Photo By Sgt. Mary Calkin | U.S. Marines watch as Royal Thai Marine instructor shows off a snake during Cobra Gold...... read more read more
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American and Royal Thai Marines watch with excitement as the instructor demonstrates how to eat various plants and live animals native to the Thai jungle. The soaring temperatures in the jungles of Chantaburi Province, Thailand seem to have little effect on the Marines of Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.
United States and Thai Marines came here to train together and left with knowledge that will help them survive in the most extreme conditions. They are participating in the 38th annual Cobra Gold Exercise, which increases cooperation, interoperability and collaboration among partner nations in order to achieve effective solutions to common challenges.
Lance Corporal Brendan Gallagher, a rifleman from Aurora, Colorado, assigned to the 31st MEU, joined the Marines for this kind of opportunity.
"I wanted a unique and challenging experience, that's why I joined the Marines," said Gallagher. "This is really cool, training in the jungles of Thailand is a different experience."
This is Gallagher's first deployment with the Marines, and the first time he's traveled outside of the country in uniform.
Gallagher sees the benefits of these types of trainings, and learning how to survive in extreme situations.
"If we were ever to come into a jungle environment and face threats, it is really good to know how to survive," explained Gallagher. "It is great to work with other countries, learning what other people know, sometimes they know things we don't and we can help each other by sharing knowledge."
This training involves instructors showing students how to get nourishment from plants and wild animals local to Thailand.
"I joined the jungle survival program because I wanted to give knowledge to other people," said Chief Petty Officer 1 Phairoj Pransansai, a Royal Thai Reconnaissance Marine and jungle survivor instructor.
Pransansai has been an instructor for 27 years and has trained more than 20,000 service members from America and South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and Japan.
Marines were cheering each other on as they tried various plants, ranging from pineapples to flowers.
"I ate most of the plants and meat," said Gallagher. "I also drank the cobra blood."
The main part of the training involved drinking cobra blood, which is a hydration source that be used in survival situations.
"Americans train in lots of different places," said Pransansai. "When you guys have a tough situation in the jungle, you guys have to know how to survive."
"If you are lost in the jungle, it is hard to find clean water," he explained. "The cobra is easy to find and you can survive from drinking the blood."
The Marines of the 31st MEU will board their ship and sail home later this month.
"Meeting new people, a new culture, and a new way of living, it's opened up my eyes," said Gallagher. It's made me a more diverse person."
Exercise Cobra Gold demonstrates the commitment of the Kingdom of Thailand and the United States to our long-standing alliance, promotes regional partnerships and advances security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
| Date Taken: | 02.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.18.2019 10:32 |
| Story ID: | 311048 |
| Location: | CHANTABURI, TH |
| Hometown: | AURORA, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 356 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Cobra Gold 19: US and Thai Marines learn to survive in the jungle, by SFC Ron Keenan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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