Members of the Vietnamese military visited Pacific Air Forces at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, June 2 to discuss future humanitarian and search-and-rescue (SAR) exercises with Air Force officials. Lt. Gen. Chip Utterback, 13th Air Force commander, greeted Lt. Gen. Tran Quang Khue, standing vice commander of the Vietnam National Search and Rescue Committee, and six other Vietnamese military officials to discuss several upcoming exercises. Among them were Pacific Angel, a medical and engineering exercise scheduled for September, and Guardian Angel, a SAR exercise. Both will take place near Vietnam. During Pacific Angel, Air Force medical personnel will partner with local Vietnamese healthcare professionals, sharing knowledge with them and training them. They will also provide dental care for local populations during the exercise. For the engineering portion of Pacific Angel, Air Force engineers will renovate a multi-township health clinic. During Guardian Angel, the dates of which were not given, Air Force combat rescue officers, pararescue teams, and survival, evasion, rescue, and escape specialists will train with Vietnamese counterparts. Last year, the Air Force conducted Pacific Angel with the Cambodian and Thai armed forces. (Hickam report by TSgt. Cohen Young)
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
