by Airman John D. Partlow
374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
8/19/2011 - YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) -- Seventy-eight members from the 36th Airlift Squadron here will test their humanitarian assistance and disaster relief abilities in the Pacific Airlift Rally held in Sri Lanka, Aug. 18 through 22.
The Pacific Airlift Rally is designed to strengthen interoperability between nations in the Indonesian and Pacific regions. It is held every two years and is sponsored by Pacific Air Forces.
"This exercise will help enable the nations involved to deepen their relationships with one another, build trust and strengthen their desire to mutually support one another,"
said Capt. Anthony Felix, the 36th AS assistant pilot flight commander. "Our involvement with the exercise will inspire trust with all nations that are located in the Pacific region."
The five-day training exercise brings together the air forces of 25 nations including the U.S., Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Australia to demonstrate humanitarian assistance capabilities through two different components.
"The Airmen from Yokota that are participating have a lot of experience going in," said Capt. Bryan Huffman, the 36th AS Pacific Airlift Rally mission commander for Yokota Air Base. "This training exercise will help improve Yokota's readiness by having us fly airdrop and airlift missions in different scenarios."
The first component of the air rally involves flying exercises, testing the abilities of pilots and crews to perform tasks normally executed in humanitarian relief efforts.
The second part of the rally involves command post operations in which operators and logisticians from several participating countries train on performing the correct actions in the event of a ground-based scenario.
For Huffman, preparing Yokota Airmen to respond to mother nature's mood swings is what the Pacific Airlift Rally is all about.
"It's a great opportunity to have a hand in improving Yokota (AB's) readiness and ability to provide humanitarian assistance or disaster relief if needed," he said.
