Command scrubs ‘Jade Helm 15’ airborne jump in San Antonio

A look at the Camp Bullis drop zone awaiting Jade Helm paratroopers through night-vision googles on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. The mission was aborted late Tuesday due to aircraft safety concerns. A look at the Camp Bullis drop zone awaiting Jade Helm paratroopers through night-vision googles on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. The mission was aborted late Tuesday due to aircraft safety concerns. Photo: Sig Christenson/San Antonio Express-News Photo: Sig Christenson/San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Command scrubs ‘Jade Helm 15’ airborne jump in San Antonio 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

A rare Army Special Operations Command exercise involving 550 paratroopers who were to jump into Camp Bullis was aborted late Tuesday due to aircraft safety concerns.

Moments after lights from five C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes became visible over San Antonio, word came that the the exercise had been called off.

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"We just were given information that it was a safety issue that did not allow for the proper exit of paratroopers or their equipment," Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria said, when asked if the problem involved one or more of the planes.

The 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers were to jump at about 1,200 feet over a sprawling drop zone near the center of Camp Bullis, a rugged training area in Northwest Bexar County. They were to be part of a 96-hour joint operational access exercise that hadn't been done in at least four years.

Part of a series of exercises across the country that have drawn criticism conspiracy theorists, it was the command's largest unconventional warfare exercise outside of the final test given at Fort Bragg, North Carolina to candidates vying to get into the Special Forces.

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The airborne troops were to jump into the craggy 27,000-acre training range as part of a mock airfield assault in a fictional country. Their job was to support a Special Forces "A team" had been working with insurgents, a scenario similar to efforts by U.S. and Northern Alliance troops in Afghanistan after 9/11.

sigc@express-news.net