A Marine MH-53 helicopter, assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265, takes off May 8, 2008 from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Essex. Essex is the lead ship of the only forward-deployed U.S. expeditionary strike group and is participating in Cobra Gold 2008, a joint military exercise sponsored by the United States and Thailand designed to enhance interoperability between joint U.S. forces and the combined forces of the Thai, Singaporean, Japanese and Indonesian militaries.