CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan
— A CH-53E Super Stallion flew across the dawning sun
here June 26 as it returned with an 18,000-pound piece of vital cargo
slung beneath its belly. The sight of the aircraft against the painted
morning sky was impressive on two accounts – the vision of the
silhouetted helicopter floating in Afghanistan’s vibrant dawn, and the
fact that the cargo toted below was a United Kingdom Mk3 Merlin (EH-101)
helicopter.
The Super Stallion, deployed here with Marine Heavy Helicopter
Squadron 466, was recovering the aircraft from a forward operating base
after the Merlin went down in a non-hostile event. Perhaps the most
impressive part of the recovery mission – HMH-466 pulled it off with
less than 18 hours notice.
“In order for it to go down,” Lt. Col. Mitch Cassell, the HMH-466
Commanding Officer, explained, “it required the entire squadron to throw
themselves behind the lift.”
The planning and preparation involved in outfitting a CH-53E to carry
tens of thousands of pounds is extensive and requires meticulous
attention to detail. Pilots and crew in the ready room who weren’t even
flying the mission planned it. An entire maintenance department jumped
into action pulling off 2,000 pounds worth of gear, including the
auxiliary fuel tanks, fuel probe, troop seats, ramp, cargo wench and
utility hoist. “We had to remove all that equipment from our aircraft to
make it light enough to lift the stricken Mk3 Merlin,” said Cassell.
The mission is called TRAP – Tactical Recovery of Aircraft or
Personnel – a mission Marines actively train for all the time. However,
very few real world TRAP missions have ever been conducted. Conducting
one TRAP during a deployment is rare. Twice is practically unheard of…
until now. In addition to the Mk3 Merlin mission, HMH-466 conducted an
earlier TRAP mission to recover a U.S. Army MH-47G Chinook helicopter
May 15 that made a hard landing near Kandahar.
This mission was also conducted with less than 24 hours notice and
followed many of the same planning and execution processes, “but more
weight had to be removed from our aircraft because the Chinook was much
heavier than the Merlin” said Cassell. To successfully lift the Chinook,
over 5,600 pounds of equipment had to be removed from the CH-53E
helicopter.
“The fact that an Army unit was able to call across the boundaries to
ask the Marine Corps to support a mission is pretty remarkable," said
Lt. Col. Timothy Sheyda, HMH-466’s executive officer. “We were able to
smoothly interact with their airborne assets on station, as well as
their ground team which was at the site, and their command and control
system that was in place.”
The CH-53E squadron is getting the call on these big missions
because, according to Sheyda “there are only three aircraft in the world
that could possibly do that lift.” The other two besides the CH-53 are
the Russian-made MI-26 Halo and the CH-47 Chinook. Although those
aircraft are available in the area, “the Marine Corps is the only
service capable of reconfiguring its aircraft and performing the mission
on such short notice.”
But the greatest accomplishment extends beyond the rescued aircraft
being delivered to their respective owners. The capability the HMH-466
Marines have to plan, organize and execute these operations with very
limited advance notice speaks to their teamwork and dedication.
“The fact that a team can throw a plan together in less than 24 hours
to do a mission really validates the Marine Corps planning process,”
Sheyda exclaimed. “This process will have to be passed on to future
generations.”
He went on to say, “Marines are trained to be light, agile, quick and
lethal. In this case, we were able to do all of those things and
effectively accomplish our mission in a short timeline. That’s how we
operate.”
At the end of the summer, HMH-466 will return to Marine Corps Air
Station Miramar, Calif., and pass off their responsibilities to Marine
Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361. As HMH-466 flies off into the sunset,
HMH-361 picks up a “heavy” mission supporting the Afghan National
Security and NATO Forces as the “heavy haulers” of southern Afghanistan.