Angkor Sentinel 2015, an annual bilateral military exercise hosted by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and sponsored by the U.S. Army Pacific, came to close March 20, 2015, at the Training School for Multinational Peacekeeping Forces in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia.

The closing ceremony brought together Soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces; the Idaho Army National Guard; 207th Aviation Battalion, Alaska National Guard; U.S. Army Pacific; 8th Army; U.S. Army Reserve; the Asia-Pacific Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Fusion Center; 18th Medical Command; and the 413th Contracting Brigade.

The deputy chairman of the RCAF Staff, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, when bidding farewell to the participants who trained tirelessly, thanked the troops for their professionalism.

"I want to thank the U.S. Army and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Soldiers for their hard work to make Angkor Sentinel 2015 so successful," said Manet. "I want to say that both countries today are better off because of the success of this exercise."

The closing ceremony of the Angkor Sentinel exercise was also attended by the USARPAC deputy commanding general, Maj. Gen. James F. Pasquarette, who thanked the RCAF for being a great host to this year’s exercise.

"I have been a great admirer of Cambodia and I hope to return again to continue our great relationship," said Pasquarette. "Angkor Sentinel has become increasingly important in this ever increasing small world. The evolution of Angkor Sentinel is proof the developing relationship of our two countries is stronger today than it has ever been."

This year’s exercise was the largest Angkor Sentinel to date and builds on the success of previous exercises. The two-week Cambodian hosted event included over 450 personnel from the U.S. and Cambodia who participated in Angor Sentinel 2015, a 33 percent increase in Khmer soldiers than the previous year's exercise.

Some of this year’s events include planning and executing a battalion level command post exercise, engineering civic action projects and executing a medical civic action program. In all, each soldier received over 100 hours of training.

U.S. Soldiers also shared in the pride of improving the quality of life for the students and faculty at the Tirumket School in Chbar Morn City in the Civil Engineer Action Project, which aimed to improve their interoperability and contingency planning between U.S. and RCAF troops.

Angkor Sentinel promotes military readiness and interoperability between U.S. Armed Forces and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and is USARPAC’s capstone Security Cooperation event with Cambodia. Angkor Sentinel exercises began in 2010 and are conducted by the USARPAC and hosted by RCAF in order to continue building humanitarian assistance/disaster relief capability activities in Cambodia. It directly contributes to achieving key U.S. and Cambodian security objectives by providing a rigorous training environment for both nations. Cambodia uses the exercise to prepare forces for domestic and regional HA/DR missions as well as United Nations missions around the globe.