2 Responses to “Missing US Marine Helicopter SPOTTED in Nepal”

1. courage
   May 14th, 2015 @ 4:14 pm

   PACOM: Missing Marine helicopter in Nepal not spotted
   By Andrew Tilghman , Staff writer 1:12 p.m. EDT May 13, 2015
   Relief effort continues to reach most remote areas

   More than 24 hours after a Marine helicopter disappeared in flight over Nepal, a search and rescue effort has found no sign of the missing aircraft and its crew of six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese soldiers, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

   “The search continues,” Army Col. Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday morning.

   The latest official update dashed hopes raised by an earlier report Wednesday morning from the Deutsche Presse Agentur news agency, which suggested that officials had determined the helicopter’s location.

   “There are a lot of reports floating around, none are attributed to anyone and most have been investigated by DoD and determined to be fake,” Army Maj. David Eastburn, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command, said in an email to Military Times on Wednesday.

   The search for the missing helicopter continued on Wednesday morning with two UH-1Y Huey helicopters leaving Kathmandu with two Air Force pararescuemen and several Marines onboard. One of the Hueys was fitted with a hoist in case the helicopter cannot find a landing site.

   “Once the pair of Hueys completed their initial search, they returned to Kathmandu where two MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft took off and continued the efforts,” Eastburn said. “This pattern will continue all day.”

   The U.S. aircraft halted the aerial search again after sundown in Nepal Wednesday. In total, the aircraft flew nine sorties over the location where the missing helicopter was last seen, Warren said.

   The Huey helicopter was carrying six U.S. Marines and two Nepalese soldiers when it disappeared Tuesday during a mission in a remote mountainous region in Nepal, a defense official said.

   The utility helicopter from Marine Light Attack Helicopter squadron 469 based at Camp Pendleton, California, was last seen after another helicopter in the area “picked up some [radio] chatter about a fuel problem,” Warren said Tuesday shortly after the aircraft was reported missing.

   “Right now we are hopeful that there was no crash. There has been no [emergency] beacon, no other signs — no flames, no smoke, no hole in the ground — to indicate that there was a crash,” Warren said Tuesday.

   “That said, of course, it’s very rugged and difficult terrain,” an official said.

   Last known location

   There are currently about 300 U.S. military personnel in Nepal providing humanitarian support and disaster relief supplies following the massive earthquake that hit the mountainous country more than two weeks ago.

   The helicopter was flying in the vicinity of Charikot, Nepal. The six Marines, along with two Nepalese army soldiers on board, had dropped off some relief supplies, including tarps and rice, at one location and then took off en route to a second drop spot when contact was lost, Warren said.

   The Nepalese Air Brigade reported the helicopter’s last known airborne location and three MV-22B Ospreys searched that area for 90 minutes, but were unable to find the aircraft. The air search was halted after dark and Nepalese soldiers were heading to the area on foot, Warren said.

   Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, the forward commander of Joint Task Force 505, is leading the personnel rescue effort, Warren said.

   Nepalese army soldiers unload aid and relief suppliesNepalese army soldiers unload aid and relief supplies from a UH-1Y Venom on May 11 in the Kavrepalanchowk District, Nepa (Photo: Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Anderson/Marine Corps)
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   Nepalese army soldiers unload aid and relief supplies A U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom flies over the Sindhuli A UH-1Y Venom flies through a valley in the Sindhuli UH-1Y Venoms land in Dhulikhel, Nepal, on May 11 to Nepalese service members load relief supplies into A Marine UH-1Y Venom, with the Joint Task Force 505,
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   A U.S. Air Force pararescue team “has rehearsed and is ready to execute if needed,” Warren said.

   The mountainous terrain makes the search very difficult.

   “If it set down, then it can’t get radio transmissions out because that means it’s on low ground surrounded by mountains. Essentially what we have right now is truly a missing helicopter. We simply don’t know its location,” Warren said.

   The report of radio chatter about a fuel problem came from an Indian helicopter that was flying in the area at the time, Warren said.

   “Right now we are hopeful. We have reason to believe this is simply the case of a helicopter that has landed and is out of communication.”

   Meanwhile, the Air Force’s 36th Contingency Response Group is continuing to help offload humanitarian aid at Tribhuvan International Airport, an official said.

   — Staff writer Jeffrey Schogol contributed to this report.

   https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/05/12/us-marine-helicopter-missing-in-nepal-earthquake-aid-mission/27180137/

2. courage
   May 14th, 2015 @ 4:29 pm

   SecNav announces sweeping career and fitness changes
   By James K. Sanborn and Derrick Perkins, Staff writers 5:23 p.m. EDT May 13, 2015

   ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Navy secretary announced huge changes related to policies affecting Marines’ fitness, uniforms, career options and promotion opportunities during a speech at the Naval Academy on Wednesday.

   Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a host of policy changes he said are necessary for the sea services to compete with private industry for the nation’s pool of talented youth. The changes will better prepare the Marine Corps and Navy for future conflicts and make military service more attractive to those who want more career flexibility.

   “Some changes will take place at the speed of my pen, others at the speed of Congress,” Mabus said.

   Changes to fitness are being made with an eye toward integrating women into combat roles. Mabus also has a plan to boost the number of women the Marine Corps recruits.

   He’s also forging ahead with plans to design and field unisex uniform items for male and female Marines. And new career policies will give Marines and sailors more opportunities to expand their education and professional experience outside of their military occupational specialties.

   Here’s what you need to know.

   Gender-neutral standards

   If the Marine Corps and Navy are to reflect the makeup of the nation the services defend, it must recruit and retain more women, Mabus said. A more diverse force is stronger, he said.

   “Both our platforms and our career paths will allow for equal service opportunities,” he said. “That is why I’m personally committed to opening all operational billets to women.”

   But reaching that goal will not involve lowered standards. Mabus said he wants gender-neutral standards implemented. The ability to do the job, regardless of gender, remains paramount, he said.

   Mabus held up the Corps’ Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force as an example of the research being done in that area.

   The experimental unit, composed of about 200 men and 75 women, is undergoing testing at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. The intent is developing unisex standards for ground combat arms specialties still closed to female Marines.

   MARINE CORPS TIMES
   All-female Marine grunt teams get innovative during combat tests

   But talk of integrating combat units with women has drawn criticism from past and present Marines who continue to worry it will lead to lower standards. Mabus sought to alleviate those concerns during a brief question and answer session with cadets following the secretary’s prepared remarks.

   “In all cases, I personally believe we ought to have one standard for both sexes, a standard that matches the demands of the job, and if you pass, you pass,” Mabus said.

   Unisex uniforms

   In a significant milestone towards the adoption of common coats with mandarin collars for all Marines — male and female alike — Mabus said for the first time ever, female midshipmen attending graduation May 22 will wear collared dress coats, including those receiving Navy and Marine Corps commissions.

   Mabus used the speech to highlight his initiative to issue common uniform items, saying it was important to cohesion and morale.

   During the question-and-answer session, however, he was questioned by a skeptical midshipman who described the effort as a way to make females look like their male counterparts.

   Mabus rebutted saying, “We are not trying to make women look like men, but make everybody look like a U.S. sailor or Marine.”

   The decision to issue Marine Corps dress blues and Navy dress whites with mandarin collars to women was made because Mabus wants to provide both with what he called an “iconic” uniform. It was not a hasty decision to adopt male uniforms, but rather a decision to adopt a storied and well recognized uniform.

   He added that while the coats are designed to have a similar appearance to a casual observer the services will not simply issue standard male coats to females. Rather, the female coats lack breast and hip pockets and are tailored to better fit their bodies.

   MARINE CORPS TIMES
   More female Marines to wear male dress blues

   The Corps began testing an improved prototype late last summer, and a decision is expected as early as this summer. Marines began wear testing and refining the female version of the male coat with mandarin collar in 2013. The coat has been worn mostly by women serving in ceremonial capacities in and around Washington and at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The included band members, but also area recruiters.

   Early versions were tailored men’s coats, but more recent photos have shown a collared coat without pockets like those described by Mabus.

   A decision has already been finalized for female Marines to wear a common cover that appears similar to previous male covers, but their wear is not mandatory until May 1, 2017.

   Career advancement

   Following more than a decade of combat, Mabus said those who succeed on the battlefield deserve a chance to broaden their knowledge.

   Quoting ancient Greek strategist Thucydides, who famously said a nation that separates its warriors from its thinkers is doomed to fail as its fighting is done by fools and its thinking by cowards, Mabus announced plans to increase the availability of private sector and academic billets.

   For officers pursuing an academic route, Mabus pledged to open 30 additional fully-funded, in-residence billets in graduate programs at the nation’s most prestigious schools, like Harvard University.

   Mabus also wants to expand billets in the career intermission program, which allows service members to pursue other interests over a three-year period. With the approval of Congress, Mabus said he plans to expand those slots from 40 to 400.

   He’ll also launch the “Secretary of the Navy Industry Tour” program in the fall, which will allow commanders to send their brightest officers to work in the private sector. The hope is that they will return with corporations’ best practices in hand, Mabus said.

   He cited former commandant Gen. Jim Amos as an example of a leader who took a two-and-a-half year break from service to work as a private airline pilot and gain additional leadership expertise in the corporate world before returning to uniform. That however, Mabus said, meant Amos was behind his peers when he returned and had to struggle to catch up. The new program would reward instead of penalize Marines who do the same.

   Creating a more professional and versatile Corps also means adopting the private sector’s promotion and bonus practices, Mabus said. Commanding officers will receive more leeway to advance their subordinates based on their individual performance in the future, he said.

   Milestones — not time in uniform — should determine promotions, Mabus said, noting that legislation to eliminate officer management by the end of the year is in the works. Overhauling the system will allow more capable officers to rise through the ranks faster while keeping those unprepared for advancement in their existing pay grades.

   “A golden path of inflexible career wickets, year-groups and promotion zones will no longer determine your success,” he told cadets. “Your performance will decide your timeline for promotion and leadership assignments.”

   Adopting these changes will strengthen the fleet by encouraging the Corps’ best and brightest to remain in uniform, Mabus said.

   “[By] keeping our best people, we will be better warfighters,” he said.

   New PT policies

   Mabus also announced several changes to Navy fitness policies — including plans to revamp the reviled tape test system — that likely won’t affect the Marine Corps.

   Sailors will face a year-round culture of fitness, during which commanding officers will be able to do random spot checks in between fitness tests. The Navy will also change the way in which sailors who fall outside fitness standards are measured, following years of complaints from those in the fleet.

   “Our pass/fail system that only — and sometimes inaccurately — assesses one aspect of physical fitness is going to end,” he said.

   The service is looking at the Air Force’s tape test model, which measures only the waist instead of the waist and neck.

   The move is in part meant to address the sometimes dangerous methods sailors take in order to pass height and weight checks. While those problems exist inside the Corps as well, Mabus said the changes to the tape test aren’t likely to affect that service since Marines tend to be in better shape.

   Sailors who maintain top-tier performance on physical fitness tests three consecutive times will also soon be eligible to earn the “Outstanding Fitness Award,” Mabus said.

   The award will come in the form of a patch to be worn on the outside of their PT uniforms.

   Staff writer Meghann Myers contributed to this report.

   https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/careers/marine-corps/2015/05/13/secnav-announces-sweeping-manpower-career-uniform-changes/27241869/

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