Exercise Cooperative Cope Thunder in Alaska officially ends Saturday, but airmen from Misawa AB, Japan, plan to stay an extra week “to implement lessons learned during the exercise and to fine tune our flight tactics,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Williams, Misawa’s 13th Fighter Squadron commander, reports Stars and Stripes. About 200 fighter pilots, maintainers, and support personnel from Misawa are participating in CCT, the largest Pacific multilateral combat exercise.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
