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thedrifter
03-02-07, 01:52 PM
Osprey squadron completes training

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 2, 2007 13:11:34 EST

ATLANTIC, N.C. — Three minutes.

That’s how long it took the gaggle of MV-22 Ospreys to swoop down onto the airfield, unload its leathernecks and hit the skies again — about as long as it takes to get your order of burgers and fries at a fast-food drive-through.

The first four of six Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C.-based Ospreys participating in Marine Air Ground Task Force integration training Thursday afternoon formed a line before landing. As the Ospreys’ powerful propellers churned wind that thrashed pine trees on either side of an airstrip, leathernecks with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, from Camp Lejeune, N.C., scooted out the rear doors.

The Marines’ mission: seize Outlying Landing Field Atlantic, an airfield about an hour-and-a-half northeast of Lejeune. Within seconds, leathernecks were out of the tilt-rotors, sprinting across the old, cracked runway and diving into thick brush for cover.

As the grunts spent the next two hours seizing the airfield, the Ospreys went on to accomplish other objectives, including an aerial refueling.

Thursday marked the final day of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263’s MAGTF integration training, which has given many grunts their first opportunity to see the aircraft up close and know what it’s like to fly in one.

“It’s a pretty comfortable ride,” said 2nd Lt. Dan Young, commander of 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1/8. “Real smooth landing. Real quick — a lot faster than the 53s and 46s.”

This was his second time flying in an Osprey.

“I’ll admit I was a little hesitant on getting up there,” he said. “I’ve heard the rumors.”

The Osprey has had a troubled past, including a crash in 2000 outside of Jacksonville, N.C., that killed all four crew members onboard and grounded the fleet.

More recently, the entire Osprey fleet, including the Corps’ inventory of 46 MV-22s and the Air Force’s eight CV-22s, was grounded Feb. 6 after a fault caused by a computer chip in the flight-control computers was discovered during pre-flight testing at the Bell Boeing facility in Amarillo, Texas.

All of the tilt-rotors have returned to flight since Feb. 23, according to a spokesman at Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.

VMM-263 now begins pre-deployment training. The squadron will likely deploy late this summer or early fall, officials have said. Marine Corps headquarters has not said where the squadron will deploy.

Ellie