AIBANO TRAINING AREA, Japan - Human interaction and perseverance are the key ingredients to the success of any operation. More than 715 soldiers from the 10th Regional Support Group, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery, 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii joined together with the Japan Ground Defense Force members from Middle Army’s 10th Division, 33rd Infantry Regiment during Orient Shield 12.
The 10th Logistical Task Force commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Lee, from the 10th Regional Support Group, Okinawa, Japan provides insight into the success during Orient Shield 12 by explaining his expectation and achievements during this field training exercise.
“My first expectation, is that everyone support the overall mission which is to provide logistical support to the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry. Second is that everyone come together and work together to focus on the one task and we have done a fantastic job doing that in very short period of time. My last objective is to complete the exercise safely with all personnel returning back to their respective home station.
Regarding our achievements and results is the fact we can take Soldiers from Washington State, Texas, Illinois, Hawaii as well as mainland Japan and Okinawa bring them together with a single task and focus. Regardless of their actual unit or locality we joined together under one single command all marching in the same direction to support a large mission, which is Orient Shield 12.
With close to 720 soldiers, I am pretty amazed and the American citizens should also be very proud of the fact that their sons and daughters as young as 18 and 19 years old can come over to a foreign country and represent not only the United States Army in the U.S. military, but the United States of America as ambassadors of good will working alongside our Japanese friends and allies.”
As I interviewed soldiers I found these characteristics and traits are representative of the words to live by theme which incorporates the Army core values.
The annual Orient Shield exercise is one of the foundations of U.S. and Japanese defense cooperation, and is U.S. Army Japan’s premier field training exercise.