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Marine attack squadron plays bad guy for Exercise Pacific Thunder

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher
  • 7th Air Force Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  A combat search and rescue operation is a complex and inherently dangerous operation where several different moving parts have to be synchronized before there's even a chance of success. And oh, by the way, the Marines are coming over the horizon.

Things just got worse.

That's because the aviators of Marine Attack Squadron 223 from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., aren't here to make the rescuers' jobs easier. They've come to play "red air," using their AV-8B Harrier jets to simulate the enemy aircraft that would be doing their best to shoot the rescue helicopters down before they can recover lost personnel.

VMA 223 was supporting Exercise Pacific Thunder, an annual joint, combined combat search and rescue exercise that took place on Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, April 14 - 18. The week-long exercise, replicates scenarios designed to train crews to execute and validate tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as integrate with combined air and command and control assets. The Marines played a variety of roles in the exercise, including aggressor, strike coordination and reconnaissance and close air support.

"We simulate different threat scenarios that they're looking for so the packages going in can react to the different threats out there," said Marine Lt. Col. Roger McDuffie, VMA 223 commander.

McDuffie said the Marines gain a lot from their participation and offer a lot in return.

"Having joint training with another service provides a different aspect to that training," he said. "So whether we're playing red air or supporting them as part of a SCAR platform, we bring a different perspective that they may not think of, so I think it enhances the overall training."

Marine Capt. Caleb Zeutschel, a VMA 223 Harrier pilot from Seattle, said the Marines bring close air support expertise and a fresh perspective.

"It's great because we all specialize in different things," he said. "We're very good at close air support. It's our bread and butter and what the Harrier is designed to do."

The CSAR mission is similar to one the Marines do called Tactical Recovery of Aircrew and Personnel. The differences between the two missions allow both the Marines and Air Force to learn from one another.

"The missions are similar but there's enough differences there that I think having us play in Pacific Thunder brings a perspective that the Air Force may not have," McDuffie said. "And it's neat for us to play in the CSAR mission with them because we can take that back with us and incorporate some of those ideas into TRAP."

Zeutschel said the exercise gives the Marines hone their air-to-air skills, not one of their primary missions. Also, he pointed out, playing the villain is fun.

"It's fun because you get to play the bad guy," he said with a smile. "You're there to meet specific training objectives so you're kind of limited on what you can do, but it's fun to be able to go out and support other people and make sure that the people who are going to be here fighting the war have the training they need."

The bottom line, McDuffie said, is that working jointly is the future, and the better prepared the two services are, the better they'll be able to carry out the mission when it happens for real later.

"The big thing for us is to continue to do joint force exercises like this where we leverage the capabilities of the other services, because in the future that's how we're going to operate," McDuffie said. "Exercises like this allow us to train together prior going into a conflict so we are more familiar with our tactics, techniques and procedures prior to getting into an actual event where hostile forces are on the ground."