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PLOVDIV, Bulgaria — Service members from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Bulgarian air force are participating in a two-week jump exercise, which started Oct. 9 and is scheduled to end Saturday.
Operation Thracian Fall 2011 is part of a semiannual, off-station training that gives U.S. and coalition jumpers and pilots an opportunity to hone their battlefield skills together.
“We are here to further the U.S./Bulgarian ties through cooperative training with Bulgarian forces,” said Capt. Beau Tresemer, mission commander for Thracian Fall 2011. “It’s a great opportunity to see how other countries train and prepare to fight.”
C-130J Super Hercules from Ramstein, along with Bulgarian C-27 Spartans, will continue to drop more than 100 coalition service members near a designated drop zone the rest of this week.
A plus to the training is the added benefit of working alongside Bulgarian service members, giving them a broad spectrum look at how the Air Force prepares for contingencies.
“Our pilots are accomplishing day and night flying with simulated combat drops in unfamiliar mountainous terrain,” Tresemer said. “At the same time, we are helping Bulgarians get their personnel airdrop qualifications.
“The Bulgarian airspace allows us the training we can’t get in Germany,” he continued. “There are less restrictions on altitudes. Here, we are allowed to fly as low as what our regulations say we can.”
However, training isn’t the only thing getting accomplished in Bulgaria. The relationships built with the jumpmasters from the U.S. and jumpers from Bulgaria is a bond that solidifies with each jump.
“It gets easier when we have a solid foundation of jumping with them in the past,” said Staff Sgt. Myron Austin, 435th Contingency Response Group airborne planner and jumpmaster for the operation. “This is my third trip to Bulgaria and I have made plenty of friends that know me by face. The trust is there.”
