​NATO-led mission 'Resolute Support' in Afghanistan is coming to an end based on the Alliance's decision made in the Spring.

Since all of the Strategic Airlift Capability Member Nations had a footprint in Afghanistan, a vast amount of their equipment and personnel needed to be withdrawn in a short amount of time from the Middle East country.

The SAC team of multinational aircrews, command and control experts, loadmasters, aerial porters, Boeing maintenance professionals conducted the Strategic Airlift Capability's first operational staged operation ever in Otopeni, Romania to pull out as much cargo and personnel as possible in a short period of two weeks.

This meant flying two of our C-17s to Otopeni and establishing an air-bridge between Bagram, Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Romania. On 26 July, SAC-02 was the last cargo mission of the Allied forces leaving Bagram.

Within this two-week period the SAC transported for Member Nations Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Romania, and for Mongolia in coordination with Germany and sponsored by Member Nation United States of America.

While in Otopeni, two SAC C-17s made 66 sorties in 25 missions, and moved 592 passengers, 88 pallets, 21 rolling stock, and more than 300 ton of cargo.

The staged operation was one-of-a-kind in multinational military cooperation in the sense that nations' cargo and personnel were combined to maximize airlift capacity and get everything out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. The SAC managed to bring all requested transport back to Europe and completed the stage operation 24 hours earlier than originally planned.