By Robbin Laird
The Marines assisted in relief efforts in the Philippines after a Typhoon hit that country. And as has been done in the past, the dynamic duo of the KC-130J and the Osprey provided the means to do so.
As Capt Mark McDonough noted in a 14 October 2024 story:
MANILA, Philippines —
U.S. Marines across multiple forward-deployed commands concluded six days of foreign disaster relief efforts in the Philippines Oct. 10, 2024, supporting the U.S. Agency for International Development’s humanitarian response to Typhoon Krathon (locally known as Julian) at the request of the Philippine government.
Marines and Sailors from Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia (MRF-SEA); 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW); III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF); and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15th MEU) embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) delivered nearly 96,000 pounds of foreign disaster relief supplies to Batan Island, a remote island in the Batanes Province and one of the locations most impacted by Krathon.
Typhoon Krathon originated 155 miles southwest of Okinawa before moving northwest, reaching peak intensity Oct. 1, with sustained winds of 195 kph (120 mph). Krathon heavily battered the northern islands of the Philippines, leading to evacuations, infrastructure damage, and food supply insecurity in affected communities.
At the request of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to support USAID’s relief efforts due to the unique capabilities and high state of readiness of forward-deployed U.S. Marine Corps forces.
MRF-SEA first arrived in the Philippines in late September to participate in upcoming training exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Operating out of Fort Bonifacio, Philippines, MRF-SEA immediately began coordination with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the AFP, and other U.S. Marine Corps units to plan support for the relief effort. Two teams of Marines and Sailors from MRF-SEA integrated with USAID and AFP personnel in Manila and Laoag to plan and prepare for the arrival of KC-130J Super Hercules aircraft from 1st MAW in Okinawa, Japan, and personnel from 3rd Marine Logistics Group.
“Before Marine Corps aircraft ever touched down in the Philippines, Marines and Sailors with MRF-SEA were integrated with our partners in the U.S. and Philippine governments, on site at Villamor Air Base and Laoag International Airport, with the manpower and heavy equipment needed to package and move aid material,” said Col. Stuart Glenn, commanding officer, MRF-SEA. “Forward-deployed Marine Corps forces allow us to quickly respond to humanitarian missions because we’re already in the region. I am extremely proud that our team was able to set the necessary conditions to quickly provide relief to the Philippine people.”
After arriving on Oct. 5, the cargo planes were loaded with supplies at Villamor Air Base and flown to Laoag International Airport in northern Luzon for staging and preparation to move the supplies to their final destination on Batan Island. The KC-130 crews conducted 26.2 hours of flight operations, successfully transported all aid materials to Laoag.
As U.S. and Philippine personnel worked to move supplies north, the 15th MEU arrived aboard USS Boxer and began flight operations to support relief efforts on Oct. 8. MV-22B Ospreys, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 165 (Reinforced), landed in Laoag, and combined teams from the 15th MEU, MRF-SEA, and Philippine Marines spent the next three days loading Ospreys, the Marine Corps’ medium-lift tiltrotor V/STOL platform, with disaster relief supplies for the final leg of the movement to the Basco Airport on Batan Island. Pilots and aircrews from VMM-165 (Rein.) conducted more than 55 flights and successfully delivered the final disaster relief material on Thursday, Oct. 10.
“The primary focus of our mission is helping the people of the Philippines recover as quickly and safely as possible,” said Col. Sean Dynan, commanding officer, 15th MEU. “Humanitarian assistance in an expeditionary environment is what we train to do, and it is one of the reasons we are forward-deployed as an amphibious force.”
The forward presence and ready posture of U.S. Marine forces in the Indo-Pacific region was pivotal to the rapid and effective response to Typhoon Krathon, demonstrating the U.S.’s commitment to its allies and partners during times of need.
This recalled an earlier effort for which I conducted an interview in 2013 with the Marines involved in the Osprey engagement in a Typhoon relief mission.
I entitled that article: “The initial response to the Philippine Relief Mission: An Osprey Squadron in Action.”
That article follows:
As the 1st Marine Wing prepared to celebrate the USMC birthday at a ball, and to prepare for a long weekend around Veteran’s Day, this reverie was smashed by the reality of a Typhoon.
Nature had another idea and another approach to Veteran’s Day.
It was time for the Veteran’s in the making to go to work, and not to celebrate the past.
It was a case of Marines making history; not celebrating it.
A massive Typhoon was heading towards the Philippines and the Marines needed to prepare to assist, notably as the forward deployed force with rapid support capability.
For Lt. Col. Brown, the CO of VMM-262, the “Flying Tigers, this meant as well telling his wife Darcy, that they would have to put a hold on their anniversary celebration as well.
And this meant organizing the C-130s and Ospreys to coordinate for the coming eventuality.
According to Brown, “1st MAW organized a template for the initial engagement, but the first few days on the ground were chaos, which has only now become clarified in terms of how the joint and coalition force will shape its supporting mission.
“When the digital support for the mission was down, the Ospreys used aerial reconnaissance (their own) to determine where to take relief aid.
“Initially, the team thought this was a soccer field but determined upon landing that it was a schoolyard.
“Upon delivering aid, the Filipinos worked with the Marines and the local police who were present to deliver aide in an orderly fashion. According to Brown: “The school children were very happy to see us and the parents and children responded with enthusiasm to our arrival.”
“Because the C-130J squadron commander lives next door to Brown in Okinawa, they started planning the joint mission several days prior to its execution.
According to Brown, “A hub and spoke system is emerging in which the Navy helos are being supported by Marine FARPS (Forward Area Refueling Point) with the Ospreys using either the C-130s or the large deck carrier for refueling.”
In its role the USS Washington is a seasbase operating a few miles offshore and is integrated into the overall operations, rather than being considered as something apart from the overall role of airpower supporting the HA/DR mission set.
Concepts of operations can change as new technologies are added to the fleet.
The Marines have operated as the forward deployed force for the operation, and reminds one of the importance of forward presence.
Having integrated capability for the point of the spear is crucial and the Osprey clearly functions as the tip of the tip of the spear for rapid insertion.
As one senior Marine put it:
“1st MAW had Ospreys and Hercs in Tacloban about 72 hrs after the storm passed. And I am not talking just about people on the ground but real, self-sustaining capability to move the mountains of relief supplies to where it was needed and where nothing else could get the job done so effectively.”
There is no question it is a just a small effort against an immense catastrophe but the combination of rapid deployment and true capability is a crucial part of getting the response in play.
And it has been clear that the Marines see themselves as part of the overall joint and coalition force and working as a supporting command to the Philippine’s Armed Forces overall.
Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spearheaded the relief efforts in Tacloban and surrounding areas by having disaster teams on-hand even before the super typhoon hit.
Multi-national forces soon fell into supporting roles to the AFP, and one week later groups and military representatives from across the globe are aiding in relief efforts.
Lt. Col. Brown highlighted the importance as well of the night operations of the USAF C-130s able to deliver supplies at night so that the effort could be run on a 24 hour basis.
But I pursued the story and focused on the first few days of meeting the challenge
This is the story as published on November 22, 2013:
The devastation from the Typhoon which directly struck the Philippines left in its wake a patch quilt of infrastructure from which to start a relief effort.
The Marines on Okinawa, Japan because of their integrated force structure and forward location were able to go early and to set in motion the process to follow.
The Osprey and KC-130J (teaming) was important for this effort. The KC-130Js provided air to air refueling and path finding creating the conditions for the Osprey to operate at extended ranges with increased time of station throughout the Philippines.
With fuel initially only available in Manilla and Clark, the teaming and extra time on station allowed the Ospreys and KC-130s to conduct multiple insertions in remote areas of relief workers and other elements necessary to set up an infrastructure for a much larger relief effort to follow.
The first five days was the key focus of the initial insertion force, and because of the reach and range of the Osprey, the Marines were able to operate throughout the island chain.
And the reality of the island chain is important in this regard, as it is clearly not a land mass, so considerations of support for the Ospreys – fuel etc. – as well as locations of supplies and the complexity of moving people and those supplies was significantly enhanced by the geographical reality of an island chain.
In a follow up to our discussion with Lt. Col. “Sniper” Brown, the CO of VMM-262, we had a chance to talk with his colleague Major A. “Papi” Guzman.
According to Lt. Col. Brown, Guzman is his assistant operations officer and the two of them flew lead and wing together interchangeably for the 1st three days. We had the chance to revisit from the Major’s perspectives some of the key realities of those first few days of the relief effort.
The Major noted that the MEB flew out on the 10th; and they received their diplomatic clearances on the 11th and then departed for the relief mission. The assessment team from the MEB went first and the airplanes followed.
The first point underscored by the Major was the need to get the planes initially to Manila and Clark Air Base to get a process started on October 11th. “The next day we started executing the relief mission.”
And in a relief effort, a common problem which was evident in the Philippines as well is the need to deal with missing ports and airfields and leveraging what remains. This creates in turn a choke-point management problem of the first order.
“Every plane that was available started flowing into Tacloban. This was a major problem given the absence of real air traffic management and the tarmac getting loaded up with supplies as well. Supplies, workers, planes, and congestion were evident on the fields where we were to stage from. Everything was in flux. Although a good thing to do, we realized it was a dangerous effort as well. We needed to get the right crew elements together to execute the mission and to do so in the presence of devastation only a Typhoon can deliver.
This in turn created significant fuel problems, as we would have to hover prior to landing as much as an hour plus (because of the ground congestion), which meant that fuel was always a challenge.
And clearly without the KC-130Js we could not have done the operation. I was concerned about being a stranded airplane on a remote island in case of a landing emergency. The KC-130Js were critical to us, prior to the arrival of the USS Washington, which we now use as an alternative fuel base for our Osprey operations. We did not have a running FARP (Forward Air Refueling Point) until the 4th day of the operation.”
It was clear that not knowing where your Exxons are located is a key aspect of managing air operations in such a large scale relief effort; and managing the choke point as well, because there is no point to flowing through more people and supplies if the surviving ports and airfields are simply becoming dumping grounds and making it more and more difficult to operate from.
After having landed at Clark, they had to sort out where they would go the next day.
“The situation was very unclear. Where were we to go, with which supplies and with which purpose? Intelligence was completely missing and communications were down. We relied on the CO’s international blackberry for the first two days for our planning and communication needs. We had no other connectivity.
We had to work our taskings through the blackberry. We were ready to go but where. I reached out to a fellow Marine and he reached out to family on Facebook and gave us some information about areas we might consider going to. And we relied on the local newspaper to identify one of our first locations to visit, namely Guian peninsula.
But prior to doing the school field delivery, they flew to Tacloban airfield which was to become a key operational center for the air side of the relief effort.
“The area was so devastated and we had limited ground support so we flew our first two Ospreys there with senior officers in charge of each plane and flew in slowly on rotor because we were not sure of the terrain or the ground conditions for landing. We had to devise a way for us to get into the airfield.
We remained visual with each other because the weather was so bad initially. I was amazed at the level of destruction we saw as we came in. Although we had four aircraft available, for risk mitigation we felt that only two planes should go in initially.”
Next up was the flight to Guian peninsula. “We identified a devasted area by reading the Philippine Examiner and saw what we thought was a picture of a soccer field, but later would discover it was a school yard.”
We asked the Major what the field looked like as they began to touch base.
“The area was completely devastated and all we saw was rubble. It was a never ending path of destruction. My eyes scanned with total amazement. I would see images of families and little kids running around in the streets as we passed over. At first, the area looked deserted. But after we landed hundreds of children and older people came out from under the rubble or from cardboard boxes to approach the plane.
You really do not imagine that many people in such a devastated area, coming out from the woodwork. And older gentlemen came up to the plane and shunted the children away from the plane so we could safely shut it down. If we had not had the newspaper we would not have had a good idea where to start the relief area. ”
We pointed out that the plane must have seen like a science fiction object to folks who had never seen it before and asked what happened when they started flying locals on the plane.
“Like most first time flyers, they were amazed when we transition from rotor to propeller mode and become a plane. The crew chiefs noted that eyes open wide open when the acceleration takes place and smiles came on the passengers faces. Normally we hold 24 in the back; here we had more than that. I remember we put a man with babies on both shoulders into a jump seat.”
The Major also emphasized the challenge of flying in these conditions. “Normally we do 3 hours of flight planning for each hour of flight; needless to say we were doing 0 hours of flight planning in these conditions on a contingency task.”
We also discussed the coming contribution of the F-35B in this type of operation. With the F-35B the Marines will have a C2 and ISR capability to contribute significantly as well to this type of operation.
By getting a five day jump, it was then possible to shape the infrastructure for the next phase. And by the USMC approach, the first five days was an operational relief effort PLUS putting in place the infrastructure for the next phase.
When we interviewed the Major it was several days into the relief operation and he was having his first day off. We asked him: “looking back what did it feel like emotionally?”
According to the Major:
“We were flying in a very confused and difficult situation. We clearly are concerned with our own capability to operate and at the same time this is just a means to an end. The end is to get relief to people who need, move in relief workers, bring supplies and move locals as necessary.
Virtually none of these folks had ever flown on an Osprey before, but willingly did so in these circumstances. When we would open the back we would see many women and children crying with no doubt relief but regret and having now to face an uncertain future. It was difficult to look at this and not have your own emotional reaction.
But it is rewarding. You go through all this training and now you get to make a difference.”
What the Major was experiencing was Thanksgiving a bit early in the month of November; the sci fi platform was working with others to start the Philippines towards that future.
When doing disaster relief, professionals will tell you that time is your most precious commodity.
The Osprey-KC-130J pairing bought time for the current HA/DR mission.
By having the pairing, the USMC team was able to move in rapidly and prepare for the insertion of additional forces and aide teams.
How much is 3-5 days of additional time worth in putting in motion a relief effort?
Featured photo: U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys attached to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 165 (Reinforced), 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, land at Basco Airport during foreign disaster relief operations in Basco, Batanes Province, Philippines, Oct. 8, 2024.
BASCO, PHILIPPINES
10.10.2024
Photo by Cpl. Joseph Helms
15th Marine Expeditionary Unit