Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
I spent 3 years on Kaneohe attached to MCAF flying on the C-20G that was stationed there. While I wasn't with the 53s, I had a few friends and neighbors that were. Hits close to home for a lot of people. This is a recount of the evening from a Marine in Maint Control that night.
Last Thursday night I was working in Maintenance Control, expecting PEGASUS 31 and 32 to return in about twenty minutes with all twelve of my brothers safe and sound. At around 2330 I saw one of the pilots burst into Control holding a piece of paper, asking who the senior Controller was. In usual lethargic fashion I pointed him to my left, since I am just the TD Coordinator and normally don't handle anything that has to deal with flight ops. He then asked who, "no •" was the senior man sitting at that desk. I stood up, he handed me a piece of paper, and said something to the effect of, "we need to start the mishap checklist." I had to ask him two or three times what exactly he said because I just couldn't believe it. After he confirmed it yet again and ran back upstairs, I looked down and indeed saw the words printed in bold at the top, "MISHAP." I made a radio call to get everyone and everything back in from the flightline, took a radio for myself, and took action on the first item on the checklist, which was to get visual accountability of all the aircraft. As I was sprinting along the flightline, carefully taking note of each present aircraft's Modex, I saw every single Marine that HMH-463 had on Night Crew putting all they had into getting everything back into the hangar; tossing toolboxes into tugs, yelling at one another to make sure this or that was accounted for, and seeing the tugs speed off the flightline into the hangar to park their attached GSE like I was witness to an expertly coordinated ballet... the entire evolution only took thirteen minutes. I called all the Desk Sergeants in to get ATAF, and each one of them said to me with stone-cold certainty that they were, minus the gear that was checked out to aircraft 05 and 06. Over the next five or six hours, everything that needed to be done after losing contact with aircraft 05 and 06 was done immediately, without hesitation, and with the utmost precision that Marines are known for throughout the world. The ERT was put together without reservation and every single Marine present was willing to go do whatever was necessary to bring our brothers home, even staying awake well past their breaking point. I'm filled with sadness to say that the Marines flying on PEGASUS 31 and 32 will never again greet us with their warm smiles or smart aleck remarks or drunken affection, but I am damn proud to say that I knew each one of them, and especially proud of all of the Marines working that night who displayed such steadfast determination. Semper Fidelis, PEGASUS 31 and 32.
Last Thursday night I was working in Maintenance Control, expecting PEGASUS 31 and 32 to return in about twenty minutes with all twelve of my brothers safe and sound. At around 2330 I saw one of the pilots burst into Control holding a piece of paper, asking who the senior Controller was. In usual lethargic fashion I pointed him to my left, since I am just the TD Coordinator and normally don't handle anything that has to deal with flight ops. He then asked who, "no •" was the senior man sitting at that desk. I stood up, he handed me a piece of paper, and said something to the effect of, "we need to start the mishap checklist." I had to ask him two or three times what exactly he said because I just couldn't believe it. After he confirmed it yet again and ran back upstairs, I looked down and indeed saw the words printed in bold at the top, "MISHAP." I made a radio call to get everyone and everything back in from the flightline, took a radio for myself, and took action on the first item on the checklist, which was to get visual accountability of all the aircraft. As I was sprinting along the flightline, carefully taking note of each present aircraft's Modex, I saw every single Marine that HMH-463 had on Night Crew putting all they had into getting everything back into the hangar; tossing toolboxes into tugs, yelling at one another to make sure this or that was accounted for, and seeing the tugs speed off the flightline into the hangar to park their attached GSE like I was witness to an expertly coordinated ballet... the entire evolution only took thirteen minutes. I called all the Desk Sergeants in to get ATAF, and each one of them said to me with stone-cold certainty that they were, minus the gear that was checked out to aircraft 05 and 06. Over the next five or six hours, everything that needed to be done after losing contact with aircraft 05 and 06 was done immediately, without hesitation, and with the utmost precision that Marines are known for throughout the world. The ERT was put together without reservation and every single Marine present was willing to go do whatever was necessary to bring our brothers home, even staying awake well past their breaking point. I'm filled with sadness to say that the Marines flying on PEGASUS 31 and 32 will never again greet us with their warm smiles or smart aleck remarks or drunken affection, but I am damn proud to say that I knew each one of them, and especially proud of all of the Marines working that night who displayed such steadfast determination. Semper Fidelis, PEGASUS 31 and 32.
