C-130J arrives in Germany

[unhappycamper]

A C-130J airlift plane from the Rhode Island Air National Guard is participating in the military training exercise Operation Thracian Spring 2009 in Bulgaria this week with C-130E crews from the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.


C-130J arrives in Germany
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, March 13, 2009

BEZMER AIR BASE, Bulgaria — As the two gray military cargo jets flew over a farmer’s field near this base in the country’s rural southeast, their differences were barely noticeable.

Passing low over their ground target — a small orange tent billowing in a chilly March wind — the planes each dropped a 15-pound sandbag from their open rear hatches.

The bags swiftly parachuted to the ground, one landing 70 yards, the other 100 yards, from what airlift crews called the point of impact.

"This could be a combat zone. Thirty yards is nothing," said 1st Lt. Ryan Taylor, a C-130E co-pilot with the Ramstein, Germany-based 37th Airlift Squadron, as he trudged through the drop zone.

The comparison can’t be helped: The two C-130s participating in the Operation Thracian Spring 2009 exercise in Bulgaria might as well be birds of a different breed.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61301