'Cobra Gold 2014' kicks off in Thailand

[luangtom]

And who is the blue dressed lady? A lost golf player ?

I believe that the article said that she was the US Ambassador to Thailand........

[sgtsabai]

I'd guess the lady in blue as perhaps an Ambassador. Hey 1st shirt, be glad to stand you a beer or 3 whenever I get back down to Sin City. Oh, my bad just remembered how pissed our Gunny used to get at "hey Gunny", referred us to the fact that he was not a horse and didn't eat hay, ah not very politely either...lol. Maybe that's why I have arthritis in my shoulder, from when he pinned my corporal stripes on.

[louse1953]

They should be doing something usefull, like driving the Chinese out of Tibet.

Too hard.Can't war with a country you owe your arse to.

[Publicus]

this year's drill, which is focused on humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation, as well as disaster relief.

Ominous. Humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation.

Do the planners know something about Thailand's future needs that we don't?

"Do the planners know something about Thailand's future needs that we don't?"

Looking at the world through farang colored spectacles again, hmm?

I think they're probably trying to establish links for possible future assistance FROM Thailand and ASEAN as the Eurozone and US economy continue to flounder.

Do try to keep up.

On second thought, do continue to remain out of contact with reality as I'll enjoy seeing you forever embarrass yourself.

U.S. Economy Will Trump China's in 2014

As for 2014, “it will be a year of economic shifts,” says Franklin. “A lot of the good economic news will come from the West. The emerging world will struggle a little bit compared to how it’s doing in recent years.”

Franklin says American corporations will dominate the business world next year, one of the reasons behind the “renewed momentum” of the West.

The most dramatic change from 2013 could be the reduced role of China in the global economy

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/the-world-in-2014-132712713.html

Edited February 12, 2014 by Tywais
Copyright image removed

[MyFriend You]

Used to be they came to Pattaya for R&R after the CG. Payday for bar girls.

But the taxi mafia wouldn't let the US sailors in to town

You have Pattaya mixed up with Phuket - they us a few hundred of these guys to Pattaya from Bangkok when allowed........

[Dap]

Used to be they came to Pattaya for R&R after the CG. Payday for bar girls.

But the taxi mafia wouldn't let the US sailors in to town

Pretty sure those were two different occasions.

[DogNo1]

Regarding the post WW II bit, many people don't know (or choose to ignore the fact) that Thailand was an ally of Japan during WW II.

[tomyummer]

They should have the drill in an urban environment like say.....Bangkok!

[heybruce]

They should be doing something usefull, like driving the Chinese out of Tibet.

Sorry, the U.S. wants to take a break from war. Is your country's military busy?

[kamahele]

Thailand one of the USA's oldest allies = must be referring to "post" WW2 surely ?

Well if you add prior to WWII and after WWII, yes. Thailand befriended the US during the 1860's. I think, even offered elephants to our government to help fight our civil war. President Lincoln, politely declined as the weather conditions in the USA might not be beneficial to elephants....

[kamahele]

You mean to tell me that these young guys could get slung in the brig for getting a shot of leg? No wunder our great leader is pushing at getting more faggots in the service. Ask and ye shall be told.

Wow, people like you really still exist in the 21st century? One would have thought you were extinct and relegated to the museum of unnatural history. I have known many gay men and women who served honorably and bravely in the US armed forces an have risked their lives and in some cases, sacrificed their lives for YOU! You should be ashamed of yourself.One gay friend who served in the special forces participated in the Cobra Gold exercises several times also served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Would love to put the two of you in the ring. You'd wet your pants with just a good stare from him.

[Yunla]

My most enduring Cobra Gold memory was at a dinner for the senior officers at a Korat restaurant. The Thai general was hosting, and along with everything else, he provided a few well-dressed and well-mannered English-speaking young woman to greet the guests. After dinner, some of the men asked the women to dance, and when the US general asked whose wives they were, he was told they were hired as hostesses. I'm still not sure what the US general thought the women were there for, but he got enraged, said "American officers don't mingle with those kind of women," and stormed off, ordering all the Americans to leave. Usually, when a general gives an order, people obey, but not one officer followed him out, and one colonel made sure to apologize to the Thai general, inferring that the American general was drunk (the general was actually a teetotaller.).

None of that had anything to do with the exercise, but that has stuck with me over the years.

