V
MGR 252 ‘OTIS’ IS one
busy unit. It’s tasked with
transporting assault troops,
equipment and supplies,
and to provide a refueling
service to xed and rotary-
wing aircraft. The squadron — which
has been in existence for 90 years —
ies around 6,800 hours per annum,
which equates to having a ‘bird’ in the
air somewhere in the world for about 19
hours of every day.
Lt Col Brendan ‘Cletus’ Burks is the unit’s
commander. He told Combat Aircraft, ‘Our
squadron has been consistently deployed
since 2005, so it’s been 13 years since we
had the whole squadron together here
at our home base, MCAS Cherry Point.
We are currently on our 13th consecutive
Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task
Force [SP-MAGTF] detachment since 2013,
so the tempo has been very high for us’.
The squadron ies 15 Lockheed Martin
KC-130J Hercules, which might seem like
a lot, but they are rarely all available at the
same time. Burks says, ‘Right now, we have
one away on test work and another three
are going through their planned ve-year
phase maintenance. We have three out
on deployment, so that’s seven aircraft
committed.’ Another of his KC-130Js has
long-term serviceability issues, and a
major change in the parts supply network
— while improving — has resulted in
increased downtime across the eet. All of
this means that of the 15 aircraft assigned,
sometimes only four are available at
home base.Battle fatigue
With the constant deployments, both
aircraft and crews are getting worn out
at a quick pace. ‘Right now my biggest
challenges are parts and personal,’ says
Burks. ‘We need the parts to x and
operate the aircraft and we also need to
keep the quali ed personnel.’ The constant
pace of operations is very demanding on
all levels, meaning the hard-working
servicemen and women are
often away from home.
This could be for
six monthsVMGR-252
‘Otis’ KC-130Js
display the
unit’s ‘BH’
tailcode as
they form up
near MCAS
Cherry
Point.http://www.combataircraft.net // September 2018 103
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