Stars and Stripes:

U.S. soldiers are operating German Patriot missile systems in Greece alongside three allied nations, as part of a two-week exercise focused on defending NATO’s eastern flank.

About 250 troops from the U.S., Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands are taking part in the air defense operations at NATO’s firing range on the Greek island of Crete, military officials said.

“This type of training ensures that U.S. (air and missile defense) forces and NATO forces are integrated, able to operate together and ready to respond to any threat from all directions,” Col. Bruce Bredlow, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command’s deputy commander, said in a statement on Thursday as training got underway.

The 678th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, based out of South Carolina and on a nine-month rotation in Europe, is serving as the command and control element for the drills, which seek to “enhance the combined U.S. and European ability to control defensive fires in Eastern Europe,” the Army said in a statement…

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