SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, ILL. (USTCNS) --- For the first time, the U.S. Military and the Republic of Korea (ROK) put to the test a four-year old support agreement as part of a large scale military exercise this month in Korea.

The Mutual Airlift Support Agreement (MASA), signed in 2004 by the Republic of Korea (ROK) Air Force and the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), provides, among other things, that during a crisis on the peninsula, KAL, the national airline, would provide aircraft, manned by ROK Air Force personnel, to help move U.S. forces.

However, until earlier this month, there had been no practical demonstration of how the agreement would be implemented. That changed on March 12 when a KAL Boeing 777 flew 125 U.S. troops from Kadena Air Base, Japan, to Osan, Korea, during the first part of the Reception, Staging, Onward Movements, and Integration ’07 (RSOI 07) exercise.

RSOI 07 is an major annual combined U.S.-ROK training event conducted in Korea.

On March 21, a KAL Boeing 747 deployed 78 more troops from Altus, Air Force Base, Okla., and 192 from March Air Reserve Base, Calif., to Gimhae, Korea for the second part of RSOI 07.

The additional airlift provided by MASA supplements that provided by the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), an agreement between U.S. Air Carriers and the USTRANSCOM to augment military airlift capacity with contracted civilian aircraft in cases of war or emergency.