Parachute riggers with 1st SFG (A), 82nd Airborne, US Navy collaborate in building lifesaving apparatus

Courtesy Photo | YIGO, Guam – A crew comprised of U.S. Army parachute riggers with Group Support Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and 11th Quartermaster Company, 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, build an apparatus at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to deliver medical supplies to an injured service member aboard a vessel out at sea, July 25, 2021. The parachute riggers are in Guam for the Forager 21 Exercise, which is a U.S. Army Pacific exercise designed for the Theater Army to exercise Joint-integrated, multi-domain operations in an island environment, and to test and employ emerging capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. Though the injured service member aboard the vessel was ultimately evacuated by helicopter, service members from several branches combined their resources and experience to fulfill this critical task. (U.S. Army courtesy photo)  

YIGO, GUAM

07.25.2021

Story by Spc. Thoman Johnson 

1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)

YIGO, Guam – A crew comprised of U.S. Army parachute riggers with Group Support Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne); 11th Quartermaster Company, 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division; and a parachute rigger assigned to U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command, built an apparatus at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, designed to be parachuted into the ocean and floated to deliver medical supplies to treat an injured service member on a vessel out at sea July 25, 2021. “We [needed] to make something happen for this [service member],” said the parachute rigger with GSB, 1st SFG (A). “We were going to be dropping supplies into the ocean to be able to treat that service member for real-world injury.” The team of parachute riggers used a 55-gallon water barrel and added padding to protect the medical supplies within. The barrel was attached to a cardboard platform and tied to a parachute. This would allow the barrel to be parachuted into the ocean and float until it could be recovered. With the medical emergency on the vessel in mind, the parachute riggers constructed the apparatus and had it loaded on a plane ready to be deployed within an hour. Though the injured service member aboard the vessel was ultimately evacuated by helicopter, service members from several branches combined their resources and experience to fulfill this critical task. The parachute riggers are in Guam for the Forager 21 Exercise, which is a U.S. Army Pacific exercise designed for the Theater Army to exercise Joint-integrated, multi-domain operations in an island environment, and to test and employ emerging capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. While balancing their duties essential to the Forager 21 exercise, amid limited resources and within a short time span of a few hours, the parachute riggers created an innovative method to deliver equipment that would render aid to a real-life casualty.

• Date Taken: 07.25.2021
• Date Posted: 07.26.2021 18:30
• Story ID: 401691
• Location: YIGO, GU
• Hometown: JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US