More than 300 jumpers from US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team and the US Air Force’s 435th Contingency Response Group took part in a mass jump from C-130J Super Hercules transports over Alzey, Germany, on 10 February 2012, to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the 37th Airlift Squadron. The 37th AS, based at Ramstein AB, Germany, was activated 14 February 1942 at Patterson Field, Ohio. Known as the Blue Tail Flies, the unit participated in the D-Day airdrops and Operation Market Garden in World War II; troop transport in Korea; and Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of US POWs from North Vietnam in 1973. The 173rd ABCT is stationed at Vicenza, Italy, and the 435th CRG is based at Ramstein.
