usually flying at low level and vulnerable to enemy ground weapons fire. Troop carrier squadrons and groups had to demonstrate skill in unit operations, including the transportation of paratroops, and the towing and releasing of loaded gliders in mass flights. Special curricula for the meeting of these standards were developed by I Troop Carrier Command. Besides the combat element of their mission, troop carrier units had the mission of transportation of personnel, supplies and equipment within a theater of operations. Troop carrier squadrons frequently operated out of rough airfields (Advanced Landing Grounds) near the front lines, carrying everything from gasoline, small-arms munitions, artillery shells, food, medical supplies, tents and other necessities to support the front-line units in the field. The landing grounds might be manned by AAF units or unmanned. They were located in the deserts of North Africa, farmers' fields in Italy and France, or in a carved out strip of jungle in Burma, the Philippines or New Guinea. Specially-equipped medical evacuation C-47s would land near field hospitals to transport casualties to rear area hospitals for follow-on medical treatment. Paratrooper training or during the final portion of it, troop carrier units engaged in combined exercises with elements of the Airborne Command (Army Ground Forces). It was not coincidental that several of the command's training schools were located on Army airfields on or near Army airborne division training camps. Pope Field was on Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and later 11th Airborne Division. Grenada Field, Mississippi was located near Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, home of the 101st Airborne Division; Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base, North Carolina, was frequently the location of joint exercises between troop carrier units and Army airborne units. Several realistic training maneuvers between the Army airborne and Air Force troop carrier units were held. These maneuvers, which lasted for about two months, were divided into three phases. The first consisted of small-scale operations in which a company of airborne soldiers was transported, then would parachute out of aircraft into designated drop zones. The scale of movement was increased in the second period, and during the final phase whole divisions were moved as units over distances up to 300 miles, with both parachutists and towed CG-4 gliders being landed, frequently on auxiliary training airfields. After the exercise was completed, training in glider retrieval by the troop carrier units was conducted. In each stage of combined training the