Lucky he doesn't attend my dinner-parties. I always use a Hostess-Trolley, to keep the different courses hot. I can see me trying to explain to his shocked face that Hostess-Trolleys are for keeping food hot, not for doing other things ontop of lol.

[Suradit69]

Had some of these troops in the neighbourhood last year.

They built an extension on the local primary school.

Not sure that is what they were expecting for their military exercise.

"Not sure that is what they were expecting for their military exercise."

It's exactly the sort of thing they do every time they have these exercises. I doubt they would be caught by surprise for something that occurs each time they have these events.

From last year:

Cobra Gold is an annual, multinational military exercise held in Thailand

that focuses on combat readiness and multilateral cooperation. At the

conclusion of Cobra Gold, the Navy League of the United States - Siam

Council, Thailand helps to organize COMSERV projects and fun activities

for the sailors and marines so that they can learn more about the culture of

Thailand and cement strong diplomatic bonds of friendship. This year,

Navy League Siam organized five COMSERV projects at Wat

Weruwanaram School, the Child Protection and Development Center, the

Banglamung Home for the Aged, Camilian Social Center, and Pattaya Orphanage

http://nlthailand.org/Downloads/AnnualReportNLThailand2012.pdf

[dighambara]

this year's drill, which is focused on humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation, as well as disaster relief.

Ominous. Humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation.

Do the planners know something about Thailand's future needs that we don't?

Thailand has a plan?

Likely Not...!!!

However, the US, Singapore, Malaysia & PI are concerned about China's continued intervention in local affairs... Their overtake of Tibet, then the Republic of Morac-SM, including the mysterious disappearance of the entire government, then building militay bases throutghout the Spratley / Paracel Islands, overtaking Philippine, Malay, and Vietnamese owned Islands....

HMMM - Yes, there may be a concern...

However, as US troops began arriving many weeks ago, I ponder why the 'kick off' is now..??

[helle]

back too ...

[farmerjo]

Yes i've had 2 hercules planes flying over my house for about 2 weeks now.(about 6pm)

And there flying very low,would not want to be up in an ultralight at the moment.

Also the other night a helicopter landed just over the mountain range so they must be using the national parks for training as well.

[belg]

they could clean up the streets of bangkok, as a good excercise

[Publicus]

Regarding the post WW II bit, many people don't know (or choose to ignore the fact) that Thailand was an ally of Japan during WW II.

Thailand one of the USA's oldest allies = must be referring to "post" WW2 surely ?

width=20 alt=wai2.gif>

Well if you add prior to WWII and after WWII, yes. Thailand befriended the US during the 1860's. I think, even offered elephants to our government to help fight our civil war. President Lincoln, politely declined as the weather conditions in the USA might not be beneficial to elephants....

You're likely aware but let me develop that for a moment if I may.

Two US diplomats were assigned to assist Thailand at the Versailles Conference of 1919 to free the Kingdom of unequal treaties written by colonial powers, among other issues identified by the Thai government. The diplomats worked with Thai princes into 1925 to substantially secure Thailand's goals (Siam). Thailand meanwhile became a founding member of the League of Nations and it later became a founding member of the United Nations one year after the US born Rama IX assumed the throne as a constitutional monarch.

On Dec 8, 1941, the day after the Pear Harbor surprise attack, the Japanese Army invaded Thailand at nine points along its borders, land and coastal. On December 9th the Thai government surrendered unconditionally to the imperial government of Japan. In early 1942 when Thailand's induced January 25th declaration of war arrived in Washington the Thai ambassador Seni Pramoj refused to deliver it and organized the Seri Thai movement of resistance against the Japanese occupation, which he based in Washington (with a small much ignored office in London).

After WW II the UK, Australia, NZ had serious issues with Thailand, which the US army air forces had bombed extensively and repeatedly to cripple the Japanese war machine. The complicated issues that included rice and other schemes (of all things) adversely impacted the UK in particular.

Thais feared the UK was undertaking to colonize Thailand so the US stepped in to clarify that, since neither Bangkok nor Washington had officially declared war on the other, Thailand was officially considered by the US State Department to have been a US ally during the war, thus frustrating any such UK possible designs (retrospectively the US's biggest mistake of the post-war order).

In 1954 Thailand and the United States became formal defense treaty allies. Prez Bush upgraded the treaty alliance by designating Thailand as a non-Nato defense treaty ally, enabling Thailand to purchase arms and equipment, expand training and joint military operations such as Exercise Cobra Gold.

