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"Although there have been no orders to send Air Force Ospreys to the war zones yet, the airmen who fly and fix the tilt-rotor aircraft are anticipating they’ll be there in a matter of months, not years. And when the airmen do get the orders , they’ll leave with lessons learned from the Marine Corps’ experience flying Ospreys in the desert.
“We feel we’re ready today,” said Lt. Col. Eric Hill, who has logged about 400 hours flying Ospreys and serves as the operations officer for the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The 8th, the Air Force’s lone combat CV-22 squadron, is expecting its fifth Osprey in the near future. The 71st Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is the CV-22 schoolhouse, which flies four aircraft. Eventually, the Air Force will own 50 Ospreys.
When the Marines dispatched 10 MV-22s to Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq in October, Air Force Special Operations Command sent Hill, who was already going to be in Iraq on a staff assignment, to spend time with the leathernecks. A senior enlisted Air Force maintainer went with him.
Hill said the most important lessons gleaned from the Marine deployment dealt with the nuts and bolts of operating in austere conditions, at the end of a supply chain.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Hill said."
Osprey airmen expect to deploy within months - Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times
“We feel we’re ready today,” said Lt. Col. Eric Hill, who has logged about 400 hours flying Ospreys and serves as the operations officer for the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The 8th, the Air Force’s lone combat CV-22 squadron, is expecting its fifth Osprey in the near future. The 71st Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is the CV-22 schoolhouse, which flies four aircraft. Eventually, the Air Force will own 50 Ospreys.
When the Marines dispatched 10 MV-22s to Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq in October, Air Force Special Operations Command sent Hill, who was already going to be in Iraq on a staff assignment, to spend time with the leathernecks. A senior enlisted Air Force maintainer went with him.
Hill said the most important lessons gleaned from the Marine deployment dealt with the nuts and bolts of operating in austere conditions, at the end of a supply chain.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Hill said."
Osprey airmen expect to deploy within months - Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times
