Over the last two weeks, wrenches have been turning, air guns have been firing, and knowledge has been expanding between mechanics from the Washington Army National Guard and Royal Thai Army during a Stryker Maintenance expert exchange at the Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site (MATES) in Yakima.

"At the end of these two weeks, we hope everyone leaves learning something, have good memories from their time in America, and have built some partnerships with some of my mechanics," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Ricky Thomas, superintendent, MATES.

Thomas has been active in the Stryker operations and maintenance exchanges through the Washington National Guard's State Partnership Program with Thailand. The last few visits, Thomas identified gaps his mechanics can assist the Royal Thai Army with.

"They lack right now in Thailand a lot of trained personnel for the maintenance of the Stryker," said Thomas. "They are lacking some tools and recovery assets, so right now we are trying to give those that don't have experience some basic skills and those that do some advanced skills."

In May, Thomas and a group from the Washington Army National Guard traveled to Thailand for a Stryker development exchange with Royal Thai Army's 112th Stryker Regiment. The exchanges are focused on creating Stryker instructors within the Royal Thai Army. This visit focused on the maintenance aspects of the Stryker. During the exchange the 34 Royal Thai Army members working with mechanics at the shop removed the power pack from Strykers, and then disassembled and reassembled, tested and installed the power pack. They also learned about the hydraulics systems on the ramp and the fire suppression system.

1st Sgt. Sean Hammer, Inspection Supervisor at the Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site noted how experienced the Royal Thai Stryker mechanic were when they arrived.

"This being one of the first insistences of doing this my expectations were they would be at a lower knowledge level or skill base but as soon as they started work with my technicians and the instructors they showed me that a lot of them have a higher level of proficiency than I originally thought, that allowed us to speed up and change the schedule," said Hammer.

Following the two weeks in Yakima, a team from MATES will travel to Thailand to continue the exchange.

"This is just one part of the exchange. We plan to take this to Thailand and continue to expand their program," said Thomas.