November 14, 1999

America sent a 133 man signal unit to help out in the East Timor peacekeeping. 
As is typical with communications units, they have a lot of equipment. But when it came time to get these troops and their 500 tons of gear across the Pacific in a hurry, it put a strain on U.S. air transport capabilities. Six C-17s and one C-5 were needed to move all of this. It was a sobering experience for the people in charge of moving U.S. forces to distant battlefields.