Photo By Ingyu Yoe | Capt. Nicolle Mathison and Captain Seon-Kyung Lee, public affairs augmentees...... read more read more
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USAG Humphreys, South Korea – Every year, United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea host Freedom Shield, a peninsula-wide, combined, joint, and all-domain training exercise that is defensive in nature and designed to enhance the readiness and interoperability of the ROK-U.S. Alliance. The exercise demonstrates the alliance’s ironclad commitment to deterrence, readiness, and the defense of the homelands while maintaining peace and stability in the region.
While the training and lessons learned are important to ensure the overall effectiveness of the exercise, this endeavor wouldn’t be nearly as successful or immersive without the assistance of augmentees, specialized service members and civilians who are brought in from other agencies to offer fresh insight and creative scenario injects that force the training audience to think outside box and adapt on the fly.
“Exercises like this are important, because in an ever changing environment, things can happen in a moment's notice, and there's still adversaries posing potential threats not only to the Peninsula, but to the U.S. as well,” said Mr. Dreshawn Murray, public affairs specialist working at the Department of the Air Force Air Education and Training Command. “Opportunities like these allow us to work with our South Korea counterparts to better our skills which in turn allows us to be ready for potential conflicts in the near future.”
For some participants, Freedom Shield may be their first experience working as a member of a joint staff with service members from allied nations.
“This is my first time in Korea, so it's been a really great opportunity to get to meet our ROK counterparts and work with different branches as well. There's been a lot of learning, and I've really enjoyed my time here,” said 1st Lt. Codi Clemmons, a public affairs officer with 354th Fighter Wing Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. “This experience can help me in the future because joint combined exercises really bring everyone together, bring our different ways of doing things so that we know how to work together for future exercises, future operations, and everything we're doing in the military.”
While the primary focus of the augmentees is to contribute to their respective staff sections, there is also the opportunity to immerse themselves in a new local and military culture.
“I would describe my time in Korea so far as very educational and very eye opening. Not only have a I learned a lot when it comes to my job, but I’ve also learned about South Korea in general, and our Republic of Korea counterparts are really nice,” said Senior Airman Audree Campbell, a public affairs specialistserving with 36th Wing Public Affairs. “The food is amazing. I went to the DMZ on a weekend, and it was very eye opening to learn that these aren't just things I've heard about in history textbooks, but that the events are still current and all these people have lives that are still affected by different things that are going on in the world. I would like to mention that part of what I do during the exercise is working with a ROK counterpart side by side. So, it's cool that I get to be right next to them when the press releases are beiing translated. I add English and they add the Hangul, and it's very cool to have us working together on quite literally the same page.”
Ultimately, the lessons learned, and bonds built during this exercise will enhance the combined team’s ability to work more cohesively and greatly add to the training value of future exercises.
| Date Taken: | 03.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2025 17:54 |
| Story ID: | 493066 |
| Location: | GYEONGGIDO [KYONGGI-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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