Photo By Staff Sgt. Andy Martinez | A U.S. Marine with 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division jumps off a CH-53E...... read more read more
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U.S. Marines, Royal Thai Marines and Republic of Korea (ROK) Marines plunged into the Gulf of Thailand during helocast training in support of Exercise Cobra Gold 2018 at the Sattahip district in the Chon Buri province, Kingdom of Thailand, Feb. 12, 2018.
Cobra Gold 18 is an annual exercise conducted in the Kingdom of Thailand held from Feb. 13-23 with seven full participating nations.
“We are going to have ROK forces, Thai forces and U.S. Marines jumping out of the back of the helicopter into the water in order to exercise their tactical and technical proficiency training in that skill set,” said U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Robert Handley, with Heavy Marine Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 466. “It allows them to have the tactics, training and procedures necessary in order to smoothly execute that mission.”
Service members from participating countries boarded CH-53E Super Stallions and set out over the waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Marines with fully loaded packs leapt flippers first off the back of the helicopters as they swooped down to low levels above the water. They were then picked up by zodiac combat rubber raiding crafts and brought back to a landing zone to repeat the exercise.
“What an evolution like this does is it allows us to strengthen the bonds of friendship that we have between the United States as well as Thailand, Korean, Japan,” said Handley. “Basically we are in an alliance with these nations so it allows us to build a stronger bond in case anything does come down.”
They are training as if it were a real world disaster, said Lt. Cmdr. Melkin Polkote with the Royal Thai Marine Corps. The forces conduct this training to be prepared and ready to deploy in any kind of disaster.
When dealing with other nations, said Polkote, the language barrier is always a challenge. Part of the reason they train together is to create a bridge of understanding between the forces that allows them to react efficiently.
CG18, in its 37th iteration, advances regional security and ensure effective responses to regional crises by bringing together a robust multinational force to address shared goals and security commitments in the Indo-Pacific region.
“I am looking forward to my fellow pilots, my copilots, getting a lot out of this so one day when they have to execute this,” said Handley, “they step into that training role they can pass that skill set down to future generations.”
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 02.17.2018 03:38 |
| Story ID: | 265958 |
| Location: | SATTAHIP, TH |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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