Exercise Carpathian Spring, an annual bilateral capacity-building exercise between the United States and Romania commenced at Otopeni Air Base and Campia Turzii in Romania. C-130Js and airmen from Ramstein AB, Germany, are participating in the week-long exercise, along with US Army and Romanian military personnel. Air-dropping Romanian paratroopers on Monday, the exercise’s opening day, Romania’s uncongested airspace and dynamic terrain through the Carpathian Mountains offered the rare opportunity in Europe for mountainous, low-level flight training. “The mission today was very good,” said 37th Airlift Squadron C-130J pilot Col. Edward Watson, who leads the Ramstein contingent. He added, “We met all of the Romanian objectives today and got all of the jumpers out safely.” (Otopeni report by TSgt. Jocelyn Rich)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.