FORT MAGSAYSAY, Philippines – When the U.S. and the Republic of the Philippines turned their efforts towards the Balikatan partnership nearly 30 years ago, one may not have imagined the growth of today’s personal and operational camaraderie at this year’s field training exercise.
U.S. and Armed Forces of the Philippines soldiers, designated as Combined Task Force 50-100th, conducted an early morning raid to capture Hilltop 142, which was infested with notional enemy role-players for the second consecutive day of training.
“The sustainment assault, action on contact and approaching the “enemy” objective improved from yesterday,” said AFP Sgt. Percival B. Mandopat of the 50th Infantry Battalion, 5th Infantry Division Training Unit.
The training objective was to defeat the enemy role-players in order to allow for a deliberate follow-on attack and defeat a potential enemy counterattack.
“I think the combined commands and combined assault worked out well,” said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Dan R. Moore, 2nd Battalion, 196th Infantry Brigade, and observer controller for the FTX. “These soldiers are big-time motivated.”
The mission started at midnight and by 8 a.m., it was time to conduct a verbal after-action analysis and get feedback from both observers and participants.
“We work good together,” said AFP Pfc. Romeo Ranon, infantryman of 50th Infantry Battalion, 5th Infantry Division. “The communication between the AFP and U.S. was good.”
“We did a lot better than yesterday,” said U.S. Army Pfc. Clayton S. Mahuka, an infantryman with 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry out of American Samoa. “We would still like to work on noise discipline and security.”
The end result of the eight-hour training mission was, however, the destruction of the enemy objective and an increased confidence in bilateral operations among the participants.
Balikatan is an annual exercise that helps the U.S. and the AFP militaries continue to build upon a high level of cooperation and interoperability. Additionally, the FTX activities enable the nations’ armies to train together and provide outreach to the local communities.