 Over the last nine days, about 100 paratroopers from across all the brigades in the 82nd participated in two exercises. One was Falcon Leap with the 11th Airborne Brigade out of Arnhem as well as commemoration of the 77th anniversary of Market Garden. The importance of airborne interoperability is shown here in Falcon Leap and Market Garden by the training with over 11 different countries. This allows us to continue to fight win and survive in combat. From Nijmegen to Arnhem, the 82nd participated in over 10 commemorations and memorial ceremonies. Over the past nine days, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division have participated in the commemoration of the 77th anniversary of Market Garden. This is all about maintaining the relationship and strengthening the friendship that already exists here with the 82nd Airborne Division. Market Garden, whether it's in Groesbake or Graaf or here in Nijmegen, the paratroopers of the 82nd need to understand their legacy. They need to understand the relationship that we have with the Dutch people. We need to make sure that it continues on and that we continue to participate in events like this, one, to honor the legacy that we're a part of, but two, to understand our history. Paratroopers can do anything. Right? When we talk about fighting win and combat, it's not about just jumping out of airplanes. Here at the Wall River, I mean, they got on boats and they crossed the Wall River in the daytime under enemy contact and they seized the northern side of this bridge. My name is Major Igor Defletes. I am the project officer of the exercise Falcon Leap. The history of the exercise Falcon Leap is dated back to the Second World War, actually to the operation Market Garden. Within the years after the Second World War, Market Garden was commemorated every year at the municipality of de Gemeente Ede. We always supported that with the military part of the basis surrounding the municipality of de Gemeente Ede. But in the last 10 years, we developed not only the support of the commemoration, but we also tried to make more out of the day itself by supporting also with airborne troopers jumping at the memorial itself. That evolved in a week of exercise before the commemoration and in the end, starting 3 or 4 years ago, in a two-week exercise before the commemoration of Market Garden itself. My role in the exercise Falcon Leap as a project lead is coming forth out of the position that I have within the brigade. I am the G3 airhead and within the G3 air cell we have an air desk or an airborne desk. Those NCOs and officers are involved in the whole planning process starting a year before the exercise Falcon Leap. Even the other desks like the rotary wing desk or the counter-UFV desk are involved in this process. Together with all the logistics that is needed to get 10 countries at the same location jumping out of the different planes, getting the different aircraft at the same location. It takes a long time to plan and eventually execute. Since the exercise Falcon Leap evolved in a two-week full exercise, focusing on the technical part of airborne operations and interoperability of course with our international partners we are trying to evolve the technical part of training together more and more. That means every year we are inviting new countries to participate in the exercise. We try new platforms to jump off and we are trying to figure out how to make the technical exercise going more into depth. The most important part still is the interoperability that we are trying to create not only in working together during the exercise but getting that into doctrine, into procedures, into mutual understanding between the different airborne units. Second part of the exercise is focusing on the broader route of airborne soldiers. The third part of course and it will always be a part of Falcon Leap is the commemoration and the history behind the whole exercise. As you know yourself, the interoperability is focusing on all parts of the exercise and the execution of the exercise. Well if you look at the nowadays operations it's pretty common that we will operate in an international setting using each other aircraft, using each other troops, supporting each other's troops. So if you look at the way that we perform this exercise and learning each other procedures even if they are not like or common with each other, knowing that also already improves the interoperability between the different units. Besides that the cultural differences between the different countries, spending two weeks in the field or jumping together out of aircraft, that improves the interoperability also. Well the biggest takeaway from this exercise Falcon Leap is the long way that we have to go, getting to the end goal, the interoperability as high as possible. There are many rules and regulations which each nationality has within the aircraft, outside the aircraft, because of the parachute, rules of regulations of transport etc etc. So taking this exercise and getting to the end goal it will take more than just one session of an exercise Falcon Leap. It will require more training, more talking, getting more on paper in doctrine just to get to the point that it's normal to get in somebody else's plane, jumping with somebody else's parachute and knowing the SOP, the standard operating procedures of each other. Well the favorite part is this, looking around, the weather is good, we're