By NANCY MONTGOMERY | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 11, 2021 VICENZA, Italy A skydiving accident that killed an Italian-Argentine instructor on Sunday and severely injured a U.S. paratrooper is being investigated by three different authorities, according to media reports and the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Carabinieri overseen by a Vicenza prosecutor have begun one probe and seized the helmet-mounted video camera worn by Skydive Thiene instructor Emiliano Basile, who died in the accident, L’Eco Vicentino newspaper reported. An autopsy on the 38-year-old’s remains will be conducted in the next few days, it said. The two parachutes involved in the accident and backpacks containing the two men’s emergency parachutes were also seized.
Massive, Army-led NATO exercise Defender Europe kicks off March 15 M1 Abrams tanks stand ready to be loaded onto American Roll-on Roll-Off Carrier s Endurance in Savannah, Ga., in February 2020 for Defender Europe 20. (Pfc. Carlos Cuebas Fantauzzi/Army) One of the largest U.S.-Army led military exercises in decades has kicked off and will run until June, with 28,000 total troops from 27 nations taking part. Defender Europe 2021 will include “nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas” in a dozen countries. The exercise is the deployment of a division-size force from the United States to Europe, pulling equipment from Army prepositioned stocks, then moving personnel and equipment across the theater to multiple training areas.