Airmen from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, joined fellow airmen at Kadena AB, Japan, and Navy and Marine Corps crews who gathered at Kadena on Aug. 7 for the third Joint Air and Sea Exercise 2005. Exercise participants include Kadena’s KC-135s, HH-60G Pave Hawks, E-3 AWACS, and the Navy’s USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.