jumping, people are happy, people are talking to each other and even outside the hours that we're not working, getting together, talking about experiences, talking about future operations or past operations, sharing the knowledge that they have, it makes just a fun exercise. Well it's not that obvious that we will use other nationality parachutes if we're performing a national operation. But using the other nationality parachutes or aircraft you will learn about their procedures, you can fix your own procedures and vice versa. They can do that also learning of the experiences of our country or my country and put them as a lesson learned towards your own procedures. So if every country and we have ten walking around do that, not only the jumping together part is done but also learning from each other is done. The advantage of using each other's parachutes or aircraft, it improves the interoperability and not only in the use of the parachutes itself or the way how you jump but it takes you and it gives you lessons learned on the way how you perform the different procedures going into the aircraft or getting into the chute or arranging a DPRT airfield. It is not that obvious that you will jump with another nationality parachute if you have an operation real time but it still gives you lessons learned all the way up to performing with your own parachute in a real operation. The foreign wings is of course a benefit that you have attending an exercise like this. You're jumping with other nationality parachutes. We already talked about the lessons learned that you get from it but beneficial is that you get the foreign wings also. It gives a kind of a bond between the different nationalities and that is something that you will see also in the hours when we're not working. People are still wearing the foreign wings that they earned that day showing it off to their friends or their new friends and their new colleagues that they met during this exercise and that is a good thing to see. While we're standing here in Schaasberg in Holland and it's a beautiful weather day today so we jumped all day. Yesterday the weather was a little bit less. You don't see the disappointment, you see the professionalism of all the soldiers that walk around, all the airborne soldiers that walk around and on the moment that we start off with a good day or say and it's a go now, you see people with all the can-do mentality that you see in every nationality and every airborne soldier running to the bus, getting into the plane and getting into the jump. So that's a common thing that not only in our own nationality but we'll see in all the nationalities even a new nationality that participated for the first time. Interoperability is really important for future operations and you already saw it in the last operations. Getting into each other's procedures and rules, getting into each other's standard operating procedures, it's crucial to have an operation nowadays always international succeed. Well, it's not the first time that we work with the 82nd of course. We've been here in the earlier versions of Falcon Leap but also in other exercises. The common name between the 2nd Brigade and the 11th Brigade and the exercise Falcon Leap, well that's a pretty more bonding thing that we see during this exercise. My name is Captain Matthew Dakota. I am the Delta Company Commander for 2325 Air and I am also the airborne commander for Market Garden 77. We're here in the Netherlands to support interoperability between seven different allies, those being the French, the Belgians, the Germans, the Greeks, the Italians, the Czechs and the Polish and the Portuguese are all here in support of that interoperability. The coalition that we built back during the Second World War and the mission, the Market Garden mission, created an ally and a partnership and we're here to celebrate that anniversary for Market Garden 77. Market Garden is so important to the 82nd because we built a coalition during the Second World War and that coalition still remains today. The NATO allies that we have here stand with us and we've been partnering with them since Market Garden back in World War II. So this increases the U.S. capabilities. We've had a great time out here meeting all different partners and allies. Each night we manifest and that day we learn the shoots and the aircraft of each of our foreign partners. We train on it. We teach them on our T-11 parachute. We run them through our sustained airborne training the day prior and then we go out and we hope to have a good exit and land with a great PLF every time that we jump out of here. So for Market Garden 77, the U.S. and ally partners have created a plan, five jumps in five days, spanning five different airfields, one of them being in Belgium. The final jump will be on Saturday. That jump will be the Market Garden commemoration jump. All ally partners will jump and commemorate Market Garden 77. The best part has definitely been working with the other ally countries, seeing them each day, learning their shoots, discussing similar bonds of family and friends and getting to know one another has been a great experience for every paratrooper here and we hope to get to do it again in the future. So as the airborne commander, it's a unique opportunity to work with all of our ally partners each day, conducting manifests, running them through all the training and then each day we all meet up here at Einhoeven at