Leavenworth Strategist

Belgian Air Component participates in first Red Flag-Alaska

by Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

6/25/2010 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AFNS) -- Twenty-seven members from the Belgian Air Component participated in their first Red Flag-Alaska exercise here.

The BAC 15th Air Transport Wing 20th Squadron arrived here June 8, with two C-130 Hercules, and will be participating until June 25, when the exercise ends.

Red Flag-Alaska is a Pacific Air Forces-directed field training exercise for U.S. and coalition forces flown under simulated air combat conditions. It is conducted on the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex, the largest air-ground training complex in the U.S.

The JPARC is one of the reasons the BAC is taking part in this exercise. They don't have as much space in Belgium to train. Here they are able to expand on their training while working with their coalition partners.

Exercises like this are helpful because they have a bigger playground to train and improve mission capabilities, BAC Lt. Teodor Speda said. Those participating in Red Flag-Alaska have more than 67,000 square miles to conduct training scenarios.

Disarmament process begins in northern Côte d’Ivoire, UN reports

16 June 2010 (UN News Service)– The disarmament and demobilization of 600 former combatants has begun in the northern, rebel-held town of Korhogo, the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) reports.

The soldiers from the Forces armées des Forces nouvelles (FAFN) who demobilized yesterday are part of a group of 1,200 ex-combatants who are expected to disarm and enter cantonment, and to join an integrated national army.

At a ceremony yesterday the Secretary-General’s Principal Deputy Special Representative in the West African country, Abou Moussa, said UNOCI would do its part to make the process a success, and encouraged all the participants to see it through. The process is being monitored by the UN mission and other parties...

Acting on the recommendation of the Secretary-General, the Security Council late last month extended the mandate of UNOCI and the French forces which are supporting it, for one month – “in order to give Côte d’Ivoire a chance to walk the final mile to the elections with the full support of the United Nations.”