Click here to view "Transforming U.S. Army Pacific" 
Courtesy of Association of the United States Army (AUSA)

        

	More than 300 steps lead to the legendary 638 year-old Wat Phra That Doi Suthep over looking the city of Chiang Mai Thailand, location this year's Exercise Cobra Gold 09.
	Sgt. First Class Stephanie Carl, U.S. Pacific Command, learns how to husk rice from her counterpart Lt. Col. Saniroj of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, at the Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Centre an initiative to improve the quality of life of the Thai people.

We have been here in Thailand for Exercise Cobra Gold now for almost three weeks.  This year's exercise, which runs from 4 February to 17 February, is taking place in the northern city of Chiang Mai, a beautiful mountainous city.  This year marks the 28th year of this exercise that brings U.S. and Thai military forces together to promote mutual understanding and to practice and validate procedures in forming an efficient and capable multi-national force staff and headquarters.

Thailand is one of our oldest friends.  For more than 175 years the U.S. has had ties with the Kingdom of Thailand.  In fact, the King of Thailand offered President Abraham Lincoln elephants to help cultivate the farmlands of a growing agricultural United States.

Exercise Cobra Gold 09 hosted five primary nations with participants from Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and U.S. military forces.   Additionally, observers and collation forces from more than 15 nations participated in CG09.  All in all, more than 11,000 participated in this year's exercise which included a staff exercise with a focus on advancing planning and execution of complex multinational operations.  The exercise also included a field training exercise that included the use of the Stryker Light Armored Vehicle, the first time this tactical vehicle has been introduced to Cobra Gold.

This dynamic exercise also included a UN Staff Exercise, a Global Peace Operations Initiative, Senior Leader's seminar, a Non Combatant Evacuation Exercise, and Humanitarian Civic Action projects that included the building of six engineering projects (schools and medical clinics) and seven medical capability exercises that provided medical, dental, and veterinarian services to hundreds of Thai citizens in locations throughout the Kingdom of Thailand.

Sharing of information and creating partnerships was the theme of CG09.  While this exercise provides an opportunity for all militaries to experience how the other forces use tactics, techniques and procedures, it also provides a rich environment to share personal accounts which develop mutual understanding of cultures.  Most importantly, we are collectively forging and in many instances re-forging friendships and partnerships with not only our Thai counterparts, but also with our Japanese, Indonesian and Singaporean counterparts.   It is this forging of friendships and partnerships at the individual level up through the ranks that will bear fruit down the road if we ever have to operate together in a real contingency.

Forging relationships provided the participants to learn about the beautiful culture of our host nation.  During our stay in Thailand, we had the opportunity to take a field trip to the Royal Development Study Centre of Huai Hong Khrai, one of six centers located throughout the Kingdom.  These centers, established by His Majesty the King, provide a one-stop-service where people can learn methods and techniques in various fields in order to learn occupational training which is appropriate for local conditions – each center serves as a living natural museum.

We also had the opportunity to visit one of the most important monasteries in Chiang Mai, the 638 year-old Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, located on a mountain top overlooking the city.  Here a dragon staircase with more than 300 steps leads to the sacred Wat where a relic of Budda is enshrined.

Exercise Cobra Gold demonstrates our collective ability to conduct combined/joint operations, which builds upon each nation's military forces strengths, but also demonstrates the strong and capable partners in this vital region.  The U.S. is committed to continuing these friendships and to maintaining stability and security in the Pacific region.

LTC Cynthia T

     

        

On Sunday, 8 February 2009, the Cobra Gold Headquarters in Chiang Mai,
Thailand conducted its weekly Chapel Service.  However, this was no ordinary service . . . a bearded civilian (third country national) Mr. Geoff Scholtens, entered the service and requested permission to speak to the congregation.  He stepped to the front and introduced himself as an non-governmental agency worker based out of China.  He and his family were visiting Chiang Mai for a conference and staying in the Lotus Hotel. 

During his stay, he was completely awe struck by the kindness, generosity, and altruistic behavior of the U.S. uniformed service members.  During the course of his family's visit, they (U.S. personnel) were very gracious, outgoing, and friendly with his children.  They purchased cookies and snacks for the children, and offered them various treats.  Additionally, they engaged in play activities while the children lingered in the lobby and jokingly conversed with the kids.

Emotionally driven and with tears beginning to fill his eyes, Mr. Scholtens stated, "I love you guys!"  And thank you so much for what you're doing here!!"  He was very brief, concise, and articulate.  My heart was bursting with pride, and as a Chaplain . . . for the first time in a long time, I found myself speechless.  Many young men and women join the military to make a difference and leave a lasting-positive impact on the nations they visit. For Mr. Geoff Sholtens (of China) and his family, the selfless service and humanitarian ambition of our young men and women in uniform became a reality!

