Since June 20, several American Army and Air Force personnel have been descending on Dhaka and then proceeding to Chittagong to take part in a planning conference for an annual exercise named Operation Pacific Angel-25 scheduled to begin on June 25, documents and other inputs accessed by Northeast News indicate.
The arrival of the US armed forces officers is being watched with both “alarm and awe” by the Bangladeshi security establishment at a critical moment when the proposed “humanitarian corridor” from Bangladesh to the Rakhine State in Myanmar has been put on the backburner.
Most of the US officers and other ranks are flying in from Qatar, Thailand and other places. Besides Operation Pacific Angel, the American defence personnel will also take part in a second exercise named Tiger Lighting-2025.
Exercise Tiger Lighting aims to enhance peacekeeping readiness and promote interoperability between the armed forces of both nations. The focus of the exercise is on strengthening regional security and exploring areas where the US can support Bangladesh’s military.
Both the exercises will take place in the backdrop of planning and coordination by the Bangladesh Army’s Armed Forces Division, which is part of Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus’ office.
In April, Indian and US defence forces conducted a joint Exercise Tiger Triumph off the coast of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. Its aim was to achieve an enhanced degree of combined combat drills, jointmanship and interoperability achieved between Indian and US armed forces.
On June 21, Major Tyler Wistisen and Captain Elijah Armstrong landed at Dhaka’s Shah Jalal International Airport. The two took two separate Qatar Airways flights – QR-640 and QR-638, respectively – before landing in Dhaka in the evening of June 21.
Separately, one Frank Johnson reached Dhaka on a Thai Airways flight (No. TG-339) the same evening. Wistisen, Armstrong and Johnson and a third officer, identified as Major Lynnea Kristin Jensen (who reached Dhaka on June 20 on Malaysian Airlines flight – No. 197), were issued “on arrival visa” before they checked into the Radisson Blu Hotel. All four are scheduled to leave Dhaka on June 26.
On June 20, as many as nine officers from the US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) landed in Dhaka on separate flights that originated from different locations. Led by Major Jewelyn De La Cruz, four PACAF officers arrived at Shah Jalal International Airport (on Thai Airways flight No. TG-321) for the final planning conference in connection with Operation Pacific Angel-25.
Around the same time, Lieutenant Thomas Kling and two other officers arrived from the US on a FlyDubai flight (No. FZ-501). Two other personnel, led by Sergeant Richard White, took a Qatar Airways flight (No. QR-638) that landed in Dhaka around 8 pm on June 20.
PACAF Sergeant Lencys Yuslier Esteban Nunez reached Dhaka on a Singapore Airlines flight (No. SQ-446). PACAF Captain Alexander Wielandt and another officer arrived in Dhaka by Thai Airways flight the same evening. All the PACAF personnel will stay at Chittagong’s Radisson Blu Hotel.
