Marines repair landing strip

[unhappycamper]

Marines repair landing strip
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, March 14, 2009

IE SHIMA, Okinawa — After being rained out for several days, Marine Wing Support Squadron 172 was back to work this week to reconfigure an aircraft landing pad on this tiny island.

The squadron’s expeditionary airfield specialists have been repairing and rebuilding the pad to simulate an LHD amphibious assault ship deck, Gunnery Sgt. Timothy Killebrew, the squadron’s expeditionary airfield services chief, said Wednesday.

The pad originally was configured as an older LHA amphibious assault ship deck. The new design will make the landing site the only mock LHD landing pad in the Pacific where Marine Corps Harrier pilots can practice vertical and short takeoffs and landings on a mock ship deck before doing it for real, Killebrew said.

About 50 Marines have spent the past month building the pad with nonskid matting pads. The pads are 6 feet by 12 feet, each weighing about 150 pounds, and are interlocked in a brickwork-like pattern to create the landing surface.

"It’s like putting a puzzle together," Killebrew said. "The only way it can be done is by hand."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61308