At least 22 paratroopers hurt during night training jump at Mississippi base
More than 20 paratroopers were injured when they landed outside their target zone in trees during training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi Wednesday night, military officials said. The Army said a C-130 transport plane carrying the soldiers missed its intended drop zone.
A U.S. Army spokesman told CBS News 22 troops were hurt, with seven brought to an area hospital and the rest treated by medics at the scene. A staff sergeant at the base told CBS News that many soldiers were lightly to moderately wounded – most sustained scrapes.
The Army's Alaska-based 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, said some 650 soldiers were starting a 10-day training exercise at the time. About 3,000 troops from the division were in Mississippi participating in "Arctic Anvil," the largest exercise Camp Shelby has ever hosted.
The soldiers began a nighttime airborne training exercise at around 8 p.m. Wednesday. The soldiers were parachuting from C-130 transport planes when one of them, carrying 87 soldiers, missed its intended drop zone. Instead of landing on the ground, the troops crashed into trees.
Camp Shelby is the largest state-owned military training base in the country, covering more than 134,000 acres. During the height of the Iraq war, it was often the last stop for National Guard troops training to go to the Middle East.
