RIP, Chief.
Richard 
Soldier, 59, Who Died In Training Exercise Was Expert Jumper
ColsDispatch, 26 Oct 2010
The Ohio National Guard soldier who
died early Sunday {24 Oct} after a parachute jump was in charge of safety for the 55 or so others jumping that day.
As jumpmaster,
H. Roger Mills was the last person out of the plane, said his brother, Steve Mills. His job was to make sure everyone jumped and landed the way they were supposed to.
It was a role that suited the 59-year-old West Point graduate and special operations forces paratrooper. He jumped at least every few months, his brother said.
"He was driven to perfection," said Steve Mills, 54, of Colorado Springs, Colo.
But a gust of wind on Wednesday caught the jumpmaster's parachute as he was landing and caused Mills' body to tilt to one side, his brother said. He knocked his head on the runway at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base and was dragged about 100 feet.
Military representatives have not given a detailed description of what happened, but Steve Mills said he had spoken with soldiers who were with his brother during the training exercise. A spokesman for the Army Reserve - both Army Reserve and Army National Guard members jumped that day - said a wind gust caused soldiers to land particularly hard.
Steve Mills said that other soldiers told him winds were within parameters for jumping. The Army Reserve is investigating the incident.
Four reserve soldiers were treated for minor injuries in area hospitals. Mills was taken to Grant Medical Center and died Sunday morning.
"He passed away doing exactly what he loved," said Bill Mills, 55, another brother.
Roger Mills was born in Rhode Island and grew up near Newport News, Va. His father served in the Army and Navy, and his three sons joined the military, too.
"He believed - we all believed - that everyone should serve," said Bill Mills, a retired Navy Seal who lives in Katy, Texas.
Roger Mills graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1973. He spent time as a guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and became an Army Ranger, Steve Mills said. He was stationed in South Korea and Germany.
Roger Mills left active duty in the late 1970s but remained a member of the Army Reserve.
He worked as a civilian with Goodyear, which brought him to Ohio. He became a major with the National Guard's Columbus-based
Company B, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group.
He lived in Groveport.
Instead of taking a promotion that would have put him in an administrative position, he became a lower-ranking warrant officer with the same unit in the late 1990s, Bill Mills said.
That meant he would always stay close to field work, his brother said. Roger Mills
deployed as a warrant officer to Bosnia in 2003 and Iraq in 2005. After Iraq, he remained on active duty as a member of the Guard.
When he died, Mills was a member of the Ohio National Guard's 73rd Troop Command and a
chief warrant officer 3.
Mills is survived by his wife, Kathleen; two stepchildren; his mother and father; two brothers; and three sisters. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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