Photo By Tech. Sgt. Michael Smith | Members from the Royal Australian Air Force No. 1 Security Forces Squadron, U.S. Air...... read more read more
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Coming together and forming a successful team within your unit can be a difficult task to complete; doing this with other nations, services and squadrons can be an even tougher hurdle to get over. However, it became a necessity for the members of the first ever combined multinational security forces field training exercise within Cope North 2017.
The FTX brought together U.S. Air Force members from Andersen AB’s 736th SFS and Moody AFB’s 824th Base Defense Squadron, U.S. Army’s 8th Military Police Brigade, Royal Australian Air Force’s No. 1 SFS and even Japan Air Self Defense Force’s Air Defense Command to participate in a multiday jungle/urban training operation against opposing forces.
"This is the culmination of two years of engagements between the security forces of the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Air Force, said U.S. Air Force Col. Jon-Paul Mickle, Pacific Air Forces Chief of Security Forces Division. “For the first time in the Pacific we will be operating side-by-side to demonstrate interoperability across the full spectrum of operations, from humanitarian assistance/disaster relief to air base defense.
“It’s also a demonstration of our Air Force's Global Response Force capability as the 820th Base Defense Group deploys in to link up with the PACAF and RAAF. The location of the event at Guam and the participation by everyone involved mark this as the premier multi-lateral, joint and combined Security Forces exercise in the Pacific."
Cope North, beginning in 1978, takes place in a region of the world where more than a thousand languages are spoken, making it a keystone event to promote stability and security throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific by enabling regional forces to hone vital readiness skills critical to maintaining regional stability.
“I did notice a lot of differences, but a lot of similarities too, mostly with terminology,” said RAAF Leading Aircraftsman Bryce Searer, No. 1 SFS rifleman. “With the exchange of techniques, tactics and procedures if we were to do something like this in the future, which is very likely, it’s good to have training like this so we don’t have to go through the crawling and the walking phases. We can just jump strait into it without having to worry about the little issues.”
The field training itself was based around a scenario involving militia training local villagers into become opposing forces by using guerilla warfare type tactics, mortar strikes and improvised explosive devices. To complete the operation friendly forces had to successfully respond to a variety of task in the humid jungle environment of Guam.
“Anytime we have the opportunity to network and go outside of our own unit is great,” said Tech. Sgt. Timothy Gallagher, 824th BDS. “In this day and age, we are deploying with other countries and stationed in the same area as them, knowing how we both operate to complete the mission is a great thing all around.
“The language barrier took a little getting used to, but we all work fairly similar to each other so it wasn’t too bad. We learned a few things from them and they learned a few things from us. I think we should never pass up an opportunity like this to train side by side with other nations we may have to work with in future operations.”
According to Capt. Doug Dinkins, Air Force Installation & Mission Support Center, Detachment 2, the biggest objective was to ensure that there is a working relationship at the tactical level for any potential humanitarian aid, disaster response or contingency operation within the pacific theater.
“We are really excited we were able to bring these Airmen and Soldiers to Cope North 2017, integrate them side by side and allow them to understand how to operate together at the tactical level,” said Dinkins. “They were rock stars. They nailed their mission set, got the bad guy, got out of there and did it together on very little notice and very little sleep! they did a wonderful job. Were extremely impressed and want to see it grow and want to see it get better, and from here we can only get better.”
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2017 12:53 |
| Story ID: | 227853 |
| Location: | ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GU |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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