Commander's Corner for Feb 27

Yokota Air Base, Japan -- Team Yokota,

This weekend, our Airlifters return to home station after completing Exercise COPE NORTH in Guam. Our Professional Airlift team worked alongside multinational partners in the region to practice humanitarian aid and disaster relief scenarios in and around the Northern Marianas islands, which suffered from months of food and commodity shortages in 2014.

As COPE NORTH comes to a close, we also close out the month of February--next month is going to be action-packed with Exercises COPE TIGER and COMMANDO WARRIOR. In this vast Pacific theater, it is vitally important that we continually test our contingency capabilities alongside our Pacific partners. As we have executed in the past with Operation DAMAYAN and TOMODACHI, a unified response is critical to providing swift and effective aid to those in need.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the men and women of Team Yokota for their tremendous service this month--our Wing's success hinges on the contributions of every member of our team.  Your efforts speak volumes for the "Best Wing in the Pacific" and one the Air Force's Outstanding Units of 2014. I am proud to call myself a member of such a phenomenal team!

Col Doug DeLaMater
374 AW/CC