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thedrifter
06-10-03, 06:05 AM
Navy and Marines form team

By DENNIS O'BRIEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 9, 2003

ABOARD THE BATAAN -- When large-deck amphibious assault ships first joined the Navy family almost 25 years ago, the idea was for them to deliver a punishing one-two punch against the opposition.

In theory, it would be a ground-air combination, with the ships sending thousands of Marines ashore and then supporting them with air strikes from the decks of those same ships.

The concept looked good on paper, but for more than two decades that's primarily where it stayed -- until Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In the most recent Persian Gulf war, the Navy finally got a chance to try out its blue-green -- blue for Navy, green for Marines -- team on a large scale. For the first time in a full-scale combat environment, two Navy amphibious assault ships delivered Marines to the beach and then followed up with an extended air campaign.

One of those ships was the Norfolk-based Bataan, the other the Bonhomme Richard from San Diego. When the Bonhomme Richard left the West Coast in January, it already was configured as an aircraft carrier. The Bataan switched gears in mid-deployment and became a dedicated ``Harrier Carrier'' after sending its Marines and their equipment to the beach.

The primary piece of the blue-green air attack is the Harrier, a Marine Corps fighter plane also known as a ``jump jet'' for its ability to perform vertical takeoffs.

``This isn't a traditional amphib role,'' said Bataan commanding officer Capt. Earle Yerger. ``It's a look at the future of what the amphibious Navy can be -- it can continue to be a player even once we put the Marines ashore.''

During the first Persian Gulf War, the Nassau and Tarawa were prepared for a serious air campaign, but tentative leaders greatly reduced the scope of their missions. Only the Nassau launched planes against Iraqi targets, near the end of the war, and those missions did not come on the heels of advancing Marines.

Harriers deploying with Marine Expeditionary Units have seen action in the past, but those groups typically carry only six jets. During the most recent war, the Bataan carried four times that many Harriers, flying 1,400 combat flight hours and dropping 122 tons of 500- and 1,000-pound bombs on targets in Iraq.

By comparison, the six Harriers based aboard the Bataan during Operation Enduring Freedom's opening round in Afghanistan, dropped 42 tons.

Operation Iraqi Freedom provided a stern test for the blue-green program, and for the Bataan. The two dozen jets aboard and the rapid clip of flight operations left little room for error, or for helicopter operations typically used to resupply amphibious assault ships.

When an H-3 helicopter flying in mail and parts broke down on the flight deck and threatened to disrupt the Harrier flight schedule, Yerger was ready to take drastic action.

``At first I wanted the thing pushed overboard,'' he said, ``but the Air Boss wouldn't let me. I thought, `There just has to be a better way to get stuff on board.' ''

Yerger brainstormed with Bataan supply officer Cmdr. David Pry, operations officer Cmdr. Jon Dachos and air boss Cmdr. Michael Zamesnik for solutions. It turns out the answer was right under their noses: the three hovercraft used to put Marines ashore could likewise be used to bring supplies aboard.

They developed a plan to use the flight decks of dock landing ships in the task force to receive helicopter loads of supplies, which would then be delivered by hovercraft to the Bataan. The air-cushioned hovercraft, known as LCACs, also could bring aboard bombs from Camp Patriot in Kuwait.

Using the dock landing ships Ashland, based at Little Creek in Virginia Beach, and Pearl Harbor, based in San Diego, the plan was a success -- in fact, the Bonhomme Richard began using the same routine. There was nothing simple about the cargo transfers, all of which took place while the Bataan was moving. To conduct flight operations, the ship's drivers have to keep 30 knots of wind flowing over the flight deck. On windless days, they have to turn to face the wind and go fast; on windy days, they have to go slow.

And all these maneuvers had to be within a 12-mile square carved out of the crowded Persian Gulf. Confined to such a small territory, the Bataan had to turn around every 40 minutes during a typical flight day, leaving a track in the navigation logs that looked like a course plotted with an Etch A Sketch.

``It takes some creative driving and smart seamanship from the officer of the deck,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Sanabia, the ship's meteorologist.

Sanabia had her own problems to contend with. It was her job to predict the winds and the arrival in the Gulf of sandstorms hurtling southeastward from the desert of Kuwait.

