The 554th Rapid Engineering Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron hosted a multilateral Silver Flag exercise July 22-26, 2024, at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, as part of the Indo-Pacific Unity Allies & Partners Engineer Summit.
The goal of the annual exercise is to enhance partnerships, promote regional stability and increase engineer interoperability. Specifically, this exercise allows U.S. partners and allies to familiarize themselves with the techniques and equipment that the U.S. Air Force utilizes to ensure airfields can support, launch and recover aircraft.
“This past week, we’ve had 74 engineers from seven different countries participating in joint airfield recovery operations along with Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear, and [our] fire department,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Celyn Rodgers, 554 REDHORSE Silver Flag flight lead. “They learned the basic steps of how we recover an airfield.”
This year’s participants included engineers from the Royal Australian Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Indonesian Air Force, Philippine Air Force, and the Republic of Singapore Air Force. They worked with Team Andersen to learn how to execute expeditionary airfield damage repairs.
“This event helps our partners because we have the premier tools and equipment that allow them to [hone] their engineering skills and take what they learned back home so they can apply it to their airfield recovery program,” said Rodgers.
For Corporal Dillon Butler, Royal Australian Air Force carpenter, he was able to witness how other countries performed airfield repairs through various, yet similar, airfield tactics, techniques and procedures.
“I learned a lot this past week,” said Butler. “I learned different forms of airfield repairs and how other countries operated, which was very eye opening to me.”
Exercises like Silver Flag foster strategic relationships to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“At the end of the day, we might wear different uniforms and speak different languages, but if push comes to shove, we’re going to function as one engineering force,” said Rodgers. “No matter what uniform you [wear], we’re all going to be one team.”
