“This is the fourth year of this subject matter expert exchange, which continues to foster team building and knowledge sharing between the Washington National Guard and the Royal Thai Army,” said Col. Amanda Doyle, the exchange lead.

The exchange aimed to enhance knowledge sharing and capability development between the two organizations. This iteration focused on equipment demonstrations, organizational structures, communication strategies, fire line tactics, CBRNE response, and emergency medical operations. The lessons learned will help the Royal Thai Army participants refine tactical-level wildland firefighting operations, emergency medicine triage and assessment, and CBRNE response while shaping future training initiatives.

“After each instructional module, facilitators provided participants with opportunities for open discussion, fostering a deeper understanding of disaster response concepts and best practices,” Doyle explained. “ The dialogue between facilitators and participants was reinforced through hands-on exercises designed to demonstrate and elaborate on disaster response techniques and strategies.”

This engagement built upon the success of previous exchange events, validating the receipt of critical safety information and updates to emergency response protocols. Another objective was to enhance collaboration and interoperability between disaster response teams, bridging gaps and strengthening partnerships to ensure effective humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.

The long-running exchange successfully met its objectives while also offering U.S. personnel valuable insight into Thailand’s wildfire environment, response procedures, and the Royal Thai Army’s role in wildland firefighting, medical operations, and CBRNE response. Thai personnel gained insight into the Washington National Guard’s mission, tactical wildfire response strategies, hand crew organization and training, and its collaborative relationship with the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

“The success of this exchange sets the stage for future engagements in other regions of Thailand, enhancing the capacity for joint disaster response operations and fostering a stronger partnership,” Doyle said. “The robust discussions of best practices, shared by both, provided increased awareness and understanding of techniques and processes used in Thailand and Washington state.”

This was the fourth exchange of this type, and discussions have already begun regarding future engagements, including expanding the scenarios and duration of the training.