Photo By Cpl. Luis Ramirez | Cpl. Phillip Louie, right, assists Lance Cpl. Joshua Jensen, in placing the fin on a...... read more read more
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TINDAL, Australia - Ordnance Marines with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12, the “Marauders,” accepted the challenge to kick start Exercise Southern Frontier 2014 by building approximately 120 Mark-83 and Mk-84 general purpose bombs aboard Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal, Australia, June 9.
Southern Frontier is an annual bilateral training exercise between the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Marine Corps with a primary focus on offensive air support and enhancing military interoperability.
With surge week being the first week of SF14, the Marauders began building the payloads slated to be utilized by Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 pilots.
“We don’t make any live ordnance while we are aboard Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan,” said Staff Sgt. Francisco Valdez, the aviation ordnance staff noncommissioned officer in charge with MALS-12. “However, when we are on a deployment, we shake off the rust and get to work on building the ordnance that will bring the boom to an exercise.”
Valdez said building ordnance for an exercise like SF14 is a time consuming task, because each bomb and rocket has to be carefully put together and calibrated before delivery to a squadron.
Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 plans to drop nearly 400,000 pounds of ordnance by the conclusion of the exercise.
“A lot of sweat and hard work goes into what we do,” said Cpl. Nick Swanson, an aviation ordnance technician with MALS-12. “We are given a request of how many bombs or rockets the squadron needs for that day, and it’s up to our crew to make the order in time and ensure that the ordnance we deliver are up to par. It’s not heavy lifting, but it is a lot of work.”
Ordnancemen are awake and at work preparing the payloads hours before the first scheduled flight is ready to takeoff each day, said Valdez.
Swanson said despite the rigorous work, he enjoys the change of scenery and tempo that comes from this deployment compared to MCAS Iwakuni.
“We have an extremely hard working crew this year,” said Lance Cpl. Tatiana Walters, an aviation ordnance technician with MALS-12. “I have full faith in our ordnance Marines. I know we will be able to keep up with the large demands of the exercise.”
According to Walters, ordnance Marines looks forward to each day they are presented with the opportunity to bring the boom to SF14.
| Date Taken: | 06.10.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.18.2014 01:15 |
| Story ID: | 133453 |
| Location: | TINDAL, NORTHERN TERRITORY, AU |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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