Free Republic

Marine Aircraft Group 16 recently staged a mass-flight exercise involving more than 40 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif. The exercise included 27 MV-22B Ospreys and 16 CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters. Here’s a look at the display of Marine Corps combat power.

The Marine Corps faces serious challenges with its aging CH-53E Super Stallion fleet. The huge and complex aircraft are decades old and tired from 15 years of war. A replacement is on the way, the CH-53K King Stallion, although it is behind schedule and still years away from becoming operational. Yet according to a recent report, the Suprr Stallion fleet is in shockingly poor shape. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper describes an internal report with a damning assessment of just how far the heavy-hauling CH-53E fleet has sunk into disrepair, and how little training their crews are receiving. The confidential independent study...

A US Marine helicopter taking part in a joint drill with South Korea crashed Tuesday near the North Korean border, officials said. The helicopter was carrying three crew and 13 other service members, but no casualties were reported.

LANCASTER - Flying as crew chief in a CH-53E Super Stallion at 12,000 feet in the mountains of Afghanistan is like riding "the scariest roller coaster at Magic Mountain," only the ride lasts hours instead of minutes. With a laugh, that's how Staff Sgt. Kingslee Gourrick described his job to fairgoers who turned out to participate in the Real-time Heroes forum sponsored by the Valley Press. Gourrick and Sgt. Timothy Reed accepted the invitation to attend the fair and speak a bit about their work as crew chiefs on the Super Stallion, the "biggest helicopter in the free world." The...

CHERRY POINT MARINE CORPS AIR STATION -- Earlier this month, a pair of hulking transport planes touched down and disgorged the newest additions to the Marine Corps helicopter fleet: three MH-53E Sea Dragons that had been sitting in an aircraft "boneyard" in the Arizona desert for about a decade. The civilian maintenance workers at Cherry Point's Naval Air Depot will clean, strip and transform the worn-out helicopters into the Marine version of the aircraft, the Super Stallion, a process that could take 20 months. This is the first time that retired choppers such as these have been resuscitated, and the...

EDWARDS AFB -- The Marines landed at Arnold Park on Edwards Air Force Base at noon Tuesday for a lunch with family members and well-wishers. The afternoon rendezvous was no ordinary day in the park, marking the last day for Marines to spend with their loved ones before deployment to the Middle East. Members of HMM764, the Marine Corps Reserve medium helicopter squadron stationed at Edwards, and HMM769, the heavy helicopter squadron, took a short break from deployment preparations to share a meal of thanks donated by several local businesses and organizations. Known as the "Moonlighters Squadron," HMM764 will depart...