Army investigating after training jump injuries

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) – The Army is investigating a night parachute training accident that injured 32 soldiers, four of them seriously enough to need hospitalization.

Col. Christopher Landers is commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. He says injuries during training jumps are fairly common. But he says the scale of this accident is fairly rare, with 87 soldiers blown into trees.

He says he knows of about a half-dozen accidents with large numbers of solders ending up in trees during his career, and each had a different cause.

Landers said the last soldier was brought down about 8 a.m. Thursday but equipment was still being retrieved that afternoon.

A town hall for paratroopers and their families will be held at the Alaska base where the brigade combat team is based.

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