Female troop becomes first to jump Stinger missile pack

By Mary Harp Shankles
Texas Press

May 12, 2011

	Ellis

Private 1st Class Janette Ellis is the first female to jump in the Stinger missile jump pack. Ellis serves under Capt. Jason Roberts, of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

Being the first female paratrooper to be included among the men who have achieved the distinction of the highest merit, strength training, and just plain old fashioned mettle, to be ranked in an elite unit, to teamed up to jump with a Stinger missile jump pack, is a great honor said Roberts. Being a paratrooper automatically places everyone in the company of famous Soldiers such as Sgt. Alvin C. York, Gen. James M. Gavin and former Chief Dave Bald Eagle, the grandson of Sitting Bull, the same high standards today as then.

A Stinger missile jump pack is made up of paratroopers. This is not a unit built by the standard high achievers. For the Stinger missile jump pack paratrooper, it is about being committed in mind, heart and soul to training. Not once, not twice, not if you feel like it, not if you are in the mood. But disciplined, daily training — a drive from within that does not end regardless of emotions.

It isn’t a destination that is reached and quit or to rest on it’s laurels. These Stinger missile jump pack paratroopers are focused. They are set on the goal — the successful jump of a concentrated force, with Stinger missiles, in a compact area, as a cohesive fighting force which is paramount for the rapid advancement of the ground forces’ success in their mission.

Ellis’ mission as a team, each Stinger missile jump pack is made up of two paratroopers, who will jump with a Stinger missile between them, strapped to their sides. Out the door of the C-130 cargo plane, through the release of the parachute, to safely land it. Ellis will be on the left and team member, 1st Lt. Dan Duch, will be on the right of the Stinger missile.

Not a small feat for any man or woman. The United States Army sets no boundaries by the sex of the Soldier or officer, it is all up to the individual. Paratroopers must achieve the highest standards, work harder in training to achieve the highest marks in physical fitness, road marches, individual skills tests, written exams, land navigation courses and rifle marksmanship, warrior skills tests, and it is mandatory to be at least 5’8” tall because of the size of the Stinger missile.

The paratroopers in the Stinger missile jump packs, along with over 300 paratroopers, have mastered the training, honed their skills and together work as one. They know to be strong, to be cohesive, to be a force to be reckoned with, and the team must be in unison. It cannot be made up of Soldiers and officers seeking individual status.

Ellis is a living example to any Soldier or civilian. Her day-to-day activities, pursuits, plans and purposes are for the success of the mission. The Army and all ground forces are dependent on a paratrooper’s mastery of self — mentally, physically and in spirit. Being individual, but not being individual. These men and women are the masters of self, from individual, to team, to unit cohesion without giving in to emotions.

Ellis graduated high school in New York and was looking at colleges, tech schools, to be on her career path for life. However, her grandfather was watching and knew his granddaughter needed to be challenged on a daily basis. A challenge to beat her achievements of yesterday, each day. He knew that she was not a person who could compromise and be satisfied. Neither was it in her nature to postpone her career path. By the guidance of her grandfather, a retired Marine, Ellis was encouraged to take her strengths, her education, her talents and join a branch of the United States military.

Ellis visited, talked to, and looked at what each branch had to offer, weighing the merits of one against the other. When she looked at the United States Army, and saw that it offered her the most choices with the biggest challenges to apply herself, she enlisted. She walked out of the recruiter’s office with a signed contract for airborne defense. Ellis had set her sights on being a paratrooper. Her challenge to herself — to rise above mediocre, especially on a career path.
Army Strong. Army Proud. An Army of One is the impression that Ellis will leave with you long after you stop talking. There aren’t many people, anywhere, who will leave an indelible impression of “I am what I am.” Not haughty or defiant, as simple as that which cannot be taken from you.

Which had to be what her grandfather saw in her. But as with all gifts, it’s what you do that matters. Here as a paratrooper, achieving the elite unit known as the Stinger missile jump pack, she is challenged. Yesterday’s achievements are yesterday’s, today’s is today, and the goal is higher from yesterday’s mark.

To persevere, to push beyond the horizon, standards already established for paratroopers and they are ready to step up to the highest of standards, to be among the elite, the master of self, to team with the Stinger missile jump pack. 

Tireless, fearless, Ellis walks among the men as one of them, and being one of them with no show or pulling back because she is female. Whatever the training, whatever the mission, whatever the new goal is, there are no boundaries for Ellis. The focus is to accomplish the mission. Accomplish the goal. Achieve success and don’t let your team down.

After safely landing and securing the missile and all the gear, it was time to join the other teams and return to the installation.

Once more, the mission was a successful training mission for supporting the ground troops and a mission without error.

108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade

The mission of the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade is an air defense artillery brigade of the United States Army. The mission of the brigade is to train and maintain a strategic crisis response air defense artillery brigade capable of deploying worldwide, on short notice, to provide air defense force protection from air-breathing threats and tactical ballistic missiles, as well as allow freedom of maneuver for the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based, XVIII Airborne Corps operations.

Subordinate units include the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, also located at Fort Bragg; the 2nd Battalion, 44th ADAR, assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 3rd Battalion, 4th ADAR (Air and Missile Defense), which is at Fort Bragg.

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