with a warm embrace, the rescuer and the rescued meet. the heartwarming scene yesterday was the climactic point of a search-and-rescue (SAR) exercise between the indonesian air force and the republic of singapore air force in pekanbaru in sumatra.
the scenario of the mission for the singaporean flight crew: locate and rescue two downed indonesian pilots from the river.
this was one of the exercise carried out during the biennial ex elang indopura, the 10th in the series, which started in singapore last week with a command post exercise to learn about each other's operating procedures.
the second part -- the flying phase -- was conducted in indonesia this week. it ended yesterday.
besides search - and - rescue missions on land and water, there were daily joint fighter operations against ground targets by indonesian hawk fighter aircraft and singapore f-5e and the simulation of the resupply of ammunition, rations and water to troops by c-130 transport planes of both sides.
in the SAR exercises, indonesian and singapore air force crew took turns carrying out missions to find and bring home safety each other's personnel.
the net result: both sides became not only familiar with each other's standard operating procedures but were able to operate jointly and work closely in a variety of tasks.
this was demonstrated in the two SAR missions yesterday which saw
flight teams from the two countries rescuing each other's personnel. in the RSAF mission,
the singaporean rescuers on board a super puma helicopter flew 75 nautical miles to pick
up the two "downed" indonesian pilots from the muddy waters of a river tributary
in the pekanbaru area.
at the end of the mission, the wide smiles of the faces of the indonesian air force men after they were winched up to safety spoke volumes about the mutual benefit and mutual respect developed during the exercise.