FORT RAMON MAGSAYSAY, Palayan City -- As an American KC-130, the US Armed Forces’ version of C-130, was about to touch down at the aviation runway here, Capt. Michael Smith narrated how the air vessel refuels fighter planes on air during combat operations.
Smith, of the tanker Squadron of the US Marines, heads a team of contingents from his unit based in
The “K’ for the KC-130, a Filipino officer explained, indicates that the huge aircraft is used for refueling aircraft in the air.
Smith said That KC-130 was brought for the exercises to further interoperability training for humanitarian and relief operations.
The aircraft touched down the runway 10 times as a Philippine helicopter was being secured by a number of heavily armed soldiers in a scene of relief and humanitarian mission in a disaster-ravaged area.
Cpl. Nick Oiomo of the California-based US Army National Guard, on the other hand, said his team has a remarkable experience in squad live fire maneuver at the Fernandez Hill here with Filipino soldiers from 808th Infantry Battalion of 2nd Infantry Division.
The Filipinos are using M-16 Armalite rifles while his contingents use M-4, basically the same but smaller version of the former, Oiomo said.
Filipino soldiers, he said, are speedy even as their maneuver tactics have slight differences, he said.
“We learned from them, they learned from us,” he added.
He said the exchange of information was vital in their interoperability exercises.
Filipino American Harol Cajucom, 21, who settled in the
He was born in
“We are learning from them,” he said.
First Lt. Rogecil Labajo, commanding officer of 808th IB, said his unit never had hard time catching up with the training that was facilitated by the
“Our troops are trained well so whatever difference our strategies had with those of our counterparts are easily patched up, we have the grasp,” Labajo said.
The "Balikatan" military exercises ends on April 19.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=516095
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.