-Caveat Lector- http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=23914 Arab News SAUDI ARABIA'S FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY
‘Not a War Against Iraq’s People Barbara Ferguson, Arab News War Correspondent Published on 20 March 2003 AT AN AIR BASE IN KUWAIT, 20 March 2003 — Being the sole “embed” with a Marine wing support group certainly gives one an unparalleled insight of the immense work necessary to sustain the thousands of US troops here on the ground. Yesterday, Col. Michael Anderson, the unit’s commander, took Arab News on a visit of operations at three other camps up north. The first stop was an air base, where the engineers built an extensive helicopter pad for dozens of helicopters in just over a month. The trick here was finding the right surface to hold up in the loose, fine sand. After several starts and misses, they finally settled on AM2 matting. Hueys and Cobra helicopters now sit quietly on the pad, their wings tied down against the wind, waiting. Here, “brown-out” is a significant problem with the helicopters, as their rotating blades can create a sand storm which blinds the pilots during take-off and landing. The problem was solved by bringing in heavy equipment, such as graders and scrapers, to level the ground and compact it before putting down the matting. “Gorilla snot,” or an environmentally-friendly glue that binds the sand together, was placed around the circumference of the pad to help keep the sand down when the helicopters take off. A runway sweeper keeps the “FOD,” or “foreign object debris,” off the runway. “Like the Army — We have done more by 5 a.m. than most people do all day,” said Sgt. Maj. Anthony Franklin, from Birmingham, Alabama, who was with the colonel. These engineers have also built airfields. F-18 Fighter/Attack Hornet aircraft land here with an arresting cable, using the same method as on aircraft naval carriers. The airplane drops a hook that the cable catches, and stops the plane on the landing pad. Settling for the AM2 matting was a tough decision, said Col. Anderson. “AM2 is heavy and takes up a lot of room on a ship, but you can build an air pad with it in a couple of days.” His engineer unit has 14 different functions of aviation ground support, “all doing different things, with us trying to get them to do it all for the same reason,” said Col. Anderson. Their duties include a mind-boggling array of services: internal airfield communications; weather services, expeditionary air field services (EAF); aircraft, rescue and firefighting (ARFF); aircraft and ground refueling; explosive ordnance disposal (EOD); essential engineer services; motor transport (MT); field messing facilities, routine and emergency sick call, and aviation medical functions; individual and unit training of organic personnel and selected personnel of support units; nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) defense; security and law enforcement services; and air based commandant functions. Thanks to them, the Marines here are quite comfortable. The engineering unit built hundreds of “hardback” wooden frames and wooden decks for the GP (general purpose) tents that many Marines work and sleep in. They have also packed down the ground around the tents, and in some cases, put gravel down to minimize the dust. In addition, they built the mess halls, purified water, and when possible, installed showers and laundry spouts. Next, the colonel and his team traveled to Camp Work Horse further north. The camp — again, embeds are restricted from giving specifics in numbers, size or location — is run by Lt. Col. Al Thoma, from North Carolina. Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have to stand on their own merits. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera- tions. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. 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