the departure airfield. We go through all of our checks, make our weather decision and from there we load our planes and have a safe and fun exit each day. So I think the biggest takeaway from this is living the legacy each day. It's a great opportunity and a very gracious opportunity to come here and work with all of our ally partners, not only to work with them, but share with them the bond that we have. So living the legacy for us is something that we're going to bring back to everybody at Fort Bragg and make sure that they understand how much it's a great importance to keep all of our allies and continue to work with them in the future. The only thing I'd add is that each day we love hanging out and joining our friends and meeting new people. Working together has been an excellent opportunity for any paratrooper that's in the 82nd. It was definitely a dream of mine to always come over here and work with other partners and we'll bring that back to Fort Bragg and we'll share all of our experiences from here back there. Sergeant Taylor, I'm a driver at Second Brigade Combat Teams Brigade for Command Sergeant Major Del Valle. Previous, I was in 2508 Infantry Battalion as a line team leader for an infantry team, but I'm here to help transport and get the command team where they need to be. So we're in Netherlands and from my understanding we're here to kind of celebrate the past achievements and the working together with the different countries and kind of just appreciating what happened in the past and recognizing the sacrifices and the struggles that were there and just kind of getting to experience the whole thing. It's really cool because you kind of get to see how the other countries view the whole event itself with Market Garden and working alongside them you get to see that relationship and it's really interesting to see how they operate and how they view each other and us as well and it's a really cool opportunity that doesn't come very often. So my favorite part so far is being able to see the country itself. I'm a big fan of traveling and so getting to come to Europe and seeing the way of life and just imagining how different it could have been under the circumstances and seeing the way that people are. Obviously taking advantage of the opportunities to jump with foreign jump masters and getting to integrate with them and then at the same time as I spoke of previously I'm one of the drivers for the command team so I help transport Sergeant Major Del Valle, Colonel Kennery, getting them to where they need to be so that everything can run smoothly as possible. Well I mean it's kind of like drawing from a well of information and skills and whatnot you know you have all these different countries that jump just like we do but they may do it slightly different or maybe they have a different approach and so I think being from the 82nd we're getting the opportunity to see how the countries operate under the same conditions that we do back home and I think it just better helps us understand like the different environments because you know like the Polish you know the you know Norwegian all these guys they jump under different conditions where maybe one day we might be in those same conditions and we get to draw from their experience and I think it would benefit us in the long run. I think a lot of people don't understand how I think friendly would be the word to use how friendly we are with other countries because it's not really seen it's not really put on the front pages you know so being here being able to like face to face interact with other soldiers and not just officers but they're enlisted as well and the ties and relationships that we're building here and it really just opens your eyes to kind of take away and see what life is like and as well as the military life as well and it's really cool so I'm Sergeant George Taylor I'm an infantryman and I work at the second brigade combat team headquarters been in the division itself and a paratrooper for going on five years now I'm Sergeant George Taylor I'm an infantryman and I work at the second brigade combat team headquarters been in division and a paratrooper for going on five years so market garden itself it's it's a really good event and it's a good reminder to our soldiers back home and paratroopers of where we came from and the struggles that we endured with other countries alike and it's a great experience to be able to see just what we've accomplished in the years and the progress we've made just happy to be a part of the event it's a great opportunity and it's great honor to be here I'm a specialist Kayla Burke 68 whiskey combat medic 82nd Airborne I just got my German wings I loved it is a pretty rough jump their parachutes are a little over the Nars but you know I landed I'm here and I got some wings to prove it so that's always awesome and the Germans were very nice very professional great guys we are in we're in the Netherlands for Falcon Leap it's you know just combination of all the different nations around here joining together and get to know each other familiarized with their equipment and just bond it's a really great time so now that I have experience with different parachutes and different gear and equipment and you know a little bit of the language I know more of how they operate so if the time were to ever come where I rig up with some Germans I know what I'm doing now it's it's a good time good time biggest