MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Members of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force and senior station officials united here last week to participate in Exercise Keen Edge 2009.
Exercise Keen Edge is a bi-annual training exercise conducted throughout U.S. Forces Japan and aboard other Japanese Self Defense Force installations.
“The purpose of the exercise is to enhance interoperability between the United States (armed forces) and the Japanese Self Defense Force,” said a member of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force participating in the evolution.
During the exercise, senior leaders coordinated and discussed the defense of Japan within its defensive regions, known as base clusters. The clusters extend from the northernmost island of Japan to Okinawa.
“Col. Michael A. O’Halloran, (the station commanding officer), is the coordinator for one of the base clusters,” said Andrew R. Samuels, the station’s anti-terrorism officer.
During the exercise, American and Japanese leaders in command of all base clusters held simultaneous meetings at their respective installations. They communicated with each other via the Japanese Joint Staff in Tokyo and the U.S. Forces Japan headquarters at Yokota Air Base. The headquarters are responsible for overseeing and analyzing all contingencies within Japan as well as providing guidance to the base clusters during Exercise Keen Edge.
“It’s vital that we keep continuous communications to identify concerns within the other clusters that may affect our cluster,” said Samuels. “Keen Edge is a way for us to practice information flow and dissemination on a large scale as well as maintaining constant communication, coordination and contingency planning.”
American and Japanese commanders strive to perfect contingency planning, command control and dissemination throughout the year and between each Keen Edge exercise.
“We do this to enhance our operational efficiency and bilateral operations,” said Samuels. “What we learned in this exercise has reinforced our strong commitment to work together with our host nation’s brothers-in-arms and our ability to provide a strong defense for the county of Japan.”