MAJ Michael K

        

Michel Lemaire is the most unique, intelligent, and free thinker you could ever hope to meet.  I met Michel in downtown Ar Ramadi, Iraq in the spring of 2005.  To fully understand the relationship he and I share, I must explain how we came to become friends. 

At that time, the Anbar Provence was so dangerous that many contractors refused to service the coalition servicemembers bases.  When I say Anbar, I mean we lived with no life support of any kind from Fallujah all the way to the Syrian border.
 
Michel was born in Paris to a Lebanese mother and a French Father.  He grew up speaking Arabic and French.  As he progressed thru school, he learned German, Spanish and Portuguese.  In 2003, he left his PhD program in France to join the coalition support effort in Iraq with a large contracting firm.  After four long months of working for average pay and no excitement, Michel realized that there was millions of dollars changing hands every day and the quality of work that was being conducted was less than stellar.
 
In the beginning of 2004, Michel hired the help of several local nationals and began bidding on contracts providing services to the Marines and Soldiers based in areas that were deemed too dangerous for the BIG contracting firms.
 
Now that the region has stabilized and turned over to Iraqi control, he’s settled down here in Thailand and now lives on Phuket Island.  I’ve never met a civilian that cared more about the welfare and morale of the servicemembers he considers great friends.  He knows the lingo, he loves to share stories, and he risked his life on a daily basis in some of the most war-torn areas of Iraq just to make our live a little better.  I’ve been in convoys where my up-armored HMMWV was receiving high volumes of small arms fire and Michel was in the thick of it, driving a pump truck to empty a port-a-potty at an OP where Soldiers and Marines were rotating over-watch duties.
 
I’ve been lucky enough to have reunited with Michel here, in Thailand and he’s the same as ever.  He misses being with Soldiers and Marines, and he misses the thrill of the fight.  He doesn’t miss the danger, but he’s the kind of guy who can’t sit still for long. 

Michel is in Chiang Mai, visiting me during the ramp up to the Cobra Gold Exercise and he loves every minute of it.  He gets to interact with Marines and Soldiers, talk the lingo, and laugh with some people who understand (maybe not to the same degree) what he’s been through. 
It’s a special thing when you meet someone who cares about Soldiers the way he does.  He would do anything for you and he continues to do so today.
 
After the Cobra Gold 09 opening ceremonies, Michel will be flying to the United States for the first time in his life.  The best part of this story is that he’s not paying a dime for a hotel.  He’s staying (for two months) with friends he’s made during his time in Iraq.  He’s touched so many lives in that short time that people are willing to open their homes to him. 

If anyone deserves the chance to visit the United States, It’s Michel.
 
The world is a small place, and when you get to visit with a good friend, six thousand miles from home, it makes it seem that much smaller. 

CPT Dave E

        

The armed forces of Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, and the United States today announced their participation in the Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand from February 4-17, 2009. Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint and coalition multi-national exercise hosted annually by the Kingdom of Thailand.  Cobra Gold 2009 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security.  This exercise marks the 28th anniversary of this regionally significant training event. More Information

        

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan - U.S. Forces Japan and the Japan Ground Self Defense Force participated in a joint-bilateral exercise here Jan. 18-26. Exercise Keen Edge allows both countries to assess their ability during simulated crisis. More Information    View Video

        

Alright, alright, alright...

I almost want to say here we go again. In the information domain, Army
info experts play two sides during an exercise. One side is the notional or
game play of the exercise and the other side is the real world information
that gets onto TV sets and in newspapers across the world. So what do you
think? What is more important (from an info standpoint)- playing the game or covering the game?

Realistically we are supposed to be able to do both however, nothing is
perfect and one side always seems to be sacrificed. I often tend to
think that covering the game is more important. While it's not pure training,
by doing our jobs every day and getting news coverage of the event, we are
getting real work done and training for future events. It's like the
same argument of a guy who builds houses. As the guy is building the house,
he is inevitably learning lessons which he will apply to future jobs.

A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away I was in the medical field in
the Army. I used to run into this same dilemma - do I use my aid bag full of
bandages and cool medical stuff to treat imaginary wounds for training
or do I save my supplies in case someone really got hurt during the
training? There is an easier case for life and limb as opposed to info gathering
and so we saved our supplies.

