapolis, worked as the radio transmission operator for the Japanese forces during Rising Thunder 2014. He received a rare opportunity to witness their tactics up close and was surprised by some of the differences in techniques between the two.
Capt. Corey Ritter, commander, B Company, said the objective for the day was to perform bilateral live-fire operations. He added that after JGSDF observed the U.S. go through the course they adjusted their own operations to resemble that of B Company’s.
B Company and the JGSDF spent the day going over battle drills and learning more about the approaches of their allies. Both units conducted rehearsals, blank and live iterations of the course, bounding, running and ducking through bushes and buildings. By the end of the day, every Soldier was covered in sand and exhausted from the course’s physical demands.
Ritter said there was a lot of work going on between the U.S. Soldiers and the Japanese forces and the relationship between the allies was strengthened because of the training.
Clark and Ritter agreed that exercises such as Rising Thunder are a good way to intensify the bond between the two forces, help fortify the alliance and can impact the outcome of battle. Both felt the joint training was a good way to sharpen urban assault skills for the infantrymen, and learn alternatives ways of conducting the drills.
“I hope to bring back the tactics I see on the battlefield and some of the standard operating procedures they have with communicating,” Clark said.
Clark believes the urban assault course and all of the training the two forces performed together throughout Rising Thunder 2014 built stronger bonds and created better trained Soldiers
for both the U.S. and Japan.
Rising Thunder 2014 was a rare opportunity for Soldiers like Clark and Ritter to learn about Japanese culture, teach Japanese troops of their own culture, and sharpen their infantry skills.
| Date Taken: | 09.08.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2014 17:34 |
| Story ID: | 142465 |
| Location: | YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, WA, US |
| Hometown: | INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Rising Thunder promotes unity and proficiency, by SGT DJ Borden, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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