On 6 January 1969, US ground troops arrive from America at Frankfurt airport on C-141 Starlifter military aircraft to take part in the Reforger I exercise (‘return of forces to Germany’). This annual exercise, carried out by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) from 1969 to 1993, is intended to demonstrate NATO’s ability to deploy more than a hundred thousand men to defend West Germany in the event of a conflict with the Warsaw Pact. The soldiers’ equipment is already stored in Europe in huge warehouses, most of which are in West Germany.