Flying forges fast friendships

Photo By Spc. Brianne Kim | Airmen from the U.S. Air Force 35th Fighter Squadron (FS) stationed at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, participate in a flight exercise with the Royal Thai Air Force, February 20th, as part of Exercise Cobra Gold 17. Joined by the Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron-242, the three forces practiced defensive counter air tactics against mock enemies. “Basically we were defending a point against a set of [mock] enemy aircraft,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Matthew “Stab” Schuetz, 35th FS wingman. The two nations will be flying together all week conducting various training scenarios, building greater interoperability in planning and executing complex and realistic, multinational force and combined task force operations. (U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Brianne Kim)  

THAILAND

02.20.2017

Story by Spc. Brianne Kim 

122nd Theater Public Affairs Support Element

On February 20th, the Thai and U.S. Air Forces, along with the Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron-242, practiced defensive, counter-air tactics against mock enemies based on a scenario of enemy troops invading local areas.
“We were doing defensive counter-air,” said 1st Lt. Matthew “Stab” Schuets, 35th Fighter Squadron wingman. “Basically we were defending a point against a set of [mock] enemy aircraft.”
The crews split up into two teams for the exercise, one acting as friendly forces and the other as the enemy force.
We worked with four of the Royal Thai Air Force’s F-16s, and we were against the Marine F/A-18 Hornets and some other Thai F-16s, Schuets said. Overall there were eight versus six, so there was a lot of diversity in the air today.
Diversity within exercises ensures quality cooperation, interoperability and collaboration among participating nations in order to achieve effective solutions to common challenges. Greater diversity can also lead to greater challenges such as language barriers; however, obstacles such as these are easily overcome when allied nations share common goals.
“It’s kind of difficult at first with the language barriers but once you brief up the flight and get air born they’re just another F-16 pilot up there,” said Cpt. Bill “Easy” Garlisi, 35th Fighter Squadron wingman. “The fact that we can integrate with a country that speaks a different language is pretty amazing.”
Thai and U.S. forces have built a longstanding relationship over the past 36 iterations of Cobra Gold, giving both nations the ability to successfully integrate during training missions. It also shows the two countries commitment to working together in support of peace and security in the region.

• Date Taken: 02.20.2017
• Date Posted: 02.21.2017 03:33
• Story ID: 224116
• Location: TH