A young lieutenant staged his gear at the Fort Bragg, North Carolina, airfield on Thursday -- awaiting the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft that would take him and his troops to Europe amid one of the first major faceoffs between the U.S. and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is his first deployment, and it came with virtually no notice.

"It's excited nervousness," he said. "My grandfather was in the 82nd; my dad was also at Bragg for a while. So this means a lot that I can be here. My dad reached out and said congratulations."

Military.com was granted access to the soldiers deploying to Europe, on the condition they not be named. Troops shuffled into the airfield's staging area, where they ate breakfast; grabbed water and Meals, Ready-to-Eat; and boarded a plane to cross the Atlantic with no clear schedule for when they will return home.

The first wave of some 2,000 U.S. troops to beef up NATO's warfighting capacity in eastern Europe deployed from Fort Bragg, tasked with deterring any plans Russian President Vladimir Putin might have to conquer Ukraine using the 130,000-strong force he's amassed in surrounding countries.

Paratroopers departed on a C-17 around noon Thursday. Troops were placed on heightened alert last week by the Biden administration and told to prepare to rapidly deploy as Russia has built up forces near several countries' borders with Ukraine. Russia has demanded that Ukraine be barred from ever joining NATO.

Troops from Fort Bragg are set to deploy to Germany and Poland, far from the front lines of Ukraine -- and the danger from any initial blitz by Russian troops.

Another 8,500 troops are still on a so-called heightened alert, including those with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The alert order also included units at bases in Arizona, Texas, Washington state, Louisiana, Georgia and Ohio.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The wars of the wider Middle East that long surrounded the United Arab Emirates now have encroached into daily life in this U.S.-allied nation, threatening to draw America further into a region inflamed by tensions with Iran.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched missile and drone attacks since January targeting the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms home to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and the skyscrapers and beaches of Dubai. American forces at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, home to some 2,000 U.S. troops, twice have opened fire with their own Patriot missiles to help intercept the air assaults by the Iranian-backed Houthis.

The two incidents represent the first time since 2003 that the U.S. has fired the Patriot in combat — a nearly 20-year span. It also comes after the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and its declared end to the American combat mission in Iraq.

Though overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, the U.S. now says it is committing more advanced fighter jets to the Emirates, as well as sending the USS Cole on a mission there. This spillover of Yemen's yearslong war into the UAE puts American troops in the crosshairs of the Houthi attacks — and raises the risk of a regional escalation at a crucial moment of talks in Vienna to potentially restore Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.

The Emirates since its founding in 1971 has been an otherwise safe corner of the Mideast. During the bloody 1980s war between Iran and Iraq, Dubai's massive Jebel Ali port repaired ships damaged in the so-called Tanker War. The 1991 Gulf War saw Kuwaitis flee into the Emirates and gave birth to the close military ties America has with the country today.

The final resting place of Captain James Cook's HMB Endeavour has been found, Australian experts say - a claim their US colleagues say is "premature".

On Thursday, the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) said a wreck in Newport Harbour, off Rhode Island in the US, had been confirmed as the ship.

But the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) immediately said "many unanswered questions" remained.

The British-built coal ship famously landed in eastern Australia in 1770.

Before that, HM Bark Endeavour had sailed for several years around the South Pacific, after setting out from Plymouth in England.

The vessel, then known as Lord Sandwich II, was sunk with 12 other ships off Rhode Island in August 1778 - but no-one was sure where.

"I am satisfied that this is the final resting place of one of the most important and contentious vessels in Australia's maritime history," ANMM Director and CEO Kevin Sumption said in a statement.

"The last pieces of the puzzle had to be confirmed before I felt able to make this call.

"Based on archival and archaeological evidence, I'm convinced it's the Endeavour," Mr Sumption added.

But shortly afterwards, the RIMAP, the lead team involved in the years-long research, posted a statement saying the ANMM report "that the Endeavour has been identified is premature".

The RIMAP accused the ANMM of a breach of the contract between the two organisations "for the conduct of this research and how its results are to be shared with the public".

"What we see on the shipwreck site under study is consistent with what might be expected of the Endeavour, but there has been no indisputable data found to prove the site is that iconic vessel, and there are many unanswered questions that could overturn such an identification," said the statement by RIMAP's Executive Director Kathy Abbass.

It added that "when the study is done, RIMAP will post the legitimate report on its website" and that its "conclusions will be driven by proper scientific process and not Australian emotions or politics".