WEBVTT

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(upbeat orchestral music)

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- Thanks for joining us, I'm Staff Sergeant Mariko Frazee,

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what started with just one bundle, and one island,

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has continued on to be the longest ongoing D.O.D.

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Humanitarian airlift in the world.

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Senior Airman Dhruv Gopinath takes us onboard.

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^- Bundles built and loaded,

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^all that is left for the 66th Operation Christmas Drop

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^is to delivery the goods.

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And then from Australia, Japan, and the U.S. are flying

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to over 50 islands to spread the holiday spirit.

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Airman First Class Stephen Clark, the load master for the

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36th Airlift Squadron and Operation Christmas drop rookie,

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says that being able to take part has

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been an awesome experience.

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^- Absolutely amazing, everything I expected it to be.

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^Just flying over with the doors open, seeing the people,

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^it was an amazing feeling, and being able to wave at 'em

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towards the end when we're passing over after we drop

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the bundles and seeing them wave back, it was a,

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it was a really good feeling.

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- Senior Airman Dhruv Gopinath,

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Anderson Airforce Base, Guam.

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- After two weeks of combat readiness training and

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strengthening relationships, one of the largest

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bilateral command post exercises comes to an end.

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Lance Corporal Jessica Valencia has more.

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^- As exercise Yama Sakura 73 comes to an end, U.S soldiers

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^and Japan grounds self-defense force members come together

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for the closing remarks.

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^- Yama Sakura is foundational to the dedicated partnership

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^to the U.S-Japan security alliance and the challenges

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are getting more complex, the threats are out there

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rapidly evolving, things like ending the ground component

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command, things like having multi-domain battle aspects

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make it even more of a challenge, and help us develop

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that innovation and effort we'll need as we work together.

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- After months of planning and weeks working with the

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Japan ground self-defense force, the two forces are better

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prepared to work together in the future.

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That does it for this years Yama Sakura,

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reporting for D.O.D News,

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I'm Lance Corporal Jessica Valencia.

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- That does it for this Newsbreak, thanks for watching.