Photo By Staff Sgt. Andrew Valenza | U.S. Army Soldiers with Task Force Spartan, meet with Soldiers of the Kuwait Air Force...... read more read more
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ARIFJAN, Kuwait —U.S. Army aviators from Task Force Spartan met with Kuwait Air Force personnel to continue strengthening relationships between military forces, Sept. 22, 2020.
The meeting marked a significant milestone in the U.S./Kuwait relationship as it was the first time the Kuwait Air Force was able to see firsthand how U.S. forces operate out of the Udhari range.
Lt. Col. Paul Bailie, the Task Force Spartan Aviation Officer, met with Director of Kuwaiti Air Force Operations, Col. Muhammed Alhamdan, which also included a tour of the Udhari flight complex.
“This is the first time that anyone was able to get the Kuwaitis to Udhari,” said Bailie. “We were also able to show them the air routes by flying out and demonstrating in the altitudes that we operate, the density of the population for that area, and also a direct correlation with that is how long it takes to go around everything, versus the return flight home.”
When U.S. and Kuwaiti forces got on the ground, a brief meet and greet was held to introduce the incoming team of aviation officers from the 36th Infantry Division.
Following that, the Task Forces Spartan hosts oriented the Kuwaiti personnel to the Udhari flight line’s tower and radio station.
“[The Kuwaiti’s] got a tour of the control tower and how they operate and control the class Delta airspace or the airspace over the range complexes,” said Bailie.
For Bailie, this meeting of partners served two purposes: strengthening both nations' ability to deter aggression and strengthening the U.S. military’s existing alliance with Kuwait.
“This directly correlates with building partner capacity by working together to operate in their controlled space,” said Bailie. “As well as try to take these meetings and convert them into further engagements that will lead to exercises.”
Alhamdan said he and his men also benefited from the meeting and interactions with their U.S. counterparts at Uhdari.
“It helped us a lot to understand what’s going on here, and to interact and communicate with the nationals here,” said Alhamdan. “We are building up bridges to build and extradite our processes faster and smoother in the future.”
Both Bailie and Alhamdan spoke about the friendship shared between each nation and the respect involved in that friendship.
“[Alhamdan] had stated that Kuwait and the United States are friends, and friends respect one another,” said Bailie. “These engagements were used to build trust with one another.”
“I’m seeing the friendship and trust growing tighter between us because of these types of events,” said Alhamdan. “It shows a lot for building trust.”
| Date Taken: | 10.02.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.07.2020 01:52 |
| Story ID: | 380403 |
| Location: | (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Web Views: | 111 |
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