Photo By Staff Sgt. Amber Edwards | Royal Danish Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rene Frederiksen, a targeting coordinator assigned to the...... read more read more
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Every participant at Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026 has a story.
Some have traveled thousands of miles to experience their first multinational exercise. Others arrive with years of operational experience, eager to exchange ideas with allies and partners from across the globe. While the RIMPAC social media team's “Faces of RIMPAC” series captures those participants one frame at a time, the conversations behind the camera reveal something a portrait alone cannot.
For Royal Danish Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rene Frederiksen and Royal Thai Navy Cmdr. Jakgrit Narktawan, RIMPAC has become more than an opportunity to refine military planning, it has become a lesson in perspective.
Frederiksen is serving in the Combined Task Force's future operations cell, helping coordinate long-range planning during the exercise. As a targeting coordinator, his work focuses on what comes next, ensuring planners across multiple organizations remain synchronized.
Although he regularly works alongside NATO partners, RIMPAC marked his first experience operating in such a large multinational environment.
"It's my first time in an international setting outside NATO," Frederiksen explained. "Everyone uses different procedures and different ways of doing things. You learn a lot from how others work."
Rather than viewing those differences as obstacles, Frederiksen described them as one of the exercise's greatest strengths.
“If you know one country, you know no country," he reflected.
"The only way to get perspective is to learn other methods and procedures," he said.
That exchange of ideas is exactly why Narktawan traveled from Thailand.
Serving as a maritime information operations planner with the Royal Thai Navy, Narktawan said his leadership specifically selected him to attend RIMPAC so he could observe how one of the world's largest maritime exercises plans, coordinates and executes complex multinational operations.
"My commander sent me here to learn something," Narktawan explained. "To bring the knowledge, to bring the experience back to our navy and develop the way we control operations."
Watching planners incorporate weather, cyber operations, politics and multiple operational domains into a single planning process offered lessons he hopes to carry home.
"The concepts are the same," Narktawan said. "But the details are different."
While both officers arrived expecting to learn professionally, many of their lasting memories have come away from the operations floor.
Frederiksen recalled evenings where participants from different nations gathered after work, sharing meals and conversations that extended well beyond military operations.
"The Americans have been very keen on making social events," he said. "Yesterday the Korean contingent made Korean barbecue. That was pretty impressive."
Those social events, he added, often proved just as valuable as those spent inside the command center.
Narktawan found himself equally surprised, not by procedures, but by people.
Having grown up watching American war movies, he admitted he expected U.S. service members to be much different than those he met during RIMPAC.
"They have good manners," he said. "They always say, 'Good morning,' 'Welcome,' Thank you.' They are very kind."
Outside of work, he has embraced Hawaii's beaches, hiking trails and local shopping while forming friendships with participants from across the Pacific.
For both officers, those personal connections have reinforced the purpose of multinational exercises.
Frederiksen said the professional relationships and cultural exchanges will remain with him long after RIMPAC concludes, while Narktawan hopes the knowledge he gained will help continue developing the Royal Thai Navy.
Despite representing nations of different sizes, both believe every participant has something meaningful to contribute.
Narktawan compared multinational cooperation to the old fable "The Lion and the Rat."
"We may be the rat," he said. "Sometimes when the lion has a problem, we can help the lion."
At RIMPAC, those lessons shared through planning sessions, conversations over dinner and friendships formed across cultures are the stories behind the faces.
Thirty nations, 30 ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 190 aircraft and more than 30,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands, June 24 to July 31. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2026 is the 30th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
| Date Taken: | 07.23.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 07.23.2026 20:08 |
| Story ID: | 570608 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 12 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Behind the Faces of RIMPAC: Participants share stories of partnership and perspective, by PO2 Savion Concepcion, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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