10/11/2011 During the French operations in Afghanistan, the reconnaissance pods on the Rafael provided to be a key asset. The tactical aircraft provided dynamic targeting data and were able to work with the sea-bases to work an intervention and strike picture to guide the entire French air operation. This was…
09/22/2011 - During our annual visit to New River to get caught up on Osprey developments, Second Line of Defense sat down with Lt. Col. Boniface who was the XO for the Aviation Combat Element (ACE) for the 26th MEU. We have published recently an interview with Col. Desens, the…
An Interview With Colonel Mark Desens, Commander of the 26th MEU 09/05/2011 - In July 2011, Second Line of Defense sat down with Colonel Mark Desens to discuss the recent deployment of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Earlier we had discussed, with Col. “Ozzie” Osborn, the 15th MEU, the evolution…
08/27/2011 By Richard Weitz Although the insurgents look to have secured control of Tripoli, Muammar el-Qaddafi’s threat to the international community has not ended. Dangers still persist from the dictator’s dabbling in weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the…
[caption id="attachment_23125" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Italian Carrier Guiseppe Garibaldi Credit: Italian Navy"][/caption] 08/27/2011 The Libyan operation has highlighted the use of maritime bases for conducting air operations. In a recent interview with Col. Mark Desens, the Commanding officer of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit involved in the initial Libyan operations, the…
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…
08/17/2011 by Ed Timperlake Ejecting out of a fireball from a two engine fire in my Navy jet below 500 feet at night showed me the difficulty of extracting a pilot surround by fire on the ground for a Search and Rescue Helo team. The weight of the seat pan…
08/13/2011: AV-8B Harriers with Marine Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 266 (Reinforced), 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, land on the flight deck of amphibious assault ship USS Kearsage (LHD 3). Amphibious assault ship USS Kearsage is seen when it was supporting operation Odyssey Dawn.Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command…
