- continued -

BALIKATAN included ground air and amphibious operations. Here a U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet prepares to participate from Clark Air Field.

"Working with our Philippine counterparts has been extremely helpful and rewarding," said 2nd Lt. Smith. "The U.S. Marines also learned new things. We had about 15 Philippine engineers attached to us for this mission and they worked hand-in-hand with us. Because our cement mixer wasn’t working, they showed us their method of mixing, which involves mixing it by hand in a wooden box."

Also at Clark Air Base, U.S. Army soldiers prepared for orientation flights for three of their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that arrived in the Philippines on a U.S. Air Force C-5 transport plane. Mechanics and engineers unfolded the blades and conducted maintenance.

Phillippine and U.S. pilots familiarized themselves with each other's aircraft.

The U.S. Army pilots then conducted two-hour orientation flights to the areas they would fly to during the exercise to become familiar with the geography and locate any obstacles and hazards they might encounter during flight.

The U.S. Army pilots had their Black Hawk helicopters available for casualty evacuation if needed. They transported equipment and dignitaries, and conducted deck landings and insertions into several exercise locations, including Manila, Ternate, Fort Magsaysay, and Subic Bay.

U.S. and Philippine forces at Clark Air Base had to divert the focus from the exercise to an actual relief effort on 4 May when a PAF MG520 helicopter suffered a flight mishap at the end of a runway on the base. The combined forces rescued the pilot and co-pilot and evacuated them to a hospital. Fortunately neither suffered life-threatening injuries.