Jump to recovery
Paratrooper injured in Iraq parachutes into Key West

16th MP Bde. PAO

Powers

KEY WEST, Fla. — A paratrooper injured in Iraq took the final step in his recovery the last week of June – a step out the tailgate of a military aircraft into the skies above Key West, Fla.

Sgt. Daniel Powers of the 118th Military Police Company (Airborne), 503rd Military Police Battalion (Abn.), 16th Military Police Brigade (Abn.) completed his first parachute jump from a military aircraft June 23, since being stabbed in the head with a 9-inch knife while serving in Iraq. 

“This jump brings our story full circle, it gives it a conclusion,” said Trudy, Powers’ wife, commenting on her husband’s recovery and successful jump. Trudy was a guest of the brigade in Key West and watched her husband and 29 other paratroopers descend from an Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft into the ocean waters near Fleming Key.  The jump was Powers’ 44th jump and his first from an aircraft’s tailgate into water.
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Fine tuning combat skills, training academy prepares ISF personnel to maintain security gains

by Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea
3rd BCT, 82nd Abn. Div., MND-B PAO

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq — To ensure Iraqi security forces are ready to handle their country’s security, American paratroopers are taking their Iraqi partners to school in the sprawling deserts outside eastern Baghdad.
Dubbed the “Panther Recon Training Academy,” Paratroopers of Troop K, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, are advising and mentoring their ISF partners to hone their combat abilities and responsibilities.

The two-week academy trains both national police officers and Iraqi army soldiers on the fundamentals of combat. Whether it be learning how to move in a combat formation or planning, developing and executing a combat operation, ISF personnel are receiving first-hand instruction from their U.S. counterparts.  
 
While some ISF personnel in the academy have already been performing their duties throughout the country, the academy aims to fine-tune those skills.
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Exceptional Family Member Program
holds annual summer camp
by Tina Ray
Paraglide

Summer camp rolls around once a year, and Rachel Kiwaha said it is her favorite week of the year.

Kiwaha serves as Army Community Service’s Exceptional Family Member Program camp coordinator.

EFMP celebrated summer camp Monday to Friday at Nijmegen Neighborhood Center on Douve Place.

According to Kiwaha, 22 children attended the free camp that was supported by 23 staffers, not including six EFMP employees, and four volunteers to provide an adequate child to staff ratio.
“The reason we do such a high, one-on-one ratio is because most of our kids are severe to profound (special needs children),” Kiwaha said. “We don’t take kids that can typically integrate into a regular camp environment.”
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Soldiers climb on board for fishing tourney
by Eve Meinhardt
Paraglide

When Soldiers are tasked by their first sergeants for a ‘weekend of fun,’ it can mean almost anything from directing traffic to setting up tents. Two Soldiers from 503rd Maintenance Company were told earlier this week that they were selected to go to Wrightsville Beach, N.C. Saturday to ride along during the Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament.

The Soldiers met one of the crew in the hotel lobby at 4:30 a.m., not sure what their day would entail. One was sure that he would be doing more than just relaxing on the boat.
“When you receive a tasking, very rarely is there no work involved,” said Spc. Michael Coffey, a multi-launch rocket system repairer, from Inez, Ky. “I was happy to find out that we were just going on a fishing trip, not a part of a detail. I’ve only been fishing on lakes and rivers, never the open ocean, so I’ve been looking forward to this.”
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