NATAL AIR BASE, Brazil, (11/11/10) – Almost 200 Colorado and Arizona Air National Guard members will participate in the fifth annual CRUZEX V or Cruzeiro Do Sul (Southern Cross) exercise from Nov. 8-18.

CRUZEX V is a multi-national combined exercise, which involves the air forces of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Uruguay as well as observers from numerous other countries and more than 82 aircraft and almost 3,000 Airmen.

To support the exercise, the 140th Wing of the Colorado Guard deployed Airmen to maintain, plan and fly sorties with six F-16 Fighting Falcons alongside their multi-national counterparts.

The 161st Air Refueling Wing of the Arizona Guard also deployed here with its KC-135 Stratotankers.

“It has been terrific working with the other forces, we are all working together and we have enjoyed every minute of it,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Trulan A. Eyre, the exercise co-director.

The two-week exercise focuses on building strong partnerships with Airmen from across Latin America and France, while ensuring that Airmen are prepared to assist the international community as part of United Nations-type coalition efforts.

“It is about partnership building,” said Eyre. “A unique aspect of the Air National Guard is that we have partnerships all around the world.

“It is an absolutely fascinating opportunity for the (140th Wing) to expand our horizons a little bit beyond our partners of Slovenia and Jordan and deploy to Brazil.”

He said that the most important aspect of the deployment is the opportunity for his Airmen to meet other airmen from around the world.

“(The airmen from the different countries) have done stuff that we have never done before and we have done stuff that they have never done before, so we can share those experiences and learn better techniques to accomplish our unique missions,” said Eyre. “Any time you get to work with coalition partners it is a great time to learn from them.

“However, we aren’t down here to teach, although we will when we are called upon to do so, we are down here to learn.”

This learning and sharing of ideas built and solidified bonds between the participating countries, opening communication channels that didn’t exist before, Eyre said.

“We now have personal contacts with the participating countries. If another partner country is in need, we now have face-to-face contacts with [representatives] from these countries - people who we may ask for help or who may ask us for help,” he said. “We now have the type of partnership that whatever is needed, we will be there to support each other.”

The general also expressed his gratitude that the 140th Wing was able participate in the exercise.

“The host-nation hospitality has been wonderful,” he said. “We appreciate being asked to participate in this exercise and we would very much like to participate in future exercises.”

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