Marines prepare for action at desert airfield

[thedrifter]

March 17, 2003

Marines prepare for action at desert airfield

By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer



AT AN EXPEDITIONARY AIRFIELD NEAR IRAQ ? Staff Sgt. Jeremy Frantz?s days are long and dusty as he sits patiently in a metal hut on the edge of this airfield.
But if and when the war starts, things will get hyper-animated with the help of players named Tweety, Daffy, Porky and Bugs.

If war begins, Frantz, 27, will begin conducting an orchestra in the sky as he directs Hercules KC-130 refueler planes in and out of this desert airstrip built by Marines.

Frantz? job will be to assist each plane as they make approaches and departures by calling in their positions using names of Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

When a pilot radios ?Bugsy,? Frantz will know the plane?s reporting point is about five miles out from the east, say.

That will be critical when the base gets busy and dozens of planes are flying in and out. For now, it?s just slow.

?This job is 90 percent boredom, five percent scary and five percent fun,? the Washington, Pa., native said March 16 as he scanned the sky from a small air traffic control tower brought in on a Humvee.

When air logistics Marines looked at what space they could use to ship beans, bullets and bandages into Iraq, they quickly realized two other airbases in the area were already too crowded with coalition fighter-attack jets and helicopters.

The Marines identified this piece of sand and made it into their own little airport. For security reasons, its location can?t be mentioned here.

The expeditionary airfield will serve as a Marine logistics hub, or in the words of one KC-130 pilot, ?what Memphis is to Federal Express.?

Near the edge of the border, the base will not only serve as a useful clearinghouse from which to ship equipment and supplies, it may also serve as a staging area for Iraqi refugees. Or, if things don?t go well, as a mass-casualty point for U.S. troops, one Marine said.

Named after famed World War II Marine fighter pilot Joe Foss, the airfield is 6,000 feet long with room for the four-prop refuelers to turn around and park.

Because dust is a big issue here, the layout of the strips and parking areas are such that the KC-130s shouldn?t have to back up, which can pull dirt directly into their engines.

Drawing from lessons learned when Marines built an expeditionary airfield last year at an airstrip dubbed Camp Rhino in southern Afghanistan, Marines decided to build two strips instead of the one.

Since the airfields are built simply of packed-down sand, heavy planes can do much damage. So the second strip at this airfield will be used alternately as needed, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tom Hartman, an engineer equipment officer attached to the 3rd Marine Air Wing from Brookings, S.D.

Keeping the strips in good condition is a challenge, Hartman said, largely because the desert sand is hard to compact.

A chemical agent lovingly called ?rhino snot,? used at other expeditionary airfields, doesn?t work well, Hartman said, so they use only water and grading equipment to keep the airstrips improved.

Depending on how heavily loaded the KC-130s are, the runway should take up to 20 takeoffs and landings before they?ll have to direct air traffic to the parallel strip and fix the first one.

?I?ve had a large learning curve because I?ve never done this before,? Hartman said.

Sgt. Joshua Mosis, 25, a KC-130 electrical systems tech from Alvin, Texas, helped set up the airfield from scratch and is one of a handful of Marines who live there now.

Some have to sleep in goggles and masks to keep from inhaling too much dust during the occasional but fierce sand storms, he said. It makes living on this desert patch a challenge.

?The planes hold up better than the tents do,? he said.

Most of their work now done, the Marines here play cards, smoke and swat at flies buzzing in the hot, dry air, waiting for a war to start.

?As we were building it, I remembered saying to someone, ?Build it and they?ll come,? ? Hartman said. He did, and he thinks they will.

Sempers,

Roger

[Jerry D]

God Bless Joe Foss a VMF-121(Cactus Air Force)F4U "Corsair" Marine Pilot and Executive officer he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down 26 Zeros and the Medal Of Honor from FDR ,and also later after the War served as an Airforce Col. in the South Dakota ANG then In 1955 he become SD's youngest Govenor at 39yrs old. He retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a Brig.General, he is still a much admired pilot by the Marines! to this day an airstrip is names LZ Foss after him (during Desert Storm.) as of Jan 1st Joesph J. Foss was called home and was buried with full US Marine Corps honors at Arlinton National Cemetary on Jan 21st 2003 he is the 365th MOH recipient to be inturned there.