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This is what happened during a recent military exercise in which American soldiers trained Philippine troops to fight both a major foreign power and a band of insurgents.
Image: Philippine special forces during a military exercise on Lubang Island. Credit Jes Aznar for The New York Times
For years after World War II ended, four Japanese soldiers held out on Lubang, a speck of an island in the Pacific, refusing to believe that the fighting was over. Second Lt. Hiroo Onoda, the last soldier to surrender, walked out of the jungle in 1974 after his commanding officer went there and formally relieved him of duty.
I recently visited Lubang, where the new enemies on the island 93 miles southwest of Manila were the pressing heat, sporadic 3G cellphone service and a group of American soldiers based out of Washington State. The Americans were the “bad guys,” or opposing force, for the final training operation of the 12-day-long Balikatan, an annual military exercise between American and Filipino troops.
The choreographed event, which ended April 11, had all the fixings of an American joint-training exercise. Blank ammunition and Meals, Ready to Eat, all in the name of strengthening a decades-old alliance fractured when the Philippine government kicked American troops out of the country in the early 1990s and again in 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to end training operations like Balikatan.
Far from Lubang, northwest of the two beachside pseudo-resorts that Army Green Berets rented for their temporary barracks and a long way beyond the coral reefs that ring the island, lies China. Beijing’s aggressive expansion into the South China Sea and the subsequent fortification of a string of islands near the Philippine coast was the specter lingering undiscussed over the training exercise — a threat that both Washington and Manila are trying to counter.
Image: During the exercise, the Philippine troops were dealing with a foreign-power takeover and fighting extremist militants. Credit Jes Aznar for The New York Times
“If they were to have any small islands taken over by a foreign military, this is definitely a dress rehearsal that can be used in the future,” said Maj. Christopher Bolz, the Green Beret officer in charge of the American contingent, to a Singaporean news outlet. He pointed to a satellite image and explained where the helicopters would land on Lubang, while his soldiers went over the inner workings of a mortar tube with their Filipino counterparts.
But the next day, when American Green Berets from the First Special Forces Group, Australian Special Operations troops and Philippine commandos assaulted Lubang from the air and sea, the enemies on the ground were assembled like a band of insurgents, not a foreign army. The American troops from the 20th Infantry Regiment had taken hostages — local volunteers — at an airfield and a beachside village.
The exercise, planned last year at the request of the year-old Philippine Special Operations Command, seemed to aim for a one-size-fits-all approach to their military training. The Philippine troops were contending with a foreign-power takeover, all while fighting extremist militants, which signaled a recognition of the multiple adversaries that threaten the country: the encroaching Chinese military to the west and the resurging Islamic State in the country’s south.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Pondanera, the Filipino officer helping to coordinate the exercise, said that he hoped the training would help fix some of the issues that plagued his elite forces during the siege of Marawi in 2017, like Manila’s overreliance on the smaller, better-trained special operations units in lieu of regular foot soldiers force and a difficulty radioing in accurate airstrikes. The battle went on for months after Islamic State fighters took over much of the city, holding out against government forces and airstrikes before they were eventually routed.
“If they were to have any small islands taken over by a foreign military, this is definitely a dress rehearsal that can be used in the future,” said Maj. Christopher Bolz, the Green Beret officer in charge of the American contingent, to a Singaporean news outlet. He pointed to a satellite image and explained where the helicopters would land on Lubang, while his soldiers went over the inner workings of a mortar tube with their Filipino counterparts.
But the next day, when American Green Berets from the First Special Forces Group, Australian Special Operations troops and Philippine commandos assaulted Lubang from the air and sea, the enemies on the ground were assembled like a band of insurgents, not a foreign army. The American troops from the 20th Infantry Regiment had taken hostages — local volunteers — at an airfield and a beachside village.
The exercise, planned last year at the request of the year-old Philippine Special Operations Command, seemed to aim for a one-size-fits-all approach to their military training. The Philippine troops were contending with a foreign-power takeover, all while fighting extremist militants, which signaled a recognition of the multiple adversaries that threaten the country: the encroaching Chinese military to the west and the resurging Islamic State in the country’s south.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Pondanera, the Filipino officer helping to coordinate the exercise, said that he hoped the training would help fix some of the issues that plagued his elite forces during the siege of Marawi in 2017, like Manila’s overreliance on the smaller, better-trained special operations units in lieu of regular foot soldiers force and a difficulty radioing in accurate airstrikes. The battle went on for months after Islamic State fighters took over much of the city, holding out against government forces and airstrikes before they were eventually routed.
Image: The Americans were the opposing force for the final training operation of the 12-day-long military exercise.Credit Jes Aznar for The New York Times
But there were no training airstrikes during the attack on Lubang — just the rotor wash of helicopters and the sound of gear-laden Americans and Filipino troops navigating language barriers. During the beach assault, the American soldiers had some difficulty maneuvering around the jagged reef in their inflatable boats. On the airfield, the staccato of imitation gunfire brought some villagers to record the spectacle on their cellphones.
“Does any of you have a radio?” One Green Beret asked, shouting over the crack of paintball simulation rounds and blank ammo, to a pair of Filipino soldiers. They did not.
But there were no training airstrikes during the attack on Lubang — just the rotor wash of helicopters and the sound of gear-laden Americans and Filipino troops navigating language barriers. During the beach assault, the American soldiers had some difficulty maneuvering around the jagged reef in their inflatable boats. On the airfield, the staccato of imitation gunfire brought some villagers to record the spectacle on their cellphones.
“Does any of you have a radio?” One Green Beret asked, shouting over the crack of paintball simulation rounds and blank ammo, to a pair of Filipino soldiers. They did not.
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