 Nearly 5,500 participants from 20 Allied and partner nations joined together to participate in the annual Sabre Junction Exercise. This U.S. Army Europe-directed exercise is designed to assess the readiness of the 173rd Airborne Brigade to execute unified land operations. The operations consist of airborne operations, which include airdrops from C-130, C-27, C-17 aircraft in the case of this exercise, and they land on multiple drop zones throughout the training area and then maneuver to their fighting positions to take on the opposition forces in the homefills training area. Sabre Junction 18 is a collaboration of NATO partners working together in a multinational environment. It is also an opportunity for U.S. forces to practice executing the mission in a joint branch exercise. As a C-17 pilot, my job is to deliver goods and materials to the people who need it, and a lot of times that is the Army. It's really cool seeing the face of the guys that actually get and need that stuff. You never really get to see how it impacts, so getting to see a Humvee drop here and then somebody jump in it and drive away and go execute their missions is really awesome. Sabre Junction 18 ensures that U.S. forces in Europe are ready to execute the mission unilaterally or with our Allied and partner nations. Reporting from Hohenfels, Germany, I'm Staff Sergeant Lauren O'Connor. The tune and the mission.