FRIDAY FOTO (June 28, 2013)

Garuda Shield

(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod)

Two weeks ago we showed you U.S. Marines jumping out of a helicopter with French paratroopers into the skies over East Africa. Now we have a photo of Army and Indonesian paratroopers jumping from a C-17 Globemaster into the skies over West Java in Indonesia. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you can see theC-17’s right wing and part of the stabilizer amid the opening chutes as it flies on.

The troops taking part in this nearly picture perfect tactical airborne drop are from the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division and Indonesian Army 1st Infantry Division. It was all part of an exercise called Garuda Shield, which ran from June 10 to 21. Here’s a link to the Garuda Shield Facebook page.

Garuda Shield 13, which marked the seventh iteration of the bilateral exercise since 2004, included planning and executing a combined brigade-level command post drill in which Indonesian and American soldiers planned and executed peacekeeping operations. Here’s a link to a Stars and Stripes story on the exercise.

To see more photos of the airborne drop click here.

To see other photos of the exercise in Indonesia, click here and here and  here.