Col. Hector Velez (right), U.S. exercise director for

Col. Hector Velez (right), U.S. exercise director for Khaan Quest 2013, and Mongolian Armed Forces Col. B. Baatar (center), commanding officer of Tavan Tolgoi (Five Hills) Training Area, greet Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, Chief of the Joint Staff for the Japan Self Defense Forces and Japan's top uniformed military official, during his visit to Five Hills Training Area, Aug. 8. Khaan Quest is a peacekeeping operations-focused, combined training event between U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific, U.S. Army Pacific, and the MAF. MARFORPAC and USARPAC have conducted similar training with MAF since 2003, and this exercise marks the 11th iteration of Khaan Quest. Military personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Tajikistan, United Kingdom and Vietnam are also participating in the exercise.