{"id":179121,"date":"2014-09-15T04:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T18:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=179121"},"modified":"2014-09-15T04:00:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T18:00:19","slug":"heavy-equipment-operators-get-dirty-clear-tinian-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/heavy-equipment-operators-get-dirty-clear-tinian-runway\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy equipment operators get dirty to clear Tinian runway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>
A heavy equipment operator uses a 624 KR tractor, rubber tire, articulated, multipurpose, also known as a bucket loader, to knock over a tree at West Field, Tinian, Aug. 31 during Exercise Valiant Shield. ( U.S. MARINE CORPS\/CPL. D. A. WALTERS)
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\nTINIAN, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands<\/strong>\u2014Heavy equipment operators with Marine Wing Support Squadron 171, Combat Logistics Company 36 and 9th Engineer Support Battalion, clear a runway at West Field, Tinian, Aug. 31 during Exercise Valiant Shield 2014.<\/p>\n

Valiant Shield is a biennial exercise which focuses on training that enables real-world proficiency in sustaining joint forces through detecting, locating, tracking and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas.<\/p>\n

The mission of the HE operators during VS 14 is to clear thick vegetation off of an old World War II runway, according to Chief Warrant Officer Jeremy Pelham, an engineer equipment officer with MWSS-171, Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the equipment and personnel to build an expedient airfield to land the aircraft that we need to land,\u201d said Staff Sgt. Eric Spencer, the HE operations chief with the squadron. \u201cIf we are not here, and our gear is not here, then it doesn\u2019t get cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main equipment being utilized are the 850 JR bulldozer and the 624 KR tractor, rubber tire, articulated, multipurpose, also known as a bucket loader. <\/p>\n

Out of about 20 HE operators, only two or three have experience in this particular environment which allows more than 80 percent of the operators to gain new knowledge and experience, according to Pelham.<\/p>\n

Lance Cpl. Cameron Warren, an HE operator with the squadron, has mainly worked with forklifts in the past, and this is his first experience moving dirt and jungle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith forklifts, it\u2019s more about precision, but with this, it\u2019s more technique,\u201d said Warren. <\/p>\n

This environment provides new challenges for most of the Marines, according to Spencer. He hopes they will take this time to improve upon their motor operating skills. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime we get our Marines out here with earth-moving gear it\u2019s critical,\u201d said Spencer. \u201c95-98 percent of the operating they do at (their home station of) Iwakuni is [material handling equipment] forklifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Units with Marine aircraft wings do not have as many opportunities to work with earth-moving equipment as Marines with ESB, according to Pelham. Noncommissioned and staff noncommissioned officers also bring their experiences to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a familiarization that everyone has and that knowledge is being shared amongst everyone,\u201d said Pelham. \u201cNow, when (MWSS)-171 Marines go back, they have this valuable experience to fall back on, and that\u2019s going in their toolbox from now on.\u201d (By Lance CPL. David Walters\/Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TINIAN, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands\u2014Heavy equipment operators with Marine Wing Support Squadron 171,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":179142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179121","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}