Thailand is also one of 23 nations that will participate in the US's biennial Rim of the Pacific two month military exercises in and around Hawaii, Rimpac, which will be conducted throughout June and July.

Rimpac is the world's largest military exercises by number of countries participating on land, on and under the sea, and in the air. Rimpac is commanded by US Navy Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr, whose Japanese mother married a US Naval officer serving in Japan after the war.

Rimpac this year will include countries geographically dispersed from Norway and Russia, to Mexico, Chile and India, and for the first time will include a small number of forces from the People's Republic of China.

CVN Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier

Air-Sea Battle Group underway in

the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii

during 2012 Rim of the Pacific

exercises.

(U.S Navy Photo)

Edited February 13, 2014 by Publicus

[chrisinth]

In 2002 when Cobra Gold were in Phitsanulok, they used our bar everyday (they were allowed to drink then, during earlier visits they were dry). I have to say that they left a lasting impression for their manners and conduct, really above and beyond..........

During the entire exercise, there was only one real incident where one of the marines got love-struck and had decided he wasn't going home. The girl brought him back....................

At that time it was the 12th Marines that were there. With the exception of the commanding officer only leaving me with a one dollar tip (see attached), I would be pushed to say anything against them...............

[Publicus]

this year's drill, which is focused on humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation, as well as disaster relief.

Ominous. Humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation.

Do the planners know something about Thailand's future needs that we don't?

Hardly GK but even the slightest lateral thought would lead you to the South China Sea scenario.

The CCP-PRC ambassador to the Phils already has announced Beijing will establish an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea. Under the UN International Law of the Sea the SCS is a global commons sea route. It transports ME oil to Asean, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea. Beijing fully intends to morph the SCS into a Chinese lake.

The line is going to have to be drawn very soon to halt this aggression. The U.S. has begun a step by step process to do that.

The Phils is one of five US defense treaty allies in the region, to include Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia (good luck to you NZ). Additionally, the US by law is committed to the national security of Taiwan under the terms of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

U.S. top admiral assures Philippines of help in disputed sea

MANILA (Reuters) - The United States will come to the aid of the Philippines in the event of conflict with China over disputed waters in the South China Sea, the commander of the U.S. Navy said on Thursday.

The comments by Admiral Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations of the U.S. Navy, were the most explicit statement of U.S. support for the ill-equipped Philippine military which is facing a more assertive China in disputed waters.

"Of course, we would help you," Greenert told students of the National Defense College of the Philippines in response to a question about a hypothetical Chinese occupation of one of the disputed Spratly Islands.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-admiral-assures-philippines-help-disputed-sea-110906853.html

(Source: CRIonline)

On October 25, 2013 the US Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS George Washington entered Manila Bay. At the head of Carrier Air-Sea Strike Group Five, the aircraft carrier had spent the past week sailing the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

The USS George Washington heads Carrier Air-Sea Strike Group 5, which is the largest such group in the US Navy. It includes two guided missile cruisers, a destroyer, a supply ship and a fast attack submarine.The carrier group also staged joint military and naval exercises with Malaysian forces.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Publicus

[T_Dog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EvUQE5CEAE

[chrisinth]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

My most enduring Cobra Gold memory was at a dinner for the senior officers at a Korat restaurant. The Thai general was hosting, and along with everything else, he provided a few well-dressed and well-mannered English-speaking young woman to greet the guests. After dinner, some of the men asked the women to dance, and when the US general asked whose wives they were, he was told they were hired as hostesses. I'm still not sure what the US general thought the women were there for, but he got enraged, said "American officers don't mingle with those kind of women," and stormed off, ordering all the Americans to leave. Usually, when a general gives an order, people obey, but not one officer followed him out, and one colonel made sure to apologize to the Thai general, inferring that the American general was drunk (the general was actually a teetotaller.).

None of that had anything to do with the exercise, but that has stuck with me over the years.

Perhaps the dear General forgot his manners and assumed the hostesses were akin to his own, dark images hiding in the lurid recesses of his past.

From my career in the Army, I learned rank is not an indicator of intelligence or ability, but merely a designator of position.

I remember one of my old skippers writing up my navigating officer along the lines of:

"His men would follow him everywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity"