Sailors and Marines guide a tanker trailer as it is lowered over the side of the SS Gopher State (TACS 4) to a lighter craft in Sattahip, Thailand, on May 12, 1998, for use in Exercise Cobra Gold '98. Cobra Gold '98 is the latest in a continuing series of U.S.-Thai military exercises designed to ensure regional peace and strengthen the ability of the Royal Thai Armed Forces to defend Thailand. The training includes joint combined air, land and sea operations. Cobra Gold is the largest strategic mobility exercise involving the U.S. Pacific Command forces this year.