It is a pleasure for all of us to be here, particular for United States Army, Pacific located at Fort Shafter, Hawaii to be apart for this year’s Cobra Gold as we mark the 28th anniversary of this very important exercise. This only serves to strengthen the relationships of not only the United States and Thailand, but also all the other nations involved.

As, I look across the crowd today it is great to see so many enthusiastic Soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen and civilians from many nations, willing and ready to participate in this year’s exercise.   I know that many of you have traveled from quite a distance to partake in this very important exercise, and thank you for enduring the travel time, I’m confident it will be well worth the trip.
 
Cobra Gold offers all of us the unique experience, to work together as partners.  We focus on multinational interoperability.  This exercise is packed with multiple simultaneous events; from contingency operations to command post exercise, a computer-simulated command post exercise, field training and live fire exercises, and multiple humanitarian and civic projects.
 
Ultimately, the success of Cobra Gold will depend on all of you if you are in the room today.  One thing’s for sure, we’ll all benefit from interacting with each other.   We will all learn from each other.  I look forward to working with all of you, particularly those that will be on the staffs here, and I know that we will have a very successful Cobra Gold.

Thank you very much. 

Video(wmv)          Click here to go to Cobra Gold 09 website.