Description Eight United States Army forces from across the Korean peninsula were engaged in exercise FOAL EAGLE 97, an annual United States/Republic of Korea Combined Forces Command force-on-force training exercise. As the largest allied force-on-force exercise in the world, FOAL EAGLE 97 included more than one million Republic of Korea forces and about 35,000 U.S. forces assigned in Korea, as well as U.S. forces deployed from throughout the Pacific region and the Continental United States. Supporting exercise FOAL EAGLE, armored vehicles from the 1st Cavalry Division were loaded onto rail cars after off loading them from the USNS Regulas in Pusan, South Korea.
The exercise began Oct. 27, and ends on Nov. 6, 1997. The Eighth U.S. Army, the Army component to United States Forces Korea (USFK), role in this year's FOAL EAGLE exercise includes a non-combatant evacuation operation; reception, staging, onward movement and integration (RSOI); combat operations; and anti-infiltration activities. The exercise presents many realistic training opportunities for the combined Republic of Korea/United States defense team.Exercise objectives demonstrate U.S. and ROK resolve for the combined defense of Korea while affording joint and combined training opportunities from the individual through operational level. While singular in title, FOAL EAGLE 97 represented an orchestrated array of challenging training to enhance interoperability to safeguard the Korean peninsula and U.S. national interests.
PACAREA Coast Guardsmen from PSU 311, PSU 302 (battle-rostered" unit), HDC 111, and CGC Hamilton participated in the field exercise Foal Eagle 97. Specifically for PSU 311, of San Pedro, Calif., the exercise was designed to test the capabilities of the equipment and men and women of the PSU and their water and shore side defensive tactics. It also tested the logistics of getting back and forth from South Korea with the aide of the U.S. Air Force. A wide variety of duties and training opportunities awaited PSU 311. This included providing security zones around high value assets, making buoy drops for the Navy, and escorting the USS Bunker Hill, USS Mobile Bay, CGC Hamilton, and USNS Regulus in and out of port. Meanwhile, CGC Hamilton, homeported in San Pedro, Calif., was part of a combined Navy-Coast Guard defense ring around the harbor of Pusan. The cutter was deployed in the Sea of Japan with the USS Independence battle group, which included 79 aircraft and 10,000 people.
