The soldier from the 173rd Airborne Brigade that was charged with destruction of government property for a botched airborne exercise has been found guilty.
Sgt. John Skipper, who was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 91st Cavalry Regiment, has been found guilty of deliberately destroying U.S. Army property.
During the April 11, 2016 incident, the Humvees appeared to slip out of their rigging as their parachutes were deploying, hurling them towards the ground, but the Army says that was not the case.
The Army said he cut the parachute straps of three Humvees that were dropped at the Hohenfels training area, in Germany, during the Saber Junction training exercise.
At the time of the incident, Army spokesman Maj. Juan Martinez said, “There were multiple rehearsals and inspections of the equipment prior to mission execution. We cannot speculate on what went wrong until the investigation is complete.”
On Wednesday, that Army said in a statement, that a court-martial found Sgt. John T. Skipper guilty of three instances of destroying military property worth over $500 and of lying during the official criminal investigation, according to the Associated Press.
Nobody was hurt during the incident.
The maximum penalty for destroying government property is 10 years in prison, dishonorable discharge, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. He was sentenced to a reduction in grade and a bad conduct discharge as part of the court-martial.
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