Buddy Wing Program teams up U.S., Korean Airmen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt Araceli Alarcon
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AFPN) --  Pilots and maintainers from the 80th Fighter Squadron participated in a Buddy Wing Program exercise Oct. 23 to 25 at Jungwon Air Base, South Korea.

The Buddy Wing program is a way for U.S. Air Force and South Korea air force members to develop teamwork, exchange ideas and improve tactics.

"It's very important that we know how to integrate and fly with (South Korea air force members)," said 1st Lt. Hugh Walker, an 80th Fighter Squadron pilot. "So being able to understand each other and having similar ideas and tactics will make it easier when it's time to conduct operations together."

Working together was the key element in this training, unit members said. 

"We need to have a good relationship with each other," said Staff Sgt. Craig Simpson, an 80th Aircraft Maintenance Unit crew chief. "As allies, we need to know how to work together so we can get the mission done."

Participants agreed the program was a way to learn from each other and foster teamwork.

"It's a way for (U.S. Air Force) and (South Korea air force) pilots to learn from each other. We have learned many things from (U.S. Air Force) pilots," said South Korea air force Capt. Yong Sun Jung, a 161st FS pilot. "In peacetime we train together so we can perform better as a team to provide peace and stability to the region."

The three-day training event enabled pilots and maintainers to participate in tactics discussions, aircraft training and flying sorties.

"USAF maintainers are very fun and talkative," said South Korean air force Staff Sgt. Yusun Song, a 161st  FS crew chief. "We were able to learn new things about the aircraft that we didn't know about. For example, we learned new methods of inspecting an F-16 aircraft."

The Buddy Wing Program is held once a quarter for the F-16 squadrons. It was designed to rotate every quarter between the U.S. deploying to a ROKAF base and members of the ROKAF deploying to Kunsan or Osan Air Base.

Besides Airmen from operations and maintenance, the 8th Security Forces Squadron at Kunsan AB had Airmen deploy to provide security to the aircraft. 

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