MCAS Beaufort -- Marines always train to the same standard they will perform while forward deployed. For the heavy equipment operators of Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, some recent training is helping to better the environment.
The Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island’s Natural Resource and Environmental Affairs Office requested support from MWSS- 273 Engineer Company, Heavy Equipment Platoon to remove tree stumps throughout several locations across
Parris Island.
“Overall we have leveraged a unique opportunity to train heavy equipment Marines in area clearing and mobility operations,” said Chief Warrant Officer Daniel S. Presley, the MWSS- 273 engineer equipment of ficer. “These projects save taxpayers money, and fill a need in the local and surrounding community.”
Work began Nov. 14, and will continue till January 2013. Removing the estimated 480 stumps will help support wildlife in the area.
“The work is pretty straight forward,” said Cpl. Alex Branstutter, a MWSS-273 heavy equipment operator. “You make a couple passes and hopefully, unless the stump is huge, you can remove it.”
While the heavy equipment operators of MWSS-273 call this another training evolution, the ef fect of their work means more than that for the habitat of MCRD Parris Island.
“We are assisting to create areas for future food plots for the wildlife that live around Paige Field,” said Sgt. Mark Musselman, the squadron’s site manager for the project. “We are removing the stumps and clearing the debris, so it is nice and smooth to bring their planters in and plant seed.”
The Marines utilized two John Deere 850J Medium Crawler Tractors and a 624KR Tractor, Rubber Tired, Articulated Steering, Multi-purpose vehicles to begin the operation. A smaller bulldozer will also be used as work gets closer to completion and the larger equipment is no longer necessary.
“The Marines have been doing an outstanding job,” said Musselman. “A lot of the Marines are not familiar with performing this particular task with the equipment, but after performing operations several times they gained a high level of proficiency in it.”
The knowledge and proficiency gained through this exercise will also prepare the Marines to perform similar operations in a deployed environment.
“This knowledge will assist the Marines in clearing operations to set up pads and other runways for landing numerous types of aircraft while forward deployed,” said Musselman. “The platoon is ensuring that we are rotating all of our operators out here to ensure they can get trained.”
Marine Wing Support Squadron 273’s mission is to provide all of the ground support needed to support Marine Corps aviation operations. This includes airfield construction, maintenance and ground support such as refueling aircraft and aircraft recovery.
“This experience will definitely help operators be better at creating level areas for airfield construction or roads when they are deployed,” said Branstutter.