Photo By Sgt. Steven Lee | Members of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team,...... read more read more
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LOP BURI, Thailand — Soldiers from the U.S. Army and the Royal Thai Army completed a joint Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) exercise on March 16, 2025. This exercise is part of a bilateral training known as Hanuman Guardian 25 (HG25), and it is meant to trade operational and combat skills between American and Thai armies.
During HG25, the American and Thai soldiers were split into two teams, each containing members from each military force. One team, the “Defenders,” was tasked with securing their positions and preventing a hostile takeover.
The other team was tasked to invade and conquer the rival team’s territory. This was done while attempting to master communication barriers between the two armies.
“It comes with its own struggles, I would say,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Cody Houchens with the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. “There's that language barrier and everything like that, but I think it’s– they’ve taught us things, and we have taught them other tactics and abilities to use when hiding ourselves in a jungle-type environment, especially coming from a mountain brigade.”
Exercises like HG25 are conducted to increase readiness and preparedness by mastering objective completion with minimum to no mistakes. While the U.S. Army and the Royal Thai Army did have language barriers, the motivation to continue to understand and communicate with each other was still there.
“The training I want to pursue is keeping the teams all together and learning too; teaching everyone that when you go to another country, it is easy to overcome that language barrier and to pull in your counterparts and everyone working together,” Houchens said.
Houchens explained while the armies face certain struggles in the field, it doesn't take away from the thrill of the training. The soldiers get to compete with their counterparts on opposing teams. It challenges the soldiers to show their skills and introduces friendly competition.
“The most adrenaline rush I would say is fighting against our adjacent unit, seeing how they react to us firing back at them,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Isaiah Morales, exercise acting platoon sergeant with the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
Morales is optimistic about growing the leadership and training between the American and Thai armies, concluding on what he hopes for in the future with their joint exercises.
“What I want to continue to train with the Thai is our interoperability, training together at the leader level, getting to know their platoon leaders, and how they work and what their maneuvers are on exercises,” Morales said.
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2025 10:04 |
| Story ID: | 494095 |
| Location: | TH |
| Web Views: | 81 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Hanuman Guardian 2025: Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain Training, by PFC Marcus Beason, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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