YAKIMA, Wash. - The annual Japanese-led training exercise in its 17th year at Central Washington State's Yakima Training Center, this year dubbed Operation Rising Thunder, officially came to a close Friday.
The event, lasting nearly a month, offers the use of Yakima's vast expanse of ranges, trails and expendable terrain to Japan's most proficient collection of soldiers.
The first artillery strike let out a roaring boom that rolled like thunder across the barren hills of Yakima as the 13th Brigade of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force broke the seal on a 20-hour culmination exercise of ground maneuvers and reaction to enemy attacks Sept. 22, 2010 that would conclude its previous weeks of training.
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