I guess someone could just tell me what is more important and then I
wouldn't have to get this philosophical but it may not be a question I
want to ask or guidance someone wants to give. If we can never have a perfect
balance between notional role-play and real world, maybe there is no
answer in reality or notionally.

Alright, alright, alright...

MSG Goose

        

Thanks COL Wayne for the explanation of the Yama Sakura exercise it was very interesting. I never realized how critical these exercises are to prepare for an enemy attack or natural disaster anywhere in the world and to work in tandem with our allies Army's.

Thank you, the US Military and all our allies for keeping our freedom and making the world a safer place.

        

Exercise Yama Sakura is ongoing this week with the Japanese Army  (‘Japanese Ground Self Defense Force’ is the actual name).  Yama Sakura means ‘Mountain Cherry Blossom’ in Japanese.  Yama Sakura is a weeklong command post exercise (simulated war) which began on Dec 8th and runs through Dec. 13th at Camp Asaka, Japan, but people in Hawaii, Korea and the mainland US are participating also.  We have several thousand Soldiers participating from many different units and places.  Most are either from Hawaii or Alaska, but we also have many National Guard Soldiers from Colorado, Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah, Florida, Tennessee and Rhode Island.  It’s kinda ironic to start a major exercise the day after the Pearl Harbor attack anniversary with Japan who attacked us in 1941, but that’s how far our countries have changed over the past 60+ years - today, we are very close allies in the Pacific region.

 This exercise will test our headquarters as a Theater Army with three major command posts (or CPs for short) to control operations. You may be thinking what in the world is a Theater Army?  Well it’s a big organization with many headquarters – each with its own purpose, but all linked together so their actions are synchronized.  We have people who control all units across our area (about 50% of the world’s surface – lots of water, but it’s all surrounded by land (the main CP), one which looks at the current war (an operational CP in military-ese) and one part of the operational CP which can get on a plane and be anywhere in the Pacific in a matter of hours (we call that one the ‘early entry’ CP).  This all may seem like a lot of people telling a small group of Soldiers what to do, but it’s all about stuff and information.  Who has it; who needs it; and how can we get it there.  We also have units that control all the logistics (supplies and stuff), military intelligence (to see what the bad guys are doing or going to do), air defense (so we can fly our planes and not let them fly theirs, also shoot down any missiles destined to blow us up), communication (they are our AT&T, Time Warner, and Dish Network all rollup into one, telephone, computer and video – all where you want it, when you want it – and secure), medical (the folks who plan to get our docs where they need to be to treat our Soldiers with all the stuff they need to do it – and move them out of the area quickly so we can save lives).

 So you want to know what a simulated war looks like?   It’s not like an Xbox or GameCube, it’s Soldiers working on computers in various locations, planning and telling simulated forces what to do.  Then a really complex computer makes the calculations on what might have happened during an actual combat and sends the adjustments into the system so the Soldiers see realistic data.  This is large units, not individual Soldiers.  It kinda looks like moving boxes around on a digital map, but all those boxes have very complex meanings – say you have a tank unit – you have to feed, fuel and arm it with all the stuff a normal unit would need.  When something breaks or gets blown up, you have to order the parts to fix it.  They then make plans on what to do next, and recommend their best plan to the leaders.  Then they tell all the units what to do next.  This happens for every unit in the simulation.  The CPs get consolidated information from all the units and have to make decisions on changing the plan or fixing something in the system that isn’t working right.  This happens all over the world in all different time zones – in this case we have people at computers linked together in Japan, Korea, Hawaii and the mainland US.  All of this is secured on special networks so we can talk about classified stuff without worrying if our plans get out and put our Soldiers in danger because the enemy knows what we’re going to do.

 

COL Wayne S

 

        

Thanks

I'm thankful for life. Knowing we have a truly wonderful country to live
in, freedoms to enjoy, and great place to raise a family. I am proud to
serve an organization whose sole purpose is to protect and defend this great
country; whose values represent the best moral fiber of our society:
Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal
Courage.

I am thankful to so many things it is hard to list any, fearing I'll leave
one out. I am thankful for a rich soul, full of hope, optimism and
happiness.

I am thankful for every Solider, our civilian employees and their Families
who sacrifice so much during this extended period of seemingly unending
deployments to dangerous places.

You might become disillusioned with all the bad things in the world, but if
you have strength of heart and character, the world doesn't look so gloomy,
foreboding, or dangerous. Financial peril isn't running you off a cliff
like a lemming; it's offering you a long term investment in the future. We
need to be thankful for all our long term investments in the moral fiber of
this country, our families and in many places in the world where someone has
been offered hope instead of despair.

COL Wayne S