Operations
Using the MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter, they patrol foreign and domestic waters to locate and destroy sea-based mines that would harm water craft, and map safe sea-lanes of travel. Mines can be triggered by any number of methods ranging from contact to electronic signature. While the aircraft hovers safely above the sea, it is capable of dragging through the water a wide variety of instruments and machines to accomplish the mission. In harbors, coordination with EOD Divers helps to clear more shallow waters safely.
Squadron deployments have been executed all over the globe, for operational, training, humanitarian, and foreign relations tasking.
Due to the capabilities of the huge heavy-lift aircraft used, the squadron also performs the missions of assault support and cargo transport when deployed. The squadron has even air lifted a full size construction back-hoe tractor and assisted in other air-lift operations in the Oakland, California area during the aftermath of the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake in October 1989.
HM-15 was the first squadron to load two MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters into a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft. To do so, all seven blades and the main rotor head is removed, the tail folded, and the helicopter inched slowly into the cabin. Pressure in tires and struts must be lowered and raised at appropriate stages in order to get the main gear box shaft to clear the overhead while going up the ramp.
It is not rare to see the squadron maintaining an operational "home" detachment while supporting two separately located far-flung deployments in other places of the world.
Read more about this topic: HM-15
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)