September is always a special month in the Netherlands for anyone interested in military aviation and history. It is the month in which the country remembers Operation Market Garden, the ambitious Allied airborne operation of September 1944. Eindhoven Air Base once again played an important role in 2018, when it became the main operating base for Exercise Falcon Leap, an international airborne exercise culminating in the annual Market Garden commemoration at the Ginkelse Heide near Ede.

Falcon Leap
Falcon Leap was organised by the Dutch 11th Airmobile Brigade, together with the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s 336 Squadron, and brought together airborne troops and transport aircraft from several NATO nations. The exercise took place from 19 to 22 September and was designed not only to train parachutists, but also to improve cooperation between the different nations involved in airborne operations. The exercise provided some excellent participants at Eindhoven. The Dutch contribution consisted of a C-130H Hercules aircraft from 336 Squadron. It was joined by two civilian German M28 Skytrucks, a Polish CASA C-295 and two American C-130H Hercules. One C-130H from the 700^th Airlift Squadron from Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia and the other from the 934th Airlift Wing’s ‘Flying Vikings’ from Minneapolis–Saint Paul. This one carried special markings for the occasion, including invasion stripes and the code 6Z. The markings referred back to the American troop carrier units that had participated in Operation Market Garden in 1944, making the aircraft a particularly appropriate participant in the commemoration.

Market Garden
The climax came on Saturday 22 September when the exercise merged with the official commemoration of Operation Market Garden. The historic Ginkelse Heide, one of the original Allied drop zones, once again became the scene of a mass parachute drop. Around 700 military parachutists took part in the memorial jump, while thousands of spectators gathered to watch.