LOP BURI, Thailand – U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers from the 492nd Civil Affairs Detachment, Arizona, worked and learned alongside Royal Thai Army counterparts July 16, 2023 as part of Exercise Hanuman Guardian 2023.
Hanuman Guardian is an annual, bilateral army-to-army exercise hosted by the Royal Thai Army with elements from U.S. Army Pacific. HG is designed to improve humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities and enhance mission readiness and interoperability between the two armies while improving the quality of life in rural areas.
Unlike the typical controlled environment training exercise these Civil Affairs elements have a domestic-focused mission of maintaining and strengthening their relationship with the civilian population.
HG has allowed for collaboration between the two CA forces to learn from each other and from their own respective CA training and experiences, strengthening all Soldiers’ mission-critical skills.
As part of their cultural awareness training 492nd members were afforded the opportunity to participate in a religious briefing led by Capt. Yuttularn Subsuk, Chaplain of the Army Aviation Center, Royal Thai Army, alongside members of RTA civil affairs.
The briefing discussed a comprehensive overview of Buddhism, the most practiced religion in Thailand and an integral part of Thai culture, as well as relating the religion to Christianity, the most practiced religion in the United States. An understanding of similarities and differences between the two major faiths greatly helped the U.S. Soldiers not only understand local cultural considerations but also to discover ways to relate to the Thai civilian population on a personal level.
“Civil affairs, to put it in a nutshell… is interacting with the civilian population so that their way of life continues soundly while military operations are going on,” U.S. Army Sgt. Sam Lehman, 492nd CA Detachment said. “Civilian life is often affected when military operations occur, and we must try our hardest to look out for their best interests. Learning about and engaging with their culture is a major way to do that.”
The 492nd was active in Lop Buri, for more than a week as a part of the exercise.
“When it comes to the work for Thai CA soldiers, we also must understand our people so that we can become closer to them and help to make their lives better,” Master Sgt. 1st Class Piyapong Muikaew, civil affairs officer RTA 31st Infantry Regiment, said. “The reason we wanted to work with the U.S. civil affairs Soldiers to learn all these things is to help understand the local population’s problems from past to present so that we can work together to help our civilian people.”
The CA mission continued throughout the exercise while U.S. Army presence and operations continued in the region.
“As opposed to most of the troops who have been doing some of the live firing and working with the strikers, for example, we have the opportunity to go into town and be the actual public face of the U.S. Army,” said U.S. Army Capt. John McElligott, commander, 492nd CA Detachment. “A big takeaway for my troops, especially in this exercise, is understanding the complexity of going somewhere different in real life and how important civil considerations and relationship building with the local population are for mission success.”
The CA Soldiers utilized their time not only to minimize the impact of military operations on the civilian population but also to gather information and insight to continue improving the relationship between U.S. Army, RTA operations, and the Thai people for future iterations of Hanuman Guardian.
“We’ve gotten to converse, share experiences, and exchange cultures,” Muikaew said. “It’s been fun, and I’ve been pleased to participate in this exercise.”
| Date Taken: | 09.10.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2023 14:51 |
| Story ID: | 453082 |
| Location: | TH |
| Web Views: | 124 |
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This work, Civil Affairs Soldiers build positive relationships with local Thai population, by SPC Paul Blythe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
