[B]By LANCE CPL. ANTONIO RUBIO[\/B]
\n[I]Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni[\/I]<\/p>\n
[B]TINIAN, Northern Mariana Island[\/B]\u2014For only the second time in recent years, a KC-130J Hercules aircraft lands on Baker runway at Tinian’s North Field on Dec. 5 during Exercise Forager Fury II.<\/p>\n
FF II will allow Marine Aircraft Group 12 to improve aviation combat readiness and will simulate operations in a deployed, expeditionary environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cTinian allows us to put a lot of Marines in the field and build those expeditionary runways, make clearings, set up radar, set up com-nods in an environment where there is no infrastructure to start from, so we\u2019re truly in the field,\u201d said Brig. Gen. Steven Rudder, commanding general of 1st Marine Air Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force. \u201cWhat MAG-12 has done out here is exactly what our mission set calls for, take the MAG and all it\u2019s critical assets and rapidly deploy them, put them in the field, and start operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The existing training areas provide an opportunity to establish an expeditionary airfield without the need for heavy equipment or major engineering projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarines prepared Baker to receive aircraft to allow us to conduct flight operations,\u201d said Lt Col. Howard Eyth, commanding officer with MWSS-171, MAG-12, 1st MAW, III MEF. . \u201cMarines really enjoyed the opportunity to get tactical operating training and the experience they\u2019ve employed to accomplish this task.\u201d <\/p>\n
Training on Tinian\u2019s North Field also included base cantonment life support and tactical logistics support which played a role in expeditionary airfield development, according to Eyth. The North Field exercise operations focused on clearing, stripping and repairing deteriorated runways.<\/p>\n
With the opportunity provided, operations did face a challenge to exercise specific unit capabilities while restoring and preserving some of our treasured national landmarks, according to Capt. Patrick Junick, engineer combat commander with MWSS-171. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge not damaging the asphalt while clearing it, particular with Able runway,\u201d said Junick. \u201cTo watch the [heavy equipment] and [combat engineers] Marines go through the vegetation of Charlie and Dog and the taxiways connecting the two was just amazing to watch. In four weeks, those Marines took a jungle and restored it into four runways.\u201d <\/p>\n
The runways at North Field have extensive damage from the surface erosion and vegetation overgrowth, according to Sgt. Jonathan Sanchez, heavy equipment operator with MWSS-171. Removing vegetation from previously disturbed surfaces and restoring portions of North Field presented a significant opportunity to develop tactical expeditionary airfield, allowed Marines to hone their skills. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe main obstacle we faced was the heavy brush visibility,\u201d said Sanchez. \u201cWe were trying to take out the roots but the branches and the thick brush hinder our ability to see what was going on. However, I\u2019m glad exercises like this do occur because this right here brings us back to mastering the basics and that\u2019s one of the key things. Mastering the basics allows for junior Marines to move on something more complex and my Marines definitely did that out here, whether pushing trees or turning wrenches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series of exercises that MAG-12 is conducting in the Mariana Islands focus on refining core skills within the squadrons and MAG. This in turn prepares them to function as an integrated air unit able to perform a wide range of missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For only the second time in recent years, a KC-130J Hercules aircraft lands on Baker runway at Tinian’s North Field on Dec. 5 during Exercise Forager Fury II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}