NAVAL AIR JOINT RESERVE BASE BELLE CHASSE, La. -- Someone once said that man wasn’t supposed to fly, but the Marines of Marine Aircraft Group-49, Detachment C beg to differ.
As the engines rumble and the blades whip around like giant fans, Maj. Adrian Romero, executive officer of MAG-49 Det. C, taps his control panel, turns the knobs, twists his dials and prepares for flight. Once all has been prepared, the co-pilot pulls back on the controls and lifts the aircraft into the sky.
“I fly to support my Marines on the ground in order to accomplish the mission,” said Romero, as he thought of his reason to fly.
Romero’s passion takes a combat and self-defining approach, seeing as how when the smoke clears, that’s what it is all about, he said.
“However, on a personal note, I think it is also challenging yet fulfilling,” he said.
Pilot and Armed Forces Bowl flight team coordinator, Maj. Damon Powers, MAG-49 Det. C, agreed with those ideas.
His uncles were crop dusters, he said.
One day, Powers was taken up in one and loved it, he said. His uncle gave him a miniature wooden airplane afterward, and to this day, he carries it with him every mile he flies.
Commissioned officers are the only ones allowed to be pilots, but they are not the only ones who fly. With the exception of smaller aircrafts, every pilot and flight is nothing without an enlisted crew.
Take Staff Sgt. Alex May, flight line division chief, and Sgt. Adrian Simmons, ground safety manager, for example. This self proclaimed dynamic, awe-inspiring, life changing, comical, and entertaining duo has been flying together for nearly 7-years now, said May.
They are also crew chiefs on the UH-1N Huey gunship or the “world’s greatest flying machine,” said May.
There is a brotherly feud across the flight line over which ‘bird’ is better, the AH-1W Cobra or the Huey.
The Cobra is a twin-engine attack helicopter; while the Huey is a twin piloted, twin engine helicopter used in command and control, resupply, casualty evacuation and troop transport.
“Why do I fly?” said Simmons, “because, it’s better than walking…machine guns are heavy.”
May agreed, however, his reason for falling for the flight line is simple and a little closer to home.
“Chicks dig Hueys,” said May.
There are many reasons why they chose to do what they do. Whether it’s a childhood experience that spawned a lifelong dream, or a simple reason as “it’s better than a walking,” the Marines of MAG-49 Det. C are living the “fly” life.