SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division said their final farewells before heading to Thailand to participate in Pacific Pathways. Pacific Pathways is an operation conducted by U.S. Army Pacific that deploys personnel and material to support security cooperation exercises with ally and partner militaries.
Thailand is one of the United States' oldest partners in Asia and the broad cooperation between the two nations continues on issues that benefit both countries, the region and beyond.
"The division's area of responsibility is Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region so this gives us an opportunity to deploy off of the island of Oahu, train, and build holistic readiness with our Thai counterparts," said Maj. Bryan Herzog, the Executive Officer of 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
In addition to multinational training, Pacific Pathways meets the requirement to provide a force able to rapidly adapt to emerging challenges across multiple domains.
"We trained alongside of them at JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana)," Herzog said.
"We were very impressed with their professionalism and how they seamlessly integrated into the team and we're looking forward to training with them over the course of several months," he added.
The ability of both nations' military forces to work together is beneficial, and was most recently highlighted by the U.S. participation in the Thai-led effort to rescue the Wild Boar soccer team from a cave in northern Thailand.
"We're hoping to build on the already established relationship with them (Royal Thai Army) in order to further drive our influence within the Southeast Asian area of operations," said 1st Lt. Colby Stubbs, S-1 Officer in Charge, assigned to 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
This Pacific Pathways mission has captured the world's attention and the United States are very proud to have been asked by Thailand to assist.