takeaway would be just diversity you know with everybody working together coming from different places speaking different languages with different equipment and different ways of doing things you know that's what the US military is all about so it's just one culminating event of that which is what the army is all about is diversity so it was just a very very good experience with that you know as different as everything is jumping out of airplane is the same thing really I did jump with the Czechs and they had a helicopter that they did that I've never jumped out of before I've done a Black Hawk and so it took a second to learn their their way of doing things but you know at the end of the day it's the hook stand up hookup shuffle to the door you know at the smallest level of every military it's it's the same thing like you know Joe's or Joe's it doesn't matter what language they speak so we've some of like the French and the German I've talked with them a lot and even though there's a quite a big language barrier we share experiences and they you know I'll talk about a field experience or getting dropped or you know something like that and they know exactly what I'm talking about I think the same way you bond with people when you get to a new unit just through shared experiences even though French person I might not speak the same language we have enough to tell a joke or a story and they have similar experiences you know at the basic level when it all comes down to it paratroopers or paratroopers and they understand that I am Sergeant Adam Levkovki from 6th Airborne Brigade from Poland my primary job is to organize combat training and exercise events and that's it so I take part in the exercise Falcon Leap as a single paratrooper and my primary job is to get experience and to share the knowledge we have among other airborne forces yeah that's it and it what is more tomorrow I will take part in the ceremonial part of the exercise of the anniversary of the Operation Market Garden I stay with the 6th Airborne Brigade color guard so this is my third time in here I mean taking part in the exercise Falcon Leap the very first time I was two years ago than they are before and this is my third time and believe me or not the I'm as impressed as at the very first time the all event is extremely well organized coordinated with so many nations so many aircraft so many people on board and it's a great experience to be here to see how other airborne forces perform how they do their job how they organize the airport training how they perform in the in the air in the aircraft before exit yeah and this is the great experience for us what is more we would like to share the Polish experience as well that's why we brought the Polish plane here our shoots to give you a chance to jump the Polish to to earn the Polish wings it's it's a great to be part of the airborne community and being in here the that is correct our parachute they have small knife on the reserve shoot the knife should be used when you have some kind of malfunction but as I believe other nations know the Czech people they use the knife as we do but the rest not yeah but this is our procedure and this is how we teach our troops yeah and this is part of our system that's it two days ago I jumped with the French and yesterday unfortunately the weather was not good enough to jump for me and today I will jump as I say old-school style and my 17th helicopter with the Czech shoot so it's gonna be the great experience again honestly being here in Netherlands and seeing how other airborne troops train and what kind of equipment they use the shoots are quite similar there are just small differences and it's a great to see yeah those small differences but nevertheless it's easy if you are an airborne in US in Netherlands or in Poland it's easy to learn and jump with other nations and yeah that's that's a huge that's a great thing here this is the another very positive side of the exercise Falcon Falcon leaping in Netherlands the social part of the event we can see another airborne people from many different countries we use the same kind of the bread the same color of the bread and we can recognize each other very easily and they can be fought some kind of the relation between the people when we stop when we speak about what we do what what is to be an airborne guy because we are kind of the light forces within our armies we yeah and it's a great and this is another positive side of this event the socialized part we can make some relations with another people and speak for example we speak right now about the exercise what we would like to organize next year together with Netherlands and yeah this is the best place to speak about such things so after the exercises like this one like Falcon leaping in Netherlands we prepare a kind of the document it is called conclusions when we say what good behaviors we have seen what kind of the organization we could spot here and try to do and share this good good behaviors back in Poland as well as the among people as well as among the organization and this is I think the one side and my personal positive aspect of this exercise is that today is a very special day for me I am going to make my jump number 100 and I am extremely proud that I will have a chance to give a jump into the Dutch soil where 77 years ago our grandfathers from first Polish independent partial brigade jumped during operation market garden