 U.S. soldiers from the First Combat Aviation Brigade picked up their rivet guns, powered up forklifts, and connected fuel lines in a series of competitions featuring the flight operations sustainers of the brigade. Teams from multiple battalions in the brigade competed in the sustainer games near Storke-Bericks, Germany. The aviation support battalion is made up of an entirely sustainer-maintainer MOSes. It's a very complex, diverse group of soldiers, and so we designed the sustainer games in a way where each of those MOSes would be represented. It gets after their individual skills, their MOS skills, but also builds the team, and it becomes a competition where they can simultaneously see each other's progress and build readiness. So I think these games are actually a really good thing for maintainers. It gives us a chance to practice and show our skill sets that a lot of, like, non-maintenance won't get to see, and I think it actually boosts morale and build camaraderie between maintainers in the unit. Physical fitness and confidence was the theme, so soldiers also competed in obstacle course and rugged terrain timed events. When the participants come in and they conduct the range, I'm looking for two, pretty much two things, teamwork and motivation. If they conduct each obstacle as a team, then it builds unit cohesion, and the level of competitiveness is very high. Each individual team has something to prove when they come out here and conduct the course. They want to be the best because winning matters. The first combat aviation brigade is deployed to Germany in support of Atlantic Resolve. The brigade's sustainers are critical to the unit's ability to provide flight operations, helping to provide air dominance to the U.S. forces and partner nations in the European theater. In my opinion, the maintainers are the backbone of aviation. Like, without the maintainers, like, the pilots are going to fly the birds, but once the bird needs maintenance, then it can't really do anything. And we make sure that the pilots are able to fly and land safely and get home to their families.