Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 332 “Moonlighters” flying Boeing F/A-18D Hornets out of Beaufort, S.C., has won the Corps’ annual prize for best fighter squadron, beating out 16 other Hornet units, Marine Corps News reports:
The Moonlighters’ list of achievements is beyond compare, and includes becoming the first Marine tactical jet squadron ever to surpass 100,000 mishap-free flight hours in 2005. While deployed to Camp Al Asad, Iraq, from July 2005 to January they continued to build upon this record.
I was embedded with 332 during their stint in Iraq, and I can vouch: they really are the best. Over Al Anbar province they flew dangerous missions at low level dropping bombs and firing guns to rescue Marines from tight spots. Just a couple weeks back I got an email from one Marine who begged me to help him get in touch with the unit. He had been one of their “customers” in Iraq and was convinced the Moonlighters had saved his life.
But there’s more to the story than the Marine Corps public affairs machine allows. Due to a shortage of airframes and delays to the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning (formerly Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF), 332 is decommissioning in March 2007, as I reported in National Defense Magazine:
Obviously [JSF introduction] is a moving target, but it has slid to the right [past 2010], [Navy Lt. Cmdr. Marc] Preston says. Every time it slides, it affects Marine aircraft more than it affects Navy. Their issues are a little harder than ours because the Navy bought [Super Hornets] and Marines didnt with anticipation that the JSF would be on time.
That little article got a lot of people riled up — especially a couple of retired Marine generals too old and grumpy to play politics and too much in love with Marines to just sit back and watch Corps aviation waste away. Here, an excerpt from the least profane of these generals’ missives:
It looks to me as though the architects of the disastrous [plan], the overly ambitious “always faithful” rotorheads and Harrier mafia — who these days dominate Marine aviation and are always sucking up to the Marine grunt-dominated selection boards professing that their monumental vision of “vertical” was always the coziest, closest possible air support, the grunt’s ace in the hole, just a snap of the fingers away over there hiding behind the hill ready to strike at any time, and in the infantry’s very best and only interest — are now frantically talking to themselves!
In other words, the brass in charge of Corps aviation are too close to the problem to see it clearly … and to care. And the problem is that Marine Corps aviation has put all its eggs in the F-35 basket. Now the basket is late and getting later while the demand for eggs keeps on rising.
–David Axe
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
So what if there is a gap of a few years in which USMC air power is not at peak strength, it is not as if USMC air power is a critical component of the US military. It is nice for the USMC to have, but if there is any gap left, that gap can be filled by the USAF easily until the F-35 hits its stride. Spending billions on more F/A-18s is not a good long-term decision anyway. The F-35 is better suited to USMC doctrine and will be excellent in the long term. The USMC does not and should not optimize its force for the “easy” wars where US forces will have control of well-prepared airfields safe from enemy attack.
The Moonlighters are great because of the pilots. Those pilots will still be around, and they will still do a great job.
Dood Morning David,
I’m not sure if you had this information before you posted but on Monday 8/21/06 the Navy/Marines sought to postphone begaining of production of the F-35 B for and aditional year. The F-35 C’s are to follow. Indications are that the Navy is losing interest in the F-35′s and will stay with the F-18 F/G’s until UCAVC come to the fleet.
A back channel dicussion of this for the Marines concerns the equipment replacement budget for damaged or destroyed gear comming back for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Right now at the Barstow Log. Base, the Marines main refurbishing facility, is cost $3 Billion a year just to rebuild and repair war damaged vehicles.
Take just one vehicle, the LAV-25 which is long out of production and the parts invantory long used up, the Marines have to resort to buying old Canadian Forces vehicles to cannibalize them for pasts, like engines and transmissions.
The cost of bringing back the Marines equipment to where it was in 2002 is now estimated at $12 Billion and still counting.
It is also noted the the F-35 A’s for the Air Force and Export are behind the F-35 C’s and B’s in the development process. Lockheed suggested that the Air Force should consider changing to the the “B” Model but this was rejected by the Air Force because of the additional weight of the Navy’s version of the F-35. The Air Force wants the greater speed and or more payload that will come with the lighter version of the F-35.
If this new schedule is held to the first F-35 B’s to become operational with the fleet won’t occur until at least 2014. By that time the Marines F-18 A-D’s will be long time residences of Davis Mtn.
The question here now is a basic one, will the Marines keep their fixed wing Squdn’s.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
The Moonlighters did a great job because Marine maintainers were able to get parts IOT fix jets and that allowed the pilots to train and then bring the fight to the enemy. Truth be told when the USAF can do CAS missions and go into harms way like a Marine fighter pilot, and then convince the grunts on the ground that a fellow Marine will not be at his back you may have a plan. Don’t get me wrong the USAF has a roll in the fight and that roll they do well, but I must say that speaking to Marine grunts they may want a Marine on a glider with a M-16 and a few hand grenades over him rather than a F-16 all the time. When asked the USAF has been there for our Marines and will continue to be there. What nobody can understand, and what most will never understand is that WE ARE MARINES, those Marines on the deck are, our brothers and sisters. We rely on each other, if a Marine perishes in the fight and is was because we could not accomplish the mission we have failed that Marine or Marines. We Marines will all gladly lay our lives down for one another, but the real goal is every Marine goes home! I really feel sorry for those people who really think they get it. I mean what I am saying here is “easy” to understand but once you bear the title Marine you then just begin to understand the loyalty we have for one another.
What really makes me wonder is why do Marines always do more with less? Why does the USAF always ask for more? Marines fight to get equipment to wear in combat, not a driving range. Go to any Marine Base and take a tour, then go to an Air Force base, you will see the difference. If it is not “easy” to figure out you may be blind.
The air force is completely one-dimensional and can’t fight by land, sea, and air. Yes there jets fly over Afghanistan but where do they land? We are more mobile, more ready, and more willing. When the president says go, we go! We do not attempt to find out about the liberty or the threat element. We are the threat element! Just ask the enemy!
So spending a few million dollars on the Marines would not hurt. I can assure you it would be put to good use. The enemy prefers you spend it on golf clubs and commissaries, Marines just ask when and where.
From a Moonlighter who knows why WE were “great”. Thanks for your opinion, but it was not just because of the pilots. I prefer to think it was a Team effort. We just did what Marines have been doing for over 229 years. Just ask the aircrew who flew those jets, they saw the Marines fix them on the run, and recover the aircraft winchester. It was quite a rush, wish you could have been there!
Semper Fi (You probably know what that means, but don’t know what it feels like to say it and mean it)”