Drills

U.S. Paratroopers Drop Into Poland to Send Putin a Message

Thirty-five U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s quick reaction force -- cheeks, foreheads and necks slathered in green-brown camouflage paint -- jumped into Poland Tuesday in a tightly timed sequence that lasted only 22 seconds.

They were in the lead plane of six C-17s that dropped more than 400 Americans in a simultaneous operation with Polish and British paratroopers to show the allies could deter an assertive Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine. It’s being run in combination with a major Polish land exercise called “Exercise Anakonda.”