Photo By Spc. Abreanna Goodrich | Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, conduct a medical subject matter expert...... read more read more
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FORT MAGSAYSAY, Philippines—During the first iteration of this year’s annual Salaknib bilateral exercise, service members assigned to the United States Army Pacific and the Philippine Army’s 5th and 7th Infantry Divisions participated in multiple subject matter expert exchanges (SMEE) across several key functional areas to increase interoperability between the participating forces. The information and experiences gathered from these exchanges serve as a means of training and bolstering our decades-old alliance through people-to-people connections.
Salaknib is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. Military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation, which have been built over decades of shared experiences.
The SMEEs executed during this iteration of Salaknib 2024 include medical training, air traffic control, weather capabilities, vehicle operation instruction, night training capabilities, and sniper tactics, among various preparatory classes taught before hands-on training.
The exchanges included support from various units across the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division and the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. The U.S. military’s support is enduring throughout not only the Army but all branches.
“Having the opportunity to establish a collaborative working relationship with the Philippine weather counterparts and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) personnel felt very rewarding,” said 1st Lt. Olivia Pease, U.S. Air Force Staff Weather Officer (SWO). “We’re able to give them insight into our job and also showcase how our team of Air Force personnel works jointly to support the 25th Infantry Division during Operation Pathways.”
Partnerships between different branches of the U.S. Military, and our Philippine partners are essential for maintaining versatile and efficient training operations that increase our interoperability while leveraging each other's capabilities that can be applied to real-world missions.
Those SMEEs provide a unique and lasting engagement between the Philippine and U.S. armies, developing relationships through information, training, and partnership.
“Our partnership is incredibly important. If we had to fight tomorrow, there would have to be interoperability, and working together is key,” said 1st Lt. Ethan Davis, an Infantry officer and platoon leader assigned to Comanche Company, 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
“Working with the Philippine Army has been a pleasure. We have gained a greater understanding of methodology and procedures, familiarizing ourselves with how we operate and tying everything together,” said Davis. “This allows us to work better together and leads to more favorable outcomes in potential contingency operations.”
The enduring alliance between the U.S. and the Philippines, built on mutual respect and common strategic goals, affirms our countries’ dedication to ongoing collaborative training efforts, both currently and in the future.
“For our Army, Being a part of Salaknib is very important and helpful, as we are able to take lessons learned from all the exchanges we were taught with our United States partners and transition and use them to real-life operations,” said 1st Lt. Bernie Tomines, 15th Scout Ranger Company Executive Officer assigned to First Scout Ranger Regiment.
Future exercises in the Philippines, such as Balikatan, will build on the foundation set by the SMEEs conducted during Salaknib 2024 and showcase additional joint operations at a large scale.
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2024 13:02 |
| Story ID: | 469020 |
| Location: | FORT MAGSAYSAY, PH |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, U.S. - Philippine Allies Connect Through Subject Matter Expert Exchanges, by SPC Abreanna Goodrich, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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