Even though the Bataan got no closer than 11 miles from the coast, sandstorms were a major nuisance, and halted flight operations six times.

Sanabia's department predicted the timing of 20 sandstorms perfectly, but missed one. The powdery sand swept in over the Gulf, reducing visibility to 300 feet while jets were still in the air, giving Harrier pilots the nerve-wracking task of landing on a sliver of a moving object that they could barely see through the dusty cloud.

During the war, the Bataan kept 14 Harriers gassed up and armed on the flight deck at all times, with back-ups below in the hangar deck.

The movements of aircraft on the flight deck needed to be well-choreographed and executed, just like on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. However, unlike the carrier crews who have been orchestrating the flight-deck dance for years, the less-experienced Bataan people had to choreograph and execute on the fly as they launched 36 sorties during each day's 10-hour flight operations.

All that work was performed by one shift of Marines and sailors.

Further complicating things was the fact that 50 percent of the Bataan's crew was new. There was massive turnover after the ship returned from deployment in April 2002 after operations in Afghanistan.

In addition, about half of the Bataan's aircraft launches and recoveries happened at night. Total darkness was necessary so that the night-attack Harrier pilots' night vision would not be fouled by exposure to landing lights. Moving the jets around on the desk in the dark was a challenge, too.

``The captain was worried about the flying,'' said Bataan air boss Zamesnik, a pilot. ``I wasn't worried about the flying, just about the taxiing around.''

Young enlisted sailors directed the outgoing and incoming pilots, who taxied their aircraft around the flight deck using night vision goggles.

``It's a little mind-boggling knowing that you're dealing with aircraft worth millions of dollars and there are lives at stake and you aren't quite sure where you're going,'' admitted Petty Officer 3rd Class Sean Allen, 22, of Titusville, Fla., an aircraft handler.

The Marines are convinced that the missions flown by the Bataan's two Cherry Point, N.C.-based Harrier squadrons, VMA-542 and VMA-223, made a difference.

After the Marines from Task Force Tarawa slugged it out with the Iraqi 11th Infantry Division and Saddam's Fedayeen at Nasiriyah, they turned their attention to subduing Iraqi units to the east and northeast.

As they advanced, the jump jets from Bataan and Bonhomme Richard blasted both the 10th Armored Infantry Division and the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard.

Each day, pilots left the ship with a ``fistful'' of targets to hit on the way back after they had hit primary objectives, said Maj. Don Sterling, 41, of Havelock, N.C., operations officer for VMA-223.

Bataan sailors like Petty Officer 2nd Class John Gray, 23, a strike warfare supervisor, used satellite imagery and pictures taken by Harriers on previous flights to give Marine pilots updated target lists.

``When a pilot goes out, there could be like 80 things for him to hit, anywhere from buildings, fuel bunkers, tankers, and tanks,'' Gray said. ``We knocked out a pretty good number of tanks.''

Sterling says the Harrier proved itself in this war, and noted that not one Harrier was involved in a ``friendly fire'' incident.

After about two weeks of missions, Yerger began showing ``greatest hits'' video footage aboard the ship.

``It's amazing, as we progressed, morale just soared,'' Zamesnik said. ``They really felt that sense of accomplishment when the guys came back without bombs, they knew our guys on the ground were advancing and our jets had something to do with it.''

The morale surge made it all the way down to the ship's magazines, where ordnancemen such as Petty Officer 3rd Class Crystal Dumas put fuses and guidance systems into bombs for the Harriers.

Dumas, a four-year veteran on her third deployment, said her department worked harder this time around than ever before, including during the Bataan's service sending Marines ashore and Harriers into the air over Afghanistan. But the 21-year-old Sacramento native said the hard work just made the cruise go faster, and gave the sailors aboard a deep sense of accomplishment.

``I feel happier this deployment, because I think we were doing God's work in a way, giving freedom to the Iraqi people,'' Dumas said. ``I feel like people are going to have better lives because of what we've done.''

Staff writer Dennis O'Brien is with the Marines and sailors of Task Force Tarawa on their way back from Iraq. He has been with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marines since they left the coast of North Carolina in mid-January.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=55223&ran=60121


Sempers,

Roger