Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Justin Silvers | Royal Thai Army Sgt. Attapon Pongtub, a team leader with the 3rd Long Range Patrol...... read more read more
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KORAT, Thailand - Royal Thai Army soldiers with the 133rd Infantry Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment and U.S. Army Soldiers from 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, gathered together to take part in jungle training Feb. 12 at Camp Friendship, in Korat, Kingdom of Thailand.
During the training, The U.S. and Royal Thai Soldiers learned a variety of skills to help them survive in the jungle, including how to trap wildlife, how to find sources of water, and how to start a fire using their jungle surroundings.
The jungle training is one of many training events during Exercise Cobra Gold 18, which provides a venue for both United States, allied, and partner nations to advance interoperability and increase partner capacity in planning and executing complex and realistic multinational force and combined tasks for operations.
The training the Soldiers experienced was part instructional and part interactive, with Soldiers first learning the steps and equipment required to carry out each particular task, then being given the opportunity to carry out the task on their own, with support when needed. The jungle training also helped Soldiers to identify edible vegetation, and wildlife that they may encounter in the jungle.
U.S. Army Pfc. Alex Davis, an infantryman with Delta Co., described some of the skills they learned during the training.
“We learned how to make fire out of bamboo and kindling, we learned how to make traps using banana rope and also learned how to cook a rat,” said Davis. “That was pretty interesting, that’s not something you learn back in the states.”
During the training, Davis also volunteered to be the first Soldier to sample some of the food they might encounter in the jungle.
“I wasn’t nervous trying out the different foods; I’m the kind of guy that volunteers for everything,” said Davis. “When I first tried a plant, it was very bitter and had to spit it out, but I tried a few beans and berries too, and overall I ended up with a coconut to wash it all down, so that was the highlight.”
For Davis, out of all the skills they were taught during the training, learning to build a fire stuck out the most to him, but for U.S. Army Sgt. Dilon Sawyers, a squad leader with Delta Co., learning the various means to get water from their surroundings was the most valuable skill he learned.
“We learned how to familiarize ourselves with the wildlife and the local plants and vegetation, but the most beneficial training was learning the various resources for water,” said Sawyers. “We learned how to get water from the banana plant and figure out different ways to get water other then streams and bodies of water.”
Cobra Gold is an annual exercise conducted in Thailand held from Feb. 13-23 with seven full participating nations. Now in its 37th iteration, the exercise is designed to advance regional security and ensure effective responses to regional crises by bringing together a robust multinational force to address shared goals and security commitments in the Indo-Pacific region.
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.17.2018 03:22 |
| Story ID: | 265802 |
| Location: | TH |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
This work, Cobra Gold 18: Thai, U.S. armies conducts jungle survival training, by SFC Justin Silvers, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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