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Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier Crashes Outside MCAS Cherry Point; Pilot Safely Ejected By: Megan Eckstein May 20, 2019 8:49 PM A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier conducts an aerial refuel during exercise Bayou Thunder off the coast of Louisiana, Jan. 29, 2019. The purpose of the exercise is to enhance Marine attack Squadron (VMA) 231’s air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities while also strengthening service interoperability with joint services. The aircraft is assigned to VMA-231, Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. US Marine Corps photo. A Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier crashed in North Carolina, and the pilot is being treated...

IITTA BENA, Miss. (AP) — A U.S. military plane used for refueling crashed into a soybean field in rural Mississippi, killing at least 16 people aboard in a fiery wreck and spreading debris for miles, officials said. Leflore County Emergency Management Agency Director Frank Randle told reporters at a briefing late Monday that 16 bodies had been recovered after the KC-130 spiraled into the ground about 85 miles (135 kilometers) north of Jackson in the Mississippi Delta. A witness said some bodies were found more than a mile from the crash site. Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns said in...

A Coast Guard inspection of a freighter docked at the Port of Longview "didn't uncover or reveal anything," a Coast Guard spokesman said Saturday, but the crew members are not allowed off the ship and security will be maintained until the ship leaves. "We were not expecting to find anything," Lt. Cmdr. Glynn Smith, the Coast Guard's public affairs officer for the Pacific area, said Saturday by telephone from his office in Alameda, Calif. The search was routine, according to the Coast Guard, but Longview officials said the security crackdown is the most port activity since the Sept. 11, 2001,...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C., Oct. 17, 2008 – Marines, sailors, family and friends, each displaying a mixture of cheerful and solemn expressions, gathered around the fuel pump house here to honor their fallen hero Oct. 10. Friends and family gather at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., on Oct. 10, 2008, for the ceremony dedicating the installation's fuel pump house in honor of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel McVicker. McVicker, 20, was killed Oct. 6, 2005, when the vehicle he was riding in hit a roadside bomb near Qaim, Iraq. U.S. Marine Corps photo by...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, USA, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and is currently home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.MCAS Cherry Point's mission is to provide the highest quality operating environment for all using activities; operate and maintain facilities and assigned aircraft; furnish a full range of vital support services; nurture the quality...

GOP congressman pays price for opposing war By: Josh Kraushaar August 22, 2007 02:08 PM EST NEW BERN, N.C -- Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.) is a household name in this military-friendly district represented in Congress by his family -- first by his late father, a Democrat, and now by him -- for most of the past 40 years. Jones' folksy demeanor, commitment to constituent service and deeply Christian values made him virtually unbeatable since he won election to Congress in 1994. Until two years ago, Jones was probably best known nationally for championing "freedom fries" to replace "french...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. (July 13, 2006) -- Marine Aerial Refueler and Transport Squadron 252, the squadron that performed the first in-flight helicopter refueling more than 30 years ago, continues to play integral roles in air combat innovation and military operations throughout the world. As Lt. Col. David A. Krebs took the reigns of VMGR-252, June 30, he spoke enthusiastically about the opportunity to assume command of a squadron that is flexible enough to be deployed and stretched thin. Saturday, VMGR-252 participated in the first transatlantic MV-22 Osprey flight. Meanwhile, approximately 25 percent of the squadron is...

A Marine fighter jet based in North Carolina crashed Tuesday and the Coast Guard and Navy were searching for the pilot. The Marine AV-8B Harrier crashed about 9:20 a.m. about 20 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, said Donnie Brzuska, a Coast Guard spokesman. The Coast Guard located an oil slick from the aircraft, but so far have not found the pilot. Another aircraft pilot reported that the pilot ejected, but he was not seen touching down, Brzuska said. The name of the missing pilot had not been released early Tuesday. The airplane was based at Marine Corps Air...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 20, 2005) -- Sergeant Craig Meltzer did not want to leave his wife and 2-month-old daughter at home while he deployed to Iraq's Al Anbar province for six months. But, as much as he hated to leave his wife and daughter, the idea of watching his Marine family deploy without him was unthinkable. Meltzer, a 26-year-old Virginia Beach, Va., native, deployed with the Bulldogs of Marine Attack Squadron 223 from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., in August. As the senior noncommissioned officer in the AV-8B Harrier squadron's flight equipment section, the Salem High School...

