U.S. Marine F/A-18C Hornets taxi at Korat Air Base, Thailand, during COPE TIGER 02 exercise air-to-air and air-to-ground combat missions.

Exercise COPE TIGER 02 was not all flying. USAF and Royal Thai Air Force personnel deliver U.S military-donated food, blankets, clothes and toys to the Rajasima Boys Home for orphans in Korat, Thailand, during the exercise.

The Thai, Singapore and U.S. exercise directors each spoke before lunch. In his remarks, Royal Thai Air Force Gp. Capt. Itthaporn Subhawong said, "The objective of this community relation program is to express our compassion to help and promote a better relation between exercise participants and the local community." During lunch, the exercise directors were joined by the Rajasima Boys Home’s director, the deputy governor of Korat and Thai Ministry of Interior officials.

The senior U.S. military representative and exercise director, Air Force Col. Greg Miller, said the donations and all the community relations validated the strong partnership with Korat that is crucial to this and future COPE TIGER exercises in that area. More than 50 COPE TIGER 2002 participants attended the luncheon. U.S. Marines passed out candy to the children, while reporters and camera crews from as far away as Bangkok (250 kilometers) reported on this event.

The combined Thai-Singapore-U.S. air operations and community relations activities deepened bonds of shared professionalism and helped forge lasting partnerships between the air forces of the three countries.