Yuma-based Marines find new uses for Harriers

ABOARD THE USS ESSEX - Yuma-based pilots assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit recently used their Harriers in Myanmar in a different kind of mission last month: special delivery.
 
In response to passports and parts needed in case the unit would be called to aid cyclone victims in Myanmar, Marines with Yuma-based Marine Attack Squadron 513 stepped up with an unconventional solution.
 
On May 17, VMA-513 Marines took a short break from close air support training with the Thai military in Exercise Cobra Gold 2008 and quickly reconfigured their aircraft with baggage pods.
 
Two Harrier pilots flew from Korat to Utaphao, Thailand, to pick up helicopter parts and the passports prepared by the U.S. embassy in Bangkok.
 
"Considering the Burmese government's requirement for everyone to have a passport and our location off the coast of Burma, the Harriers were the only platform ... that could respond quickly, from land base to ship, and over the distance necessary to support the mission," said Col. John Mayer, 31st MEU commander.
 
The straight distance between the ship and Thailand is only a few hundred miles, and delivery could have been completed by a helicopter.
 
However, the Marines couldn't enter Myanmar airspace, which extends approximately 300 miles south of Bangkok, and the circuitous delivery route spanned more than 900 nautical miles, almost entirely over water.
 
In a total of five hours, the pilots completed the mission and returned to Thailand.
 
Since the range exceeded the Harrier's fuel capacity, the pilots refueled in flight with the help of KC-130Js from Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron 152.
 
"The mission was so important because if we get the opportunity to actually go into Burma and help, the necessary people will now have the tools they need for success," said Maj. Cory Simmons, a pilot with VMA-513. "We did it in a timely fashion due to basing flexibility. ... And as an added benefit, both us and the KC-130s accomplished important strategic tanker qualification training."
 
The mission was the MEU's first in support of Joint Task Force Caring Response to aid the more than 1 million victims of the May 2 Cyclone Nargis. However, the Myanmar ruling military junta barred U.S. ships and helicopters with the MEU to deliver aid.
 
The MEU pulled away from the coast of Myanmar Thursday to continue its scheduled deployment.
 
"This was an untraditional tasking for a Harrier squadron, but it was a good mission," said Lt. Col. Christopher J. Parkhurst, VMA-513's commanding officer.

The VMA-513 Marines are continuing their deployment.

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This story was reprinted from The Desert Warrior, the newspaper of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.