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96th Enables Flight

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Cohen A. Young
  • Defense Media Activity - Hawaii
KORAT, Thailand --  A KC-135 Stratotanker crew refueled U.S. and Thai jets over Thai air space March 21 during Cope Tiger 2011.

The 96th Air Refueling Squadron, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, refueled four 44th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-15s and three F-16s assigned to Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base.

This is the 96th ARS's first big exercise since the squadron stood up last November.

"This has been an awesome exercise for me so far," said Senior Airman

Shane Williams, a boom operator with the 96th ARS. "It's an honor to stand up a squadron, but to be here and working with the 203rd ARS is great because of the experience that they have to offer at exercises like this one."

The 96th ARS is an active associate unit that works hand and hand with the 203rd ARS, Hawaii Air National Guard, which serves as the lead squadron in their Total Force Integration development.

An exercise like this one does present its fare share of challenges -- one of which is the language barrier that everyone has dealt with since there are three countries participating in Cope Tiger.

"The biggest obstacle is language, but we have a lot of standard processes in this exercise to make it flow smoothly," added Airman Williams. "Once we get pass the usual communication glitches, the training here is well worth it."

Cope Tiger is a multilateral joint exercise involving the United States, Thailand and Singapore. The exercise provides a quality venue to develop multilateral interoperability and coalition procedures in air power missions, to include air superiority, close air support, interdiction, electronic warfare, tactical airlift, aerial refueling and airborne command
and control.