Photo By Spc. Alicia Clark | Staff Sgt. Viviana Y. Paredes, a parachute rigger with the Airborne and Special...... read more read more
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By Pfc. Alicia C. Torbush
20th Public Affairs Detachement
"There's nothing special about me in particular," said Staff Sgt. Viviana Y. Paredes, a parachute rigger with the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate. "What is special is what I do and [whom] I do it with."
There are about 1,700 parachute riggers in the Army and only 10 percent of them are female. Of the 1,700 parachute riggers, there are just over 40 test jumpers in ABNSOTD.
Each test that the parachutists perform is congressionally mandated and each piece of equipment goes through rigorous evaluations prior to being tested in the air.
ABNSOTD conducts testing by dropping equipment rigged with parachutes from airplanes to ensure the equipment functions properly after multiple airborne drops.
"We test everything that needs to be dropped out of an airplane," said Paredes, a native of Panama.
According to Paredes, the test directorate is the final evaluation before a piece of equipment is fielded to Soldiers.
"Anytime I get on a plane with my peers it is reviving history and tradition," said Paredes. "I am part of an elite force."
Paredes joined the Army in 2001 in order to become a U.S. citizen and to acquire citizenship for the two eldest of her three children.
From the start, she set out to become part of the 82nd Airborne Division after she witnessed paratroopers from the 82nd conduct their first combat jump since World War II, during Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama, from Torrijos International Airport in December 1989.
"I tell my husband all the time that I am like a stool," said Paredes. "A stool has three legs that hold it up. I have the military, my family and my religion."
As a devote Roman Catholic, Paredes says she prays three times before she jumps: once when the plane goes up, once when the jump master starts to give commands and the last time when she hands her static line to the safety and steps out the door.
Each jump is an adrenaline rush, said Paredes
Paredes recently revived history by commemorating National Airborne Day, Aug. 16, 2008, with a display that showed photos of Airborne Soldiers and the current and historical patches.
"The display just reinforces her love, not only for the military, but also for the Airborne," said Maj. Mike Foster, liaison officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition Logistics and Technology.
The display is about nostalgia, explained Paredes. There is no airborne mission in Kuwait so the camaraderie that a person gets from being part of this unique group of Soldiers is missing. The display brought people forward to share their stories about being airborne.
| Date Taken: | 08.29.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2008 12:01 |
| Story ID: | 23017 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 311 |
| Downloads: | 73 |
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