Navy Suspends Search For Missing Helo, Crew JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Navy has suspended search-and-rescue efforts for three service members from a Mayport-based helicopter lost off the coast of North Carolina. The search was called off at 11 a.m. Monday after debris from the wreckage of the SH-60B Seahawk from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Light Wing 44 was located and no survivors were found. The Navy reported losing communication with the helicopter at 10:50 p.m. Saturday while it was conducting landing qualifications on two ships off Cherry Point, N.C. as part of the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. (Aug. 24, 2005) -- “Good morning, Marine!” shouts Chuck Miller, a retired master gunnery sergeant, from the greeting desk at Halyburton Naval Hospital Cherry Point, where he begins his work as a Red Cross volunteer at 5:30 a.m. every Wednesday. “I’m here to greet people and help point them in the right direction,” said Miller, as he shares a joke with an old friend who has come to visit. “When a buddy of mine passed away, I volunteered to take his place here. That was three years ago, but it feels like just...

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...

NAVAIR Depot Cherry Point to repair helos from ‘bone yard’ for fleet Three H-53 Sea Stallion helicopters were brought out of retirement and transported between Aug. 9-11 to Naval Air Depot Cherry Point, N.C., where they will be upgraded before being put back into active service. According to Lt. Col. David Owen, NAVAIR Depot Cherry Point H-53 program manager, this marks this first time H-53s have been recalled from the nation’s war reserve, also known as the aircraft “bone yard,” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center located there maintains more than 5,000 excess DoD...

Seahawks conclude Iraqi tour, make mark in history Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Story Identification #: 200572224315 Story by Gunnery Sgt. Shannon Arledge AL ASAD, Iraq (July 22, 2005) -- Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 4 started its journey home today. After seven months in a deployed combat environment, the 190 Marines are ending their deployment that began in mid January. “All the Marines were very eager to support [Operation Iraqi Freedom],” said Sgt. Joseph A. Esala, electronics section, a native of Statesboro, Ga. “It is a challenging and worthy effort. I’m honored to have been involved in it.”...

MCAS CHERRY POINT, N.C. (July 6, 2005) -- “All that she knows is that daddy is fighting the bad guys. She wants to go and fight the bad guys so daddy can come home. To hear a four-year old say that is enough to break your heart.” Carley’s daughter, Isabela, has been without her father, Staff Sgt. Robert Jacobson, since he deployed to Iraq with Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 4 approximately six months ago. And, six days before he left, his wife bore his firstborn son, Xander. The Jacobsons’ occupy a rare place in American society, but within the...

Night Owls return homeSubmitted by: MCAS Cherry PointStory Identification #: 200482610416Story by Lance Cpl. Cullen J. Tiernan MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. (Aug. 28, 2004) -- Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2 arrived stateside Sunday after serving more than six months in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. The Night Owls returned from their second tour of duty in Iraq in two years. The birds of prey flew home after months of constant combat at Iraq's Al Taqaddum Airbase in Al Anbar Province. An area strategically located between the infamous city of Fallujah and the provincial capital,...

AL ASAD, Iraq, May 21, 2004 — When Marine Master Sgt. Michael L. Sunday received orders to Iraq in March, he expected to travel to foreign countries with unfamiliar surroundings and even less familiar faces. Almost immediately upon his arrival to Camp Wolverine in Kuwait however, the 41-year-old New Cumberland, Pa., native began to feel right at home. Marine Master Sgt. Michael L. Sunday (left), ordnance chief for Aviation Logistics Department, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, pays a surprise visit to a former student, Lance Cpl. Rafael E. Lopez, a 20-year-old aviation ordnance technician with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16. The...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The United States plans to deploy roughly 1,000 troops in Haiti to head an international stability force, but does not intend to repeat the larger-scale military involvement of a decade ago, U.S. officials said on Monday. About 200 U.S. Marines already are on the ground in Haiti. A senior U.S. official said at least 200 more will be flown to Haiti today from the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, North Carolina, near Camp Lejeune. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on NBC's "Today Show," said the U.S. military contingent would number "in the...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Opponents of a proposed Navy landing field in eastern North Carolina said Tuesday they are asking a federal judge to stop land acquisition so residents won’t lose family farms. Attorneys for Washington and Beaufort counties and three conservation groups Monday filed a joint motion for a preliminary injunction. If granted by a federal judge, the injunction would prevent the Navy from buying land, doing site preparation, design and construction for the $186.5 million outlying landing field. “We realize, as the citizens in Washington and Beaufort counties realize, that the Navy is not waiting to sort this out,...

This is the second of a series of stories detailing events and people who served in Iraq. The series continues next Tuesday. CHERRY POINT -- Despite the temperature extremes, dust storms and the underlying threat of nuclear, biological or chemical attacks posed by the war in Iraq, medical staff members from Halyburton Naval Hospital brought back stories of a warm welcome by the Iraqi people, and a sense of pride in the humanitarian aid they were able to provide during their three-month deployment. "From what we saw, the Iraqi people were very glad to have us there," said Senior Chief...