The Air National Guardsman who heads up the Air Expeditionary Group for Cooperative Cope Thunder (to become a Red Flag-Alaska exercise), Col. Greg Nelson, took the opportunity to meet with senior airmen from Japan and South Korea, who are participating in this multinational exercise. The visiting airmen extolled the wide-open training space offered by Alaska and the chance to train with allies.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.