Marines team up in Red Flag

  • Published
  • By Marine Lance Cpl. Jenn Calaway
  • Det. 10, Air Force News Agency
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Marine Corps aircrews from the Yuma, Arizona-based 513th Marine Attack Squadron traded their desert landscape for Alaska's "last frontier" and found themselves players in a whole new game at this year's Red Flag-Alaska June 4.

Joining fellow pilots from the U.S. and several allied nations, Marine AV-8H Harrier pilots and maintenance crews participated in exercises designed to keep them coordinated with their sister services. Scenarios involving role-playing enemy fighter jets were acted out to allow pilots to experience what might happen while their units are deployed.

"We strive to get as much joint presence as we can because it's one thing to work the language barriers we have with other foreign services, but even within the U.S. military ... we all have our own separate language as well," said Lt. Col. Charles Osteen, commander of the 353rd Combat Training Squadron.

Colonel Osteen said that the exercise is a good way for the many groups participating in Red Flag to break barriers in operating communication.

"It'll help us to get a better idea of what other aircrafts are capable of doing, and what their effectiveness is when striking other targets, both ground and air," said Marine Sgt. Phillip Halpain, a member of the 513th deployed for the exercise. "It's just a huge learning experience on what everything is capable of doing and working with fellow intelligence from every branch of service."

Exercises like Red Flag-Alaska allow fighters to be on the same page so when pilots and their aircrews find themselves in unfamiliar waters, they can draw on their time spent flying over the skies of the Alaskan wilderness.