Missouri Airmen play key role in largest international military exercise

By: Bridget Zorn
Missouri National Guard Public Affairs
UTAPAO, Thailand (Feb. 8, 2010) - Royal Thai Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Sing Lee and Lt. Col. Kriangsak Lappaisan, along with St. Louis native, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Aaron Smoller, coalition force air commander liason,157th Air Operations Group, Missouri National Guard, listen to a conference call using a distributed communications system called Defense Connect Online at Contingency Command Post during Cobra Gold 2010. Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint and multinational exercise hosted annually by the Kingdom of Thailand. This year marks the 29th anniversary for the exercise, which consists of a Global Peacekeeping Operations Initiative Exercise, Command Post Exercise, Humanitarian Civic Assistance projects and field training exercises. (Official photo by U.S. Army Spc. Lyndsey R. Dransfield)
UTAPAO, Thailand - Missouri Air National Guard members from the 157th Air Operations Group in St. Louis joined allies from around the world to participate in the 2010 Cobra Gold exercise in Utapao, Thailand earlier this month.

The 157th had a crucial role in this year's Cobra Gold exercise, which is the largest multinational exercise in the world. The 157th led the air component planning that drove the interaction with the U.S. Army Pacific Command's contingency command post. The exercise was an opportunity for the Missouri Airmen to work closely with active duty Army and Air Force troops as well as allies, said Col. Rick Chapman, chief of combat plans division.

"During the exercise, our main goals were to provide realism for the training audience, and build lasting, professional relationships with our Thai and Singapore counterparts," Chapman said.

Maj. William Layton, a member of the 157th's plans and exercises division, worked diligently for months with Army and Air Force Pacific command exercise planners to coordinate requirements, identify resources and fill the exercise requirements. He was awarded the Joint Service Achievement Medal for his efforts, which resulted in a realistic training scenario and successful exercise in which approximately 20 of the 157th's intelligence and operations professionals participated.

"U.S. Army Pacific was tasked with forming a combined task force, developing a campaign plan and synchronizing the execution of that plan," Chapman said. "Our coalition team replicated everything that happens within an area operations center to provide the direction, response and feedback needed to accomplish their mission and demonstrate what the air component brings to the joint and coalition fight."

Normally, an area operations center involved in a major exercise is manned with approximately 400 personnel. Because the 157th's involvement was to simulate a fully operational area operations center rather than operate as one, a much smaller contingent - approximately 40 American, Thai and Singaporean Airmen - performed the roles.

Maj. Chaz Palmer, 157th targeting effects team chief, was 'coined' for his superior performance by Maj. Gen. Francis Wiercinski, commanding general of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps (Forward).

"To integrate with a staff and coalition partners with whom we haven't worked with before and perform all the tasks with significantly less manpower to do the work was a challenge," Chapman said. "You had to be on top of your game."

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