WEBVTT

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- Yep, so the HAW's a Heavy Airlift Wing,

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it's a multi-national C-17 Unit,

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the only one of it's kind in the world.

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It consist of 12 nations

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that brought their personnel and resources

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together to own and operate
three C-17 aircraft.

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And so we're a multi-national unit

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that does a full spectrum
of C-17 missions.

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Just the same as the United States,

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everything from air refueling, to airdrop,

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to Austere Field operations.

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Combat airlift, we do all the same things

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the United States does on a smaller scale,

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but with the cooperation

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of these 12 nations here
to get out doin' it.

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Yeah, so initially when you
set something like this up,

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nations are all trying to figure

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each other out, and figure
how to be inter-operable.

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But over the course of 10 years

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I think we've done a very good job,

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of the nations coming
together as a cohesive unit,

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and being able do airlift
operations together.

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Everything from older facilities

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to moving into new ones,

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this helps augment that, if you will.

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But I think that they've really gotten

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use to working with each other
over the course of 10 years.

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It's Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland,

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Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands,

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Norway, Poland, Romania,

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Slovenia, Sweden and the United States.

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- [Interviewer] Good.

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Yeah, so we're centrally
located here in Europe.

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And so the readiness stems
from our ability to work

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with each other, these 12 nations

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that are involved in the program.

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And to get us to a level
that where we can go

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and do any airlift operation immediately.

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For example in 2017 we we're called upon

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by The Netherlands to do a humanitarian

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mission to Sint Maarten in the Caribbean,

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after the hurricane.

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Went through there and
we we're ready to go

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because we've spent 10 years

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working together, and perfecting processes

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and we we're able to
put a crew and mission

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together fairly quick
to go out and do that.

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Yeah, so in the, probably
the 90's I would say,

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the North Atlantic, no NATO I should say.

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There were several studies and discussions

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about having a strategic
airlift capability.

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And so, when we talk strategic airlift

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we're talking long-distances,

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is kinda the best way to think about it.

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And so in the United States we have

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the C-17 of course, we have C-5's

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they fly a long distances,

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but Europe itself didn't have

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any organic aircraft to do that with.

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So when Afghanistan
kicked-off in early 2001

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timeframe, the nations in
North Atlantic Council,

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the discussion got more intense I guess.

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It was like, hey, we need to find

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some way to do this without relying

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on the United States solely to do it.

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And that's when the decision was taken

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with the group of nations that purchase

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and operate C-17's, so
they can have their own

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ability to do the same thing
as long-distance missions,

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which are what we call strategic.

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So my name's Colonel James Sparrow,

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I'm the Vice Commander

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of the Heavy Airlift Wing
here in Papa, Hungary,

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which is a 12 nation
consortium flying C-17's.

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And we're celebrating 10 years

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of operations this year.

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We're having a big anniversary dinner

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this evening with presentations

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and some promotional video.

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And then we're doing a
Change of Command Ceremony

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tomorrow for the actual
Wing Command itself,

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to change over from my predecessor,

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who's a Norwegian Colonel to myself.

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My name's Colonel James Sparrow,

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I'm the Vice Commander of
the Heavy Airlift Wing,

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we're celebrating 10
years of operations today.

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It's a milestone of it's
program to reach a decade.

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Over 25,000 flight hours to date,

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supporting these 12 nations in and out

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of various AOR's around the world.

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Tonight we're having a anniversary dinner

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to commemorate that, to
give out some awards,

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recognize some people,
and tomorrow we're doing

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a Change of Command Ceremony.

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The air show following the
Change of Command Ceremony,

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we have several demonstrations
from our own C-17 aircraft,

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they are doing airdrop,

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as well as just flight demonstration.

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The Hungarian Air Force
is doin' a demonstration

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with their Gripin fighter,

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and with one of their helicopters as well.

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And then we have several static displays

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of various aircraft from the
12 nations that are here,

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for people just to walk around and see,

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and interact with the aircrews.

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There are, we're dropping
some Hungarian defense forces,

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they're doing a halo jump from, I think,

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about 5,000 feet, or something like that.

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So we're dropping some of them,

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as well as a container delivery
system, airdropped as well.

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Yeah, so I mean,

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DoD's number two priority

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is strengthening alliances
and partnerships.

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And so there's no better
way to do that than actually

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live and work with them,
and train to a level

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that we're all just as effective.

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And so we've been able to
do that here with the C-17,

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which is the aircraft

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they decided to purchase 10 years ago.

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And just able to work
with them day-by-day,

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you're strengthening those alliances,

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and there are other nations out there

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that look at this program
as a model for cooperation.

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And we've been called upon many times

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to share our background knowledge

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for other potential efforts in the future.

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I think it's pretty amazing you can take

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12 nations, you can take
seven or ten individuals

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from different countries,
and put 'em together

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in a aircrew, and they
can all fly together

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and operate in a standard way.

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You know there's no, the
language barrier is not an issue,

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English is very well spoken here.

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And so it's just amazing,
you can put people

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from multiple nations together

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and have 'em go out
there and fly a mission.

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And fly a mission not just for,

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United States, or Bulgaria, or Norway,

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or some other nation, but
any of the 12 nations,

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is we can go out and do that with a mix.

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I mean the individual nations
are a part of the program,

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they don't have to have their personnel

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on the mission that supports them.

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So you can have a mission flown by

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the United States with not a single

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U.S. crew member on it actually.

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That's pretty unique, yeah.