N.C. member, Army lt. col., receives French Paratrooper Wings after training mission

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(Left)
Lt. Col. Jayson A. Altieri at the Nancy airport before a joint French-U.S.  airborne operation.
 
(Right)
Lt. Col. Jayson A. Altieri (far left) and fellow U.S. and French paratroopers over France’s Gueblange Drop Zone. 

Photos by U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Stephen C. Madrid


Maj. Rob Mason
Commander
Fayetteville Composite Squadron
North Carolina Wing

FRANCE --U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jayson A. Altieri, who remains a member of the North Carolina Wing's Fayetteville Composite while deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, recently participated as a Combined Joint Task Force-82 member in a joint French-U.S. airborne operation as part of a mission readiness exercise for a French brigade headed to Afghanistan.
 
Altieri and seven other officers from the task force deployed from Afghanistan to Mailly-le-Camp, France, to the Centre D'Entrainement Au Combat (Combat Training Center).  The U.S. team members worked with their French counterparts, conducting mission planning and command and control of the French 21st Mountain Brigade.

The brigade is composed of both regular French Army and French Foreign Legion soldiers. It is scheduled to be d for about six months to the Kapisa Province of Afghanistan. .
 
After the 10-day exercise ended, Altieri and the rest of the team moved on to Dieuze, near the city of Nancy, for pre-jump parachute training with the French 13th Dragoon Parachute Regiment, a cavalry unit that traces it linage to the late 1600s and which now conducts airborne reconnaissance  missions around the globe.

After a short flight from the Nancy airport the U.S. and French paratroopers exited their CASA 235 aircraft over the Gueblange Drop Zone, a few miles from 13th Dragoon Headquarters.
 
After a successful exit from 1,200 feet, both the team members and their French hosts rallied at the Dragoon's Officers Mess for a ceremonial lunch. The U.S. paratroopers were presented French Parachute Wings by the regimental commander of the dragoons. 

Stateside, Altieri is the Fayetteville squadron’s aerospace education officer. He holds the Civil Air Patrol rank of lieutenant colonel.