Marine Corps Air Station Iwakini -- Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112 arrived to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni early August as the newest F/A-18 hornets on the Unit Deployment Program.
“The Cowboys,” are a reservist squadron from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, and were told that they would be activating to support the UDP in Sept. 2012.
“A lot of people don’t understand the reserves; they have certain thoughts, biases or expectations,”said Lt. Col. Michael Jeffries, commanding officer of VMFA -122.
Jeffries added that Marine Aircraft Group 12 gave a warm welcome to the unit and treated them the same as any active squadron.
“The squadron is about half reserve half active," said Sgt. Maj. Scott Miller, VMFA -112 sergeant major. “The unit practically flies every day.”
Miller added that this UDP is a great opportunity for the active and reservist Marines in the squadron to work together to achieve their mission. “We activated on April 1st of this year,” said Jeffries. “We basically had three months to do our pre-deployment training plan whereas most units usually start about six months out.”
VMFA -112 worked diligently up until the last minute to make sure everything was on track for their deployment. The Cowboys received their last F/A-18 three days before leaving. Jeffries said that they got the jet on a Friday, worked to get it up to speed all weekend, flew the acceptance flight Monday morning and launched the aircraft Monday afternoon.
The high tempo work load is showing no signs of slowing down. The Cowboys have an extremely active schedule while in the Pacific.
“The majority of the squadron will be here for about five and a half weeks,” said Jeffries. “We’re sending a small unit down to the Philippines to do some (close air support) training. At the end of September we are taking the squadron down to Malaysia to fight the MIG 29’s. Sometime at the end of October or early November we are going to Kusan, Korea, for a few weeks and then at the end of November into early December we are going down to Guam. There is still talk about adding a few more things into it. It just depends where they tell us to go.”
The Cowboys are also using their fully active time to progress in their military careers.
“I’ve got the reserve Marines undivided attention for 10 months, three months prior to getting out here, six months while we are here and a month when we get back,” said Jefferies.“That’s going to be huge, it takes a long time to get all the qualifications in the reserves, but now they’ve got the time so they can progress in their (military occupational specialty).”
Marines of VMFA -112 have a very busy schedule ahead of them, but they seem to be looking forward to the challenge.
“I think they are very excited about being here, for the reserve Marines, and even for the active duty Marines, it’s a pretty unique opportunity to do a UDP,” said Miller.
The Cowboys are even trying to plan a professional military education trip to Iwo Jima during their stay in Iwakuni to learn about the unit’s role during the World War II Pacific Campaign. With PME trips, a plethora of exercises and MOS training ahead of them the Cowboys have a very busy six months, but seem to have an optimistic outlook on it all.