 Cope North is a joint multinational training exercise focused on airborne integration for large force employment, agile combat employment, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief training. The checkerboard's role in Cope North was to provide a VMFA in support of the exercise to increase interoperability awareness for both our joint partners as well as our multinational allies. We can't become too comfortable with operating unilaterally. The way that we're going to be successful when and not if we're called upon is by continuing to focus on hard training anchored against realistic threats with an expeditionary mindset while integrating with our joint multinational partners like we did here in Cope North. We've been able to learn a lot from our partners in the exercise. It's been invaluable especially for our younger aircrew to experience the level of integration in the exercise. Studying and knowing the capabilities of other aircraft or nations is one thing, but getting into a jet, launching into a large force exercise with up to 40 other aircraft to accomplish a realistic mission in all weather is where you really find out the limits and capabilities of everyone you're going to fight alongside someday.