General Andika Perkasa Sapa Tentara US Army: Thank You Sir

JAKARTA - Army Chief of Staff (Kasad) General TNI Andika Perkasa inspects Garuda Shield XV, which is a joint exercise between the Indonesian Army and the US Army.

In this activity, General Andika praised the US Army mortar squad for completing a series of M-60 mortar fire at a target as far as 2500 m on Thursday, August 12.

"Well done," Andika said during a review reported by Antara, Friday, August 13.

"Thank you, sir," replied Sergeant Dwayne Jones, the mortar squad commander in impeccable manner. Jones also had time to praise the combat training field Amborawang.

Then, during a conversation with the Raiders mortar squad, Andika asked what experiences the soldiers had apart from military technical matters.

"Ready, add a friend," said Praka Robi agile. He also shared his experience of sharing and exchanging food with US Army soldiers.

According to Robi, who claimed to be able to speak English a little, he offered coffee to several US Army soldiers closest to his position during field training.

"What do you say?" asked Andika.

“Ready, … coffee guys?” Robi replied again, which made Kasad and the crowd surrounding the mortar squad burst into laughter.

On another occasion at the exercise, US Army soldiers shared their chocolate bar rations with TNI soldiers. Some soldiers just kept the chocolate, when asked why, the soldier replied that it was kept as a gift for his wife.

“When I knew that, I got back then took some more to give them,” said Sergeant Jones.

According to Kasad, that is one goal of the joint exercise, so that the soldiers get to know each other and make friends.

“And don't break up when this practice is over. Continue. Ask for phone numbers or social media accounts," Kasad ordered. The Garuda Shield joint exercise is one of 7 joint exercises between the TNI and the United States army. This 2021 exercise is Garuda Shield XV, involving 2,161 TNI-AD soldiers and 1,547 US Army soldiers. The exercise was carried out in 3 Puslatpur, namely in Baturaja, South Sumatra, in Amborawang-East Kalimantan, and Mangkalsung, North Sulawesi.

In Amborawang, the exercise involved 250 TNI soldiers from the Battalion 600 Raiders, 621 Manuntung based in Barabai, South Kalimantan, and 623 Bhakti Wira Utama, a battalion from Banjarbaru, also South Kalimantan, and 122 US Army soldiers. The exercise took place last August 4 and closed on August 14 2020.