Marines eye 'other desert'
Edwards unit prepares for Iraq, Afghanistan deployment
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Tuesday, January 20, 2004.
By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press Editor



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EDWARDS AFB - Sgt. Jessica DeMumbrum has a pretty good recall for dates and details. She was at Camp Coyote and Camp Fox in Kuwait about the time the Marines were taking charge of their piece of Baghdad last spring.
Her time as a reservist deployed in the Operation Iraqi Freedom combat zone spanned April 12, when statues of Saddam were falling all over Iraq, until Sept. 12, about the time the 1st Marine Division was pulling up stakes and handing off their sector of Iraq to coalition allies.

The hottest day in the Kuwaiti desert? That one was easy to remember.

"It was 152 degrees," she said. "Everyone has seen it on TV, but you can't really explain what it's like. You just have to drink a lot of water and try to stay out of the sun."

DeMumbrum is headed back to postwar Iraq along with her comrades from the "Moonlighters Squadron." The "Moonlighters" are HMM 764, the Marine Corps Reserve medium helicopter squadron stationed at "the Right Stuff" air base in the California desert.

The "Moonlighters" are headed to Iraq, and their sister squadron, "The Road Hogs" of HMH 769, whose air crew fly the big CH-53E Super Stallions, are heading to Afghanistan. The schedule for deployment is some time during the next couple of months.

The squadrons from Edwards, known collectively as Detachment Bravo of Marine Aircraft Group 46, are moving overseas with lots of Marines who are relieving Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

DeMumbrum already has notched time in "The Sandbox," that great span of Arab desert stretching from the Saudi Peninsula up into Mesopotamia - Iraq. But the other Detachment Bravo Marine aviation troops headed over to Iraq and Afghanistan already have their share of desert time.

Cold or hot, the Marines get a lot of both. During their annual training missions they will fly to snow-capped Sierra peaks that emulate the ice-bound ranges along the Afghan-Pakistani border, or they will fly into hellish temperatures with the abandon and élan that characterizes Marine aviation.

"One hundred and thirty five degrees out near Yuma, Ariz. Not too many deserts hotter than 135 degrees," Staff Sgt. David M. Schnack said. "Every year, once a year, we go where it is really hot or where it is really cold. We are flying all the time."

Schnack, a Los Angeles police officer when he isn't on active duty, likes the flying-all-the-time part of the job. It can be a bit more stressful than operating as an LAPD patrol officer, but he said he doesn't mind that aspect of the mission either.

"I just missed flying," Schnack said.

The LAPD officer and Marine NCO is a crew chief on the CH-46 helicopters flown by the Moonlighters. Making the trip over with him are mechanics like Lance Cpls. Cody Green and Michael Karl, and Cpl. Francisco Arregui .

Schnack is a seasoned NCO and veteran LAPD officer. Cody and Karl are relatively new to their Marine Corps fleet assignments and DeMumbrum and Arregui are somewhere between in experience. Lt. Col. Drew Crane noted they reflect the kind of diversity common to Marine Corps Reserve units.

Crane noted most of the detachments of 300 or so reservists are going to make the deployment and will be seamlessly integrated with active duty Marine Corps units. Thus, college students like Karl and electronic store retailers like Green join math teacher Arregui and Officer Schnack for a year in the hottest of the world's hot spots.

Large rotations from the 1st Marine Division are reported to be returning to Iraq to replace Army units. The Marine Corps unit, famed for its defense of Guadalcanal and liberation of Kuwait, is returning to Iraq after playing a key role in last year's invasion and race to Baghdad.

Recent news from Iraq involves targeting of helicopters by terrorists and remnants of the former regime of Saddam Hussein. During the weekend, the New York Times reported about a classified Army Aviation report citing the increasing sophistication of enemy ground fire attacks on aircraft.

Combinations of weaponry used to shoot at U.S. helicopters have involved rocket-propelled grenades modified to shoot down aircraft. Also in the enemy arsenal are the Soviet-made SA-7 shoulder launched missile, and within recent weeks, a sophisticated SA-16, a later model with higher performance designed to frustrate evasive tactics.

The Times reported about 5,000 shoulder-launched missiles were part of the Iraqi arsenal and only about a third of them have been located. Flying tactics are being modified as details emerged on anti-aircraft assaults that have killed 49 U.S. personnel in Iraq.

Schnack said he felt confident Marine Corps philosophy and tactics would aid in force protection. The Marines, who secured much of Iraq south of Baghdad, suffered no combat deaths after May 1, when President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations.

"The Marine Corps does things a little differently," Schnack said.

For Schnack, Arregui, Green and Karl, the deployment will be their first into an active combat zone. Green and Karl graduated boot camp together a year or so ago, and both said they are glad they chose the Marine Corps.

"We love it," Green said.

Grinning, Crane said, "Good answer."

Karl said he always had enjoyed working on cars, and that working on the big CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters is a big move up, in terms of challenge.

"Our newest helicopters are older than most of these guys," Schnack said. "They were built before they were born."

The Vietnam-era CH-46 helicopters are used primarily for ferrying infantry into operational areas. All aircraft of such vintage have been overhauled and retrofitted for current flying standards.

The helicopters assigned to Detachment Bravo have been tasked for mission ranging from delivering supplies to Havasupai Indians to counter-drug operations in the Caribbean.

Those annual training opportunities provide the drill needed to be at ease with delivering Marine infantry down fast ropes in rappelling operations, and to get the aircraft ready for shipment overseas aboard giant C-5 Galaxy cargo planes.

Karl said his brothers, also Marines, and friends in the corps have already given him advice for the journey.

"Same old things, the amenities … 'wet ones,' toilet paper, batteries and Kool-Aid."

The Detachment Bravo squadrons moved to Edwards in 1999 when El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was closed as part of base realignment and closure.

danderson@avpress.com

http://www.avpress.com/n/tusty1.hts


Sempers,

Roger