• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Thursday, November 2, 2000

Participants offer praise
for Foal Eagle exercise

By Jim Lea
Osan bureau chief

KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — This air base has gone to "war."

For more than a week, U.S. F-16 and South Korean F-5 jets have been screaming from the runway, heading for dogfights with enemy aircraft and a chance to rain destruction on enemy cities.

The thump of exploding grenades and rat-tat-tat of automatic weapons have continuously filled the air as defenders meet opposing forces in firefights.

Patriot missiles have been launched to knock down incoming Scuds, and armored personnel carriers have clanked around corners and between buildings looking for — and neutralizing — the "bad guys."

It’s all simulated, of course. The Kunsan Air Base defense drill is part of Foal Eagle 2000, the largest field-training exercise held annually in South Korea by the South Korean-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

Exercise controllers stand on the sidelines, determining who has been "killed" and who has survived, noting which side won or lost.

The drill has involved airmen, soldiers and sailors. About 300 Air Force security forces troops have deployed to Kunsan to augment the base’s own 8th Security Force Squadron.

About 250 people deployed from elsewhere in Korea and the Pacific — including 51st Security Forces Squadron airmen from Osan Air Base, Army National Guard troops from Alaska, Navy SEALS and a 156-man force of Army Rangers from Fort Lewis, Wash., who parachuted in on a night assault — make up the opposing force.

Much of the exercise has been scripted in planning sessions that began last January. But everyone from Col. Philip Breedlove, Kunsan’s 8th Fighter Wing commander, to Spc. Jarrod Witzke, a crewman on one of the Patriot missile batteries that provide protection against incoming missiles, calls the training "realistic … as good as training gets."

Breedlove said he "couldn’t be prouder" of his unit’s performance in Foal Eagle.

In local exercises, he said, "we use our own internal people as opposing forces. But Foal Eagle is different. Now we have a very robust, world-class opposing force."

With the South Korean air force taking part, he said, "We knew there would be a language barrier. But we’ve found ways to work through those kinds of problems and we’ve found that the team really works."

He added that each Foal Eagle brings new technologies, as well as new techniques and procedures into play, all of which would make it possible for the base to recover more quickly from attacks.

Witzke, standing beside his F Battery, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Patriot launcher, noted that he and his colleagues are doing the same job they do 24 hours a day.

"Our job is to protect the air bases and all (Combined Forces Command) assets in the country to make sure we can take the fight north," he said. "We make sure everybody else can do their job safely."

Lt. Col. Jennifer Perry, the 8th Security Forces Squadron commander, said one of the best things about Foal Eagle is that even though the drill is fast-paced, participants have time to adjust the way they operate.

"When you test your technology and procedures, you all of a sudden see the things that are working for you and those that aren’t," said Perry, defense force commander for Foal Eagle.

"You can take time to adjust your methodology and go back out and test it one more time under some very austere circumstances," she said.