08/23/2011 During a recent visit to USMC Air Station New River, an update on both the Osprey and Libyan operations was provided by Marines involved in those operations.
We recently interviewed Col. Mark Dessins, the 26th MEU Commander, the UNS-USMC team involved off of Libya. At New River a senior Marine Corps officer from the MEU was interviewed as well as one of the Osprey pilots involved in the rescue mission of the downed F-15 pilot in Libya.
All of those interviews will appear next month. In this article, two video glimpses of the interviews are provided for our readers.
The first is with Lt. Col Boniface. LtCol Boniface, is currently commander of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266, Marine Aircraft Group 26, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, MCAS New River. His last assignment was with the 26th MEU and the interview focused on this experience, notably the time off of Libya.
Maj. B.J. Debardeleben or “Narco” operated one of the two Ospreys involved in the operation and a video glimpse of the interview is provided here as well.
Next month we are publishing three Libya-related interviews. The first is with Col. Mark Dessens, the 26th MEU commander and the other two are the interviews with Lt. Col. Boniface and Major Debardeleben.
We will be publishing analyses of the “lessons learned” in Libya as well.