Photo By Sgt. Andrew Jones | Marines from Marine Aircraft Group 12 and Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 ride in a...... read more read more
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KORAT AIR FORCE BASE, Kingdom of Thailand (Feb. 14, 2018) – U.S. Marines from Detachment B, Marine Air Control Squadron 4, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251 “Thunderbolts,” and elements of Marine Aircraft Group 12 from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, arrived at Korat Air Force Base, Kingdom of Thailand, to join in Exercise Cobra Gold 2018, Feb. 8.
Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 “Sentinals,” another MCAS Iwakuni unit, arrived in Korat prior to the main body in order to prepare to support Marine units.
VMFA-251, an F/A-18C/D Hornet squadron, assigned to MCAS Iwakuni through the Unit Deployment Program, is originally from MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina.
The units from MCAS Iwakuni are scheduled to work alongside the Royal Thai Air Force during the 37th iteration of the Thai-U.S. co-sponsored exercise with the purpose of increasing the interoperability between the partner nations, who have a long-standing alliance and commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific region.
“(Cobra Gold) helps us maintain a good relationship with allies and multinational partners,” said U.S. Marine Maj. Matthew Gaede, the operations officer of VMFA-251. “It is a lot easier to react to a situation and immediately integrate with someone that you have trained with before. Being out here and working with the Thai we essentially know them, we’ve built a relationship and a rapport with them. If anything happens and we find ourselves somewhere else integrated with them, we’ve already built those relationships and we can fall in on a scenario and execute the job.”
For many Marines, seeing the sights and training in Thailand is a first time experience.
“The number of Marines that have been to Thailand is very few,” said U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Adiana Snyder, the intelligence chief for VMFA-251. “Having the opportunity to come to Cobra Gold, with so many of the unit members that have never been here before, everybody is really excited.”
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.17.2018 05:37 |
| Story ID: | 265975 |
| Location: | KORAT AFB, TH |
| Hometown: | BEAUFORT, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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