AKIPRESS.COM - A five member team from the Alaska Air National Guard’s 212th Rescue Squadron participated in a Disaster Management Leadership Seminar in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in late-September, reports DVIDS.

The Mongolia National Emergency Management Agency hosted the first of it’s kind exchange, partnering with service members from the AKANG’s 212th RQS, U.S. Army’s 97th Civil Affairs Battalion, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne), 5th Military Information Support Battalion, U.S. Air Force’s 320th Special Tactics Squadron and Special Operations Command, Pacific, in a leadership seminar.

“This is the first that I am aware of where we have actually gone in at an operational level and shared subject matter expertise for the operator type,” explained Tech Sgt. Cody Inman, a pararescuemen with the 212th RSQ. “[The seminar] consists of classroom subject matter expert sharing of information, hands on training – going both ways between the National Emergency Management Agency and the members of the Alaska National Guard – hands on extrication that culminates with a field training exercise where we put all the skills that we’ve learned from each other together in an extrication and mass casualty incident.”

The guardsmen attended the engagement in Mongolia as part of the National Guard State Partnership program. The program was implemented to couple foreign democracies with states to develop unique security partnerships that ensure U.S. strategic access and a sustained presence in countries worldwide.

Since it’s paring in 2003, guardsmen have partnered with Mongolia in several exercises and exchanges including Gobi Wolf, multinational peacekeeping exercise Khaan Quest – both hosted by Mongolia – and Alaska Shield, a state sponsored Homeland Security exercise, hosted by Alaska.

Both countries are looking forward to future exchanges and the opportunity to share expertise and practice their teaching skills.

This year, Alaska and Mongolia completed 18 exchanges ranging from air and cold weather operations to senior leader engagements. They are scheduled to participate in Gobi Wolf and Khaan Quest next year.