Above left to right:
Maintenance is
a major burden
on squadrons,
exacerbated by
operations from
various distributed
locations.
New pilots to
the operational
squadron occupy
the right-hand seat
to gain experience
before progressing
to be an aircraft
captain.
Below right: Crews
in the ready room for
a mission briefi ng at
VMGR-252.the main e ort of our squadron. We are
constantly training to make sure we have
the proper people in place to support the
detachment, which is given priority in
terms of spare parts needed to make sure
the aircraft are mission-capable.’
Being a small detachment, it’s very uid
and can move easily between air elds.
The two most commonly used are Morón
and NAS Sigonella in Italy. The biggest
challenge is the vast distances they need
to cover in Africa. ‘To y from the east
coast to the west coast of Africa can be a
two-day event,’ comments Casey.
Maj Tyler ‘Dutch’ Holland was the
detachment o cer in charge in 2016. ‘Two
days after starting the detachment, we
were ordered to move to Uganda, so we
took three KC-130s and four MV-22s downto Djibouti before moving into Uganda.
At that same time I had an aircraft and
Marines at Morón, and then by July I had
another airplane at Sigonella supporting
the 22nd MEU in Libya, plus one [KC-130]
and a maintenance detachment in
Djibouti. For about two-and-a-half months
I had marines in four locations and aircraft
in three. The seven-month deployment
had us split the whole time. Going
operational so quickly gave me little time
to build the relationships that are needed
to conduct a successful deployment, but
we made it work.’
Holland has been on two iterations
of the SP-MAGTF. Both times they were
supporting US State Department missions.
‘The combination of the KC-130 and
MV-22 was ideal because we were ableWe are a low-
density, high-
demand asset where
everyone wants a
piece of us but often
there are not enough
of us to go around
Maj Chuck Caseyhttp://www.combataircraft.net // September 2018 105
102-109 VMGR-252 C.indd 105 20/07/2018 12:27