MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- A Grumman E-2 Hawkeye plane was shipped from the air station on a voyage to its new U.S. homeport Naval Air Facility North Island, San Diego, June 28.
The E-2 Hawkeye arrived here from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, May 14 and was used for six weeks before its departure.
The total move was a three-week process, and the plane is scheduled to arrive at NAF North Island by July 19.
The E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather airborne early warning aircraft made in the late 1950s used primarily for radar, radio communications and reconnaissance missions.
The aircraft will ultimately be stationed in Northfolk, Va., where it will be used in the Fleet Replacement Squadron to train pilots and aircrew on particular airframes.
The moving process for the E-2 Hawkeye officially began June 13 when Hipp Marine Services Inc. from San Diego began wrapping the plane with shrink-wrap to preserve the plane from moisture, rust and other weather-related issues that may occur during transportation.
After the plane was completely wrapped in shrink-wrap, the plane was relocated to the station harbor for departure.
On June 27, a towed universal glider was used to pull the plane from hangar 281B to the Iwakuni station harbor where it remained overnight until the arrival of Motor Vessel Ocean Atlas.
The plane was lifted by an 80-ton portal crane located at the station harbor, where sailors and Marines encountered the greatest challenge of the entire moving process.
“The biggest challenge is getting the correct slings because the aircraft has special slings that go with it,” said Chief Petty Officer Kathryn Remm, station Motor Transportation equipment operator. “We had to have the actual slings flown in from another base.”
Since the crane operators were Japanese master labor contractors, Marines and sailors had to overcome the language barrier between the ground operators and crane operators.
A common question many of the augments in charge of the move faced was the question of why the plane wasn’t being flown back to the U.S.
“There’s no safe, effective, quick manner to fly it back to the states, so they elected to send it back by sealift,” said Lt. Cmdr. Keith G. Applegate, Logistics commanding officer here.
The maximum flight time without refueling for an E-2 Hawkeye is six hours and 15 minutes.
For this reason, the only effective way to transport the plane was by ship.
Transporting the plane by ship is an option most air wings don’t have, and for this reason, most air stations must resort to conducting aircraft transportation through the use of aircraft carriers only.
Unlike other air stations, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni has a unique ability distinguishing it from other air stations.
“One of the things that makes Iwakuni unique is that we have a big airfield and a big port right next to each other,” said Applegate.
Not only is this characteristic unique, but it makes MCAS Iwakuni the only air station in the Marine Corps with both a combined sea port and aerial port of debarkation.
“We’ve got one mile in between the hangar and the sea port, and (that mile consists of) all roads that we control,” said Applegate. “It makes it a really unique strategic capability for this theatre.”