 I'm Major Elliot England. I'm the project officer for Arctic Edge 22 in Elmendorf, Alaska. We're taking part in this exercise because we want to demonstrate that we have the capability to defend the Arctic region. Our role within the exercise is to provide air defense over a particular point. We take our jets out into the airspace. We set up basically a patrol where we will defend a specific point from any air threats. The training here is beneficial to us because we get to see a lot of things we don't get at home. For one, the cold weather makes the jets perform a lot differently. They're actually a lot more maneuverable. The engines tend to produce maximum power and colder air. So we get a lot of benefits from the actual environment here. We also don't have any mountainous terrain in Ohio. So getting a train in the mountains, see how that affects the airspace that we're actually able to utilize, makes a big difference in the way we train. One thing I want people to really understand back home is that you're in good hands. So being up here, we've seen some of the capabilities. We've demonstrated a lot of the capabilities that we have and I'm very impressed with how we've been performing. It's been beneficial to me as a new wingman, seeing new airspace back in Toledo, obviously the terrain is very flat. But here, getting to fly in between mountain ranges and valleys, it's really a confidence booster for a young pilot. Our job is really just to ensure that we're giving a good product to the pilot so they can go and show force and emulate what they needed to do for the mission. First day we got here, we had over 10 inches of snow. They did a great job setting up the aircraft to get it ready to perform. And as the Arctic Edge exercise progressed, we were able to hit all the lines and manage all the maintenance complications that came our way. So I think one of the neat things about this trip has shown us that yes, we live in Northern Ohio and we're used to a cold environment. It's a different cold up here. We don't have all our hangers to work out of. We're doing our maintenance outside, we don't have a place to stuff the jets. So these are challenges that we may take for granted at home that even though we work in a cold environment at home, we don't necessarily have to deal with. Just learning how to work with that, your body acts different. It's definitely unique and you've got to make sure you're taking your breaks and getting warm again and keeping the right mindset and that's what gets you through it. You know, an AOS movement like this is extremely complicated. There's a lot that goes into it just to get here and there's a lot that goes into it just to get home, let alone operating in this type of environment. As a traffic management specialist, my job is to make sure that our people and our equipment can get anywhere in the world at the drop of a dime. If anything happens, that is what we do. For this deployment, I'm responsible for getting all the equipment here and getting all the equipment back. People think that it just happens at the drop of a dime, not realizing all the planning that goes into it, all the man hours that goes into it. It can be difficult sometimes, but we work hard, we get it done, and people notice us. Teamwork, camaraderie, professionalism, it always gets the job done no matter what's handed to us. We had a pretty easy trip, the first half of the trip. The last couple days has been pretty chaotic, and you never see anything like this team come together, like the Stingers do, to make it happen. I would say the one thing I would like everyone to know about this exercise is that it proves the 180th is truly combat-ready anywhere, anytime, anywhere in the world.