Photo By Staff Sgt. Joshua Joseph Magbanua | Turkish Air Force Brig. Gen. Fidan Yuksel. Third Main Jet Base commander (right),...... read more read more
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KONYA, Turkey—
After two weeks of launching sorties and simulating dogfights, Exercise Anatolian Eagle 2019 came to an end. The Airmen participating represented several nations including Turkey, the U.S., Pakistan, Jordan, Italy, Qatar, Azerbaijan and NATO, said their goodbyes during a closing ceremony.
The great irony of fighting made-up wars such as those presented in the exercise is that they often produce real friendships. For those in attendance, it was a bittersweet ending to two weeks of sharing everything from warfighting expertise, unit patches, email addresses, cups of tea and childhood stories.
“This training has improved interoperability among friendly forces,” said Turkish air force Brig. Gen. Fidan Yuksel, Third Main Jet Base commander. “This has also widened and deepened cooperation among our countries. It was an honor for us to host you in Turkey, and we hope to see you again in future training events.”
Yuksel added that the exercise was designed to benefit the combat readiness of all parties involved.
“I believe the experience gained from this training will help us all be prepared to respond to any challenges in the future,” he said. “I hope all participants have learned something from this training, and they will continue to practice what they have learned here for the past two weeks.”
Over the course of the exercise, fighter pilots trained in various tactical maneuvers and did their best to defeat each other in simulated conflicts. They also trained on overcoming enemy air defense systems and targeting high-value assets.
It was not just an exercise for the pilots though, because Anatolian Eagle also gave Airmen from other trades such as maintainers, weapons and munitions crews, logistics troops, communications and security forces a chance to sharpen their skills.
Lt. Col. Ryan Lippert, the detachment commander of the U.S. contingent during Anatolian Eagle, said he was impressed by the performance of his team during the exercise.
“From the day we got here all the way to the last stretch of the exercise, their performance has been phenomenal,” he said. “It’s been an exceptional honor to be part of such a great team.”
Lippert said countries do not play alone in the game of global security. Because of this, the U.S. continually builds alliances and partnerships with other nations to secure peace, he added.
“The U.S. doesn’t do anything alone; we need our allies and partners to ensure we can meet our strategic objectives,” he said. “Because we are part of a greater team, our allies such as Turkey help us keep borders safe—at home and around the world.”
While Anatolian Eagle 2019 ended, the need for continual learning and international cooperations will continue.
Lippert expressed his optimism that U.S. alliances and partnerships will continue to shine for years to come.
“I see our international friendships prevailing in the future,” Lippert concluded. “Exercises like Anatolian Eagle show that our interoperability is key in order to achieve success in a rapidly-changing political environment—it’s one team, one fight.”
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.26.2019 03:49 |
| Story ID: | 330172 |
| Location: | KONYA, TR |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Friendship prevails at Anatolian Eagle 2019, by SSgt Joshua Joseph Magbanua, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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