Marines Battle Iraqis And The Heat To Keep Their Aircraft
Flying In Iraq
The weary Marine slowly lowered himself into his chair off to
the side of the flightline in the hot, Iraqi sun.
Cpl. Robert T. Smith, aviation ordnance technician, Marine Light
Attack Helicopter Squadron 167, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd
Marine Aircraft Wing, from Marine Corps Air Station New River (NC)
has been up and about re-arming, checking and re-checking weapons
systems on UH-1N Hueys and AH-1W Cobras every time his squadron's
pilots get tagged with a mission at its headquarters on the Al
Taqaddum Air Base.
The 21-year-old's eyes started to close when he noticed four
pilots running up the flightline, trying in vain to maintain speed
and throw on vests and helmets at the same time.
Smith and his Marines jumped up and caught up to the pilots.
They got tagged again.
This is the scene at any particular moment, night or day, at the
flightline where HMLA-167 has made its temporary home. The
maintenance Marines have been working almost non-stop for the past
three days. The huge workload came after the squadron sent the
Marines and a group of helicopters, to the area known as the Sunni
Triangle, in support of Operation Vigilant Resolve.
The different maintenance sections have come to rely on each
other heavily since the operation began in the first week of April,
said Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Faga, flightline mechanic, HMLA-167.
"Teamwork is a very important aspect of life out here," the
Corning, N.Y., native claimed. "Without all the shops, the
(helicopters) couldn't fly. There's no way you could make that
work."
There are four main sections that work on the light attack
helicopters of the squadron. This includes airframes and
hydraulics, flightline maintenance, avionics, and aviation
ordnance.
The airframes and hydraulics section handles all the metal work
and hydraulics on the helicopters, according to Cpl. L. Russell
Williams, airframes and hydraulics mechanic, HMLA-167. His section
is responsible for the looks and response of the helicopters.
"We work on the hydraulics that control the flight controls of
the helicopter," he said. "We also rivet together the metal frame
and bend it into shape."
As for the flightline portion of maintenance, flightline
maintenance does most of the technical, "hard work" on the planes,
said Faga.
"We do the hard maintenance type
stuff as far as changing engines and transmissions," the
20-year-old explained. "It's very tedious and time consuming,
especially when you have to pull engines. You have to do everything
by the book."
The weather is creating issues with the aircraft at the base,
said Faga. "The weather is becoming a problem. It's hot here and it
heats the systems, causing them to burn-up oil. Also, the sand will
get in and wear down parts."
The flightline mechanics and aircrews perform numerous
inspections to make sure the helicopters are in good working order
before anything begins to break down or needs replacing, said
Faga.
Avionic technicians then begin working on the electrical,
communications and navigation systems in the planes, said Lance
Cpl. Jared R. Campbell, avionics technician, HMLA-167.
"We repair and troubleshoot problems associated with the wiring
harness," he explained. "There is encrypted communication equipment
on the planes, and we'll switch out any components that aren't
working properly."
The desert sand is also causing problems for the avionics
Marines, but it is nothing they cannot work out, according to
Campbell.
"The sand is getting in places and burning stuff up," he said.
"The blowers in the systems will get stopped up and the systems
can't cool down. It's one of those things we're going to have to
work through."
After everything is operating correctly, the aviation ordnance
technicians start working on their piece of the light attack
puzzle, Smith declared.
"We work on the armament systems," said the Knoxville (TN)
native. "If it fires, then that's what we work on. We reload
everything, such as expended rockets and bullets. If they pull the
trigger and rounds don't go down range, we find out why."
Behind the scenes is an all too often under-appreciated part of
the maintenance shop that helps all other sections accomplish their
missions, claimed Cpl. Keith F. Diehl, expeditor, HMLA-167.
"We make an impact because if they
don't have the parts to fly, the planes can't fly the missions," he
explained. "If a plane breaks, the shop orders a part and I make
sure the information is accurate. I then order, track and get the
part to the shop."
The importance of each shop never outweighs the importance of
another, because it's all about working together because they need
each other, claimed Faga.
"Everyone knows the components on the aircraft," he said. "We'll
need an avionics guy to take a part off so we can take out a
transmission. Everyone knows what's going on and what they need to
do, so we kind of help each other out."
This teamwork has become more important to the Marines in recent
days, he added.
In the past few days, the Marines have been repairing bullet
holes, damaged engine components and wiring, and even a rotor-head
and blades damaged by a rocket-propelled grenade attack while on a
mission in Fallujah.
As the operational tempo increases in the Sunni Triangle, the
maintenance Marines of HMLA-167 buckle down for long hours. There
are no complaints forthcoming because of the necessity of their
jobs, Campbell mentioned.
"We have to work together to get our planes up because the
ground guys are depending on support from the helicopters," he
concluded. "The way I look at it, we're protecting Marines and
doing our part."