Royal Thai Navy,
Malaysian forces and U.S. Navy Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction
Battalion 40 apply stucco to a wall of a multipurpose building at the
Wat Chalheamlap Temple School as part of Exercise Cobra Gold 2012, in
Chonburi, Feb. 1. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Carl Payne)
1st Lt. Lindsay
Pirek
Marines from the III Marine Expeditionary Force have
already begun humanitarian and civic assistance projects in Thailand
preceding the official kickoff of Exercise Cobra Gold 2012 Feb. 7.
CG 12 is the 31st iteration of an annual exercise
hosted in Thailand and is designed to advance regional security by
exercising a robust multinational force from nations sharing common
goals and security commitments in the Asia-Pacific region.
Multinational responses to regional contingencies are
likely to be the norm in the future. It is mutually beneficial for
friends and allies to train together to improve interoperability and
build friendly cooperative relations.
Full participating nations for CG 12 include
Thailand, the U.S., Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and
Malaysia. Several other countries have been invited to participate on
the multinational planning augmentation team, including Australia,
France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Italy, India, Nepal, the
Philippines and Vietnam.
U.S. Marine Corps Lt.
Col. Brian Clemens, deputy commanding officer, Combined Joint Military
Operations Task Force, Navy Mobile Construction Batallion 40, left,
speaks with Royal Thai Army Col. Chaimongkol Pralomram, right, at the
Wat Chalheamlap School in Chonburi. (Photo by Cpl. Jessica Olivas)
Throughout the exercise, U.S. military forces and
militaries from several other countries worldwide will conduct field
training exercises, involving live-fire training as well as a
noncombatant evacuation exercise, a command-post exercise, which will
serve as a certification event for a joint task force headquarters staff
by U.S. Pacific Command, and humanitarian and civic assistance projects,
some of which will contribute to current flood recovery efforts.
Additionally, senior leaders will meet together during the senior leader
seminar, sharing knowledge with one another and building relationships.
CG 12 will improve capability to plan and conduct
combined-joint operations, build relationships between partner nations
and improve interoperability across the range of military operations.
Total forces participating in exercise is
approximately 13,000.
The exercise is scheduled to end Feb. 17.
