COMMENTARY: Guests Visit HMS Illustrious, Get Sneak Preview of War Game

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

July 23, 2007 - On July 18, I flew to British soil on 15 minutes' notice. Marine Brig. Gen. Robert Walsh, who would escort a group of 16 guests to a British aircraft carrier that morning, discovered at the last minute that he had an extra spot for a reporter, and I volunteered to fill it.

Collecting my things, I raced to the pre-flight briefing and learned the basics of the day's trip: an MV-22 Osprey, the dual-hatted Marine aircraft that alternates between being a helicopter and airplane, would carry us from the Pentagon helipad and deliver us to the flight deck of England's HMS Illustrious, which floated somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean near North Carolina's coast.

As Marines briefed us, they distributed itineraries, which allotted time for the group to watch Marines work side by side with British Royal Navy sailors and Royal Air Force members as they prepared for a joint exercise to take place July 25-31. Underscoring differences in military culture, our English hosts had slated a chunk of time to treat guests to pre-luncheon cocktails.

Anxious guests gathered near the Pentagon helipad, or Penpad, awaiting the Osprey's arrival. Around 10 a.m., an eagle-eyed guest spied the Osprey across the Potomac River, rearing its head around the Washington Monument obelisk. Like a predator with wings erect as it descends on prey, the MV-22's tilt-rotors tipped upward in "helicopter mode" as it swooped toward us. The Osprey's massive propellers puffed huge packets of air that sent shirts and pants fluttering like sails luffing in the wind.

After passengers secured their seat belts and chest harnesses, the MV-22 floated from the ground so gingerly it was like someone had momentarily switched off earth's gravitational pull. Once airborne, a mid-range humming seeped under cranial gear and headphones, signaling that the craft was morphing from a helicopter to a plane that would propel us to speeds of 300 mph en route to HMS Illustrious.

Known as the United Kingdom's "high readiness strike center," HMS Illustrious' flight deck has two characteristics distinguishing it from a sprawling U.S. carrier: its runway is shorter by roughly 450 feet, and Illustrious' deck ends in a "ski jump" ramp. But since this was the first carrier I'd seen, I had no