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Friday, May 2, 2014 Vol. 49, No. 17 Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C.
Delta and Oscar Company Graduates
See Page 15
“The noise you hear is the sound of freedom.”
n Entertainment n News Briefs n Weather n In The Community n Around The Corps
2 3 3 5 10
Air Station weapons order update Page 4
Fightertown Marine golfs with pros Page 9
VMFA-115, VMFA-122 return to Fightertown Page 13
Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 31 participate in a Search and Rescue exercise at sea off the South Carolina Coast, April 25. The exercise included members of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Savannah and tested emergency responders’ ability to respond to an aviation mishap. Although mishap drills are practiced on a quarterly basis among Marine Aviation units, units seldom get the opportunity to practice in a real-life environments such as the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean where aerial training is conducted in the Tactical Aircrew Combat Training Systems Range. Sgt. Marcy Sanchez
Comm/Media Relations Chief
Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 31 participated in a multi-asset search and rescue exercise off the South Carolina coast, April 25. The exercise included members of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Beaufort Memo-
rial Hospital and the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Savannah and tested emergency responders’ ability to respond to an aviation mishap. During the exercise, aircrew from MAG-31 and Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312 were positioned in the Atlantic Ocean simulating an ejection from a downed aircraft and using sur-
vival equipment. “The exercise will test the integration between the agencies responsible for rescuing the downed aircrew after an accident,” said Maj. Armin Wahl, Director of Safety Standardization with MAG-31 before the exercise. “This will validate our emergency systems to find any weaknesses that we may have.
We’re exercising our full systems to make sure they are valid.” Every pilot is equipped with survival radios, which transmit a signal to Tyndall Joint Service Rescue Center in Florida when activated, said Wahl, a native of Bluffton, S.C. After the JSRC is aware of a mishap, rescue personnel are notified and dispatched to con-
duct the search and rescue and transport aircrew to emergency personnel. Once rescued, the pilots were transported to Beaufort Memorial Hospital where staff was tasked with diagnosing and treating the aircrew while familiarizing them with the aircrew’s see
Training, page 12
Chaplain Cmdr. Holiman follows calling, family tradition Lance Cpl. Brendan Roethel Staff Writer
Werewolves, MAG-12 tear through the sky Lance Cpl. Luis Ramirez
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
GWANGJU AIR BASE, Republic Of Korea -- As Exercise Max Thunder 14-1 rages on, Col. Hunter H. Hobson, the commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 12, visited Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 aboard Gwangju Air Base, Republic of Korea, April 22, 2014. As part of MT 14-1, VMFA-122, stationed out of Beaufort, S.C., is providing eight F/A-18 hornet aircraft to support both U.S. and ROK forces throughout the exercise.
Cmdr. William Holiman, the Marine Corps Air Station chaplain, was born into a military family. During his career the A native of Little Rock, Ark. he grew up reading his relative’s cruise books and gazing at their photographs. He loved listening to their stories about life at sea and the many countries they saw. Hearing these experiences lured him to the Navy, which is why he joined his high school’s Junior Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program. It was these stories and photographs from his great grandfather, grandfather, father, and uncles, and his own experiences in JNROTC that guided him at the age of 39 toward a career of ministry, combat
deployments, sea tours and more. “Through the JNROTC program, near the end of my high school career I received a Navy scholarship to attend the University of Oklahoma,” Holiman said. “I really considered accepting the scholarship, but I had a calling toward ministry, which lead me to attend a Christian college instead.” After college, Holiman attended seminary at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia. It was while attending seminary, that he had the opportunity to work with his father-in-law, who was a pastor, and the church’s youth directors. “When working with the directors I realized I wanted to learn what they knew, and do what they did,” Holiman said. see
Chaplain, page 8
Max Thunder is a semi-annual training event consisting of composite and coalition flight training between the U.S. military and the Republic of Korea Air Force. The purpose of Hobson’s visit was to oversee VMFA-122’s training during the exercise. “VMFA-122 is one of my squadrons while they are under the (unit deployment program) in Iwakuni,” said Hobson. “As such, I am responsible for them, and I came out here to witness see
122, page 12
Courtesy Photo