Second Phase of CARAT Ends in Thailand
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS070701-04
Release Date: 7/1/2007 8:56:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jessica M. Bailey, Task Force 73 Public Affairs
SATTAHIP, Thailand (NNS) -- The second phase of the 13th annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise series came to a close June 27 during a ceremony at the Royal Thai Navy’s (RTN) Lam Tien Naval Base.
The closing wrapped up the nearly two-week long exercise, which was designed to promote understanding, and enhance regional cooperation while developing operational readiness between the armed forces of the participating nations.
“During our time here in Sattahip, the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have worked side-by-side with our counterparts of the Thai armed forces, training to increase our collective interoperability and cohesion,” said Capt. Al Collins, commander of Destroyer Squadron 1 and Task Group 73.5 leader. “The planners of this phase laid out an ambitious schedule that gave our Sailors, our Marines, and our Coast Guardsmen a challenge, and we took that challenge and ran with it.”
Among the several exercises occurring during the CARAT Thailand phase was one that featured the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard’s maritime safety and security training teams joining their Thai counterparts at sea in visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) techniques and force protection. The RTN and U.S. Navy Sailors also combined forces in maneuvering, tactical free play, surface gunnery, and vertical and underway replenishment exercises.
Collins believes that training cycles such as these help the U.S. and Thailand to reinforce their joint determination to keep the littoral waters of Southeast Asia free and open for trade and travel. In addition, there was an effort between both nations to learn the standards and practices of their respective navies by embarking U.S. Navy and RTN officers on each other's ships.
“Ashore, two of our embarked units, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 and Mobile Mine Assembly Unit 10, shared expertise and training with their Thai counterparts,” Collins said. “Our cross-decking of U.S. and Royal Thai Navy officers allowed our men and women to see how our partners do business, further strengthening the relationship between our armed forces.”
During the final at-sea phase, executed the morning of the closing ceremony, the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s Special Operations Training Group and the Royal Thai Marine Corps executed a vigorous, well-planned mock amphibious assault on Had Yao Beach.
U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen from all the ships in the task group reached out to the Thai community by visiting children in local schools, and medical and dental teams set up clinics where Navy doctors conducted examinations and administered treatment to residents. Navy Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 teamed up with the Royal Thai Marine engineers to help renovate Ban Hua Yai School in Jomtien.
“Cooperative community service efforts like these between the people of Thailand and the United States further reinforces our goals of keeping the world safe from terrorism and piracy, of replacing fear with determination, and of creating a future unhindered by the uncertain,” Collins said.
The Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) facilitated vital communications between the two navies allowing them to share secure, real-time, tactical information in both text and Web-based formats during CARAT.
“Both afloat and ashore, our forces continued to improve their ability to communicate through the use of CENTRIXS,” Collins said. “As Adm. William Burke said in our opening ceremony, through the use of CENTRIXS, we have reached new heights in command and control.”
Looking to the future of CARAT, Collins was optimistic that the interaction between the U.S. and Thai armed forces will continue reinforcing the bond the two nations have shared through the years.
“Through all this, we were able to interact not only with our colleagues in the Royal Thai Navy and Marine Corps, but also with the Thai people as well,” he said. “It is our cooperative spirit and willingness to learn from each other that has sustained this great relationship between our two nations – and the cooperation isn’t over.”
CARAT is a sequential series of bilateral military exercises the U.S. Navy performs annually with the armed forces of six Southeast Asia nations. The exercise series continues throughout the summer with scheduled stops in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore.
The U.S. CARAT task group consists of the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), and the guided-missile frigates USS Jarrett (FFG 33) and USS Ford (FFG 54).
Commodore Collins is embarked aboard Harpers Ferry, which is the flagship for the exercise and operates from Sasebo, Japan as part of the 7th Fleet’s Forward Deployed Naval Forces. His staff is based in San Diego. Jarrett is homeported in San Diego and Ford is homeported in Everett, Wash.
RTN ships that participated in the exercise were HTMS Naresuan (FFG 421), HTMS Rattanakosin (FSG 441), HTMS Tapi (FS 431), HTMS Sichang (LST 721), and HTMS Lat Ya (MHS 633). More than 2,000 members of the Thai armed forces participated.
For more information, visit www.clwp.navy.mil/carat2007.
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