Cobra Gold 2009: Building trust high on the agenda

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An LCAC hovercraft roars into the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Essex in the Gulf of Thailand, during Cobra Gold 2009, an annual multinational exercise in Southeast Asia.


Cobra Gold 2009: Building trust high on the agenda
By Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, February 11, 2009

GULF OF THAILAND, Thailand — From its serene northern mountains dotted with Buddhist temples to the lowland coastal plains lined with coconut plantations, Thailand this week is covered with a thick haze and nearly 7,000 U.S. troops — joined by more than 4,000 others from Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore — who have come for the 28th annual Cobra Gold exercise.

After weeks of preparation, the joint, multinational exercise which ranges from amphibious assaults to humanitarian evacuations is under way at more than a dozen locations across the kingdom and over the sapphire blue waters off its famous tropical beaches.

As field exercises commenced this week, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, allowed Stars and Stripes to ride shotgun with him and USARPAC Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Zettlemoyer as they toured field sites with U.S. and foreign commanders.

For Mixon, this Cobra Gold has two objectives: to teach coalition warfare and provide tactical training. U.S. servicemembers of all ranks are working alongside Southeast Asian militaries to break down cultural barriers and build up trust in each other’s capabilities, he said.

"It’s all about relationships," Mixon said Monday, aboard his UC-35, an executive jet that brought the general from Joint Task Force headquarters in Chiang Mai to the southern Thai air base of Utapao. "If you don’t work through that, you’re not going to be able to do that on the fly."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60605