Forward-Deployed Air Wing Prepares for Patrol on Historic Island

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Trevor Welsh, Commander, Task Force 70 Public Affairs

IWO TO, Japan (NNS) -- Pilots, maintainers and air crew personnel assigned to the seven fixed-wing aircraft squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW-5) spent 10 days on Iwo To, Japan (formerly Iwo Jima), May 9 - 19, preparing for the upcoming patrol aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) by completing field carrier landing practice (FCLP).

"In order to even sit in the cockpit and get in the position to land on a carrier, the pilots have to go through thousands of hours of training and thousands of landings at an airfield doing field carrier landing practice," said Capt. Dennis Mikeska, the assistant chief of staff for operations, planning and operations for the U.S. Naval Forces, Japan. "The amount of experience that is required to get there and the proficiency is what makes this such a challenging mission. It's almost like a pro golfer going on the PGA tour; the only difference is, without practice the golfer may not win, for an aviator landing aboard an aircraft carrier, without practice, he or she is only seconds away from death."

During FCLP, pilots are required to fly through a minimum of 21 day and 21 night landings over a three day period. Landing grading is done by pilots who currently fly, but have a special designation as a landing signal officer (LSO). They are responsible for grading each pilot's ability to maintain centerline, approach at correct glide slope, maintain correct aircraft attitude and follow direction while exercising "touch and go" landings during the day and night.

"The landing signal officer's job out here is to make sure the pilots' performance is good enough to fly on the carrier," said Lt. Travis Thomas, an LSO assigned to the "Eagles" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 115. "We'll grade them on their performance then debrief them on it and make sure they are up to speed. It's important that we come to Iwo To because we have the appropriate equipment to make sure the pilots are ready and flying safe."

According to Mikeska, due to its distance from any other safe landing site and its severe weather unpredictability, CVW-5 requires a safety waiver from the Chief of Naval Operations every two years to operate at Iwo To. About 600 nautical miles from the nearest divert airfield of Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsgui, Japan, the island is one of only two FCLP sites used by the U.S. Navy that provides realistic flight deck training, the other being the island of San Clemente, Calif.

"Completing the necessary number of FCLP landings close enough in time to actually flying to the ship is not only prudent, it is a requirement by our Naval Aviation Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) and that requirement is one of many that has been written in blood in Naval Aviation," said Capt. William Koyama, commander, CVW-5. "Iwo To presents a special hazard because it is isolated and once airborne with a FCLP fuel load, there is nowhere else to land except Iwo To. If the weather drops down rapidly or unpredictably, which happens occasionally, we can end up with our aircraft airborne over the Pacific with nowhere to land. If we were as conservative as would normally be the case, we would seldom have the weather to operate from Iwo To, so we require a waiver in order to reduce the margins of safety but accomplish the mission and be ready for the ship when the ship is ready for us."

Navy has been using the Iwo To facility for FCLP since 1989, but despite its disadvantages, unlike CVW-5's home of NAF Atsugi, Iwo To has no local population which allows pilots to fly day and night at an altitude that resembles the actual operating altitude when flying with George Washington at-sea.

"FCLP, when flown in accordance with Navy standards, is very loud," said Mikeska. "We like to train at Iwo To because we don't have to worry about noise. If we do FCLP at any other location, we have to fly at higher pattern altitudes in order to reduce the noise to the local population."

According to Mikeska, Iwo To is not a permanent FCLP site.

"U.S. and Japan governments are working together to find a permanent FCLP site that will have emergency divert airfields close by," said Mikeska. "As of 2008, Japanese government proposed Magashima, Japan, and island in Japan's southwest, as a candidate site. We are still working to investigate the possibility of Magashima."

Volcanic rock and ash, black sand beaches, rusted remnants of machine guns in crumpled bunkers, monuments and memorials for the brave U.S. and Japanese military forces who died there and a Japan Air Self-Defense Force air station are what remains on what could be considered one of the most revered and historic islands in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Meaning "sulfur island", the island's name was changed to Iwo Jima in 1944, ahead of the U.S. invasion, when civilians were evacuated. In Japanese, "jima" is an alternative word for island. In kanji script, the writing of Iwo Jima and Iwo To is the same; only the pronunciation is different. As of June 2007, the island was officially renamed back to Iwo To.

CVW-5 consists of VFA-102 flying the F/A-18F Super Hornet; VFA-27 flying the F/A-18E Super Hornet; VFA-115 flying the F/A-18E Super Hornet; VFA-195 flying the F/A-18E Super Hornet; Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 141 flying the EA-18G Growler; Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 115 flying the E-2C Hawkeye; Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30, Detachment 5, flying the C-2A Greyhound; Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 12 flying the MH-60S Seahawk; and Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 flying the MH-60R Seahawk.

CWV-5 is embarked aboard George Washington as part of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 70 and is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations protecting and defending the collective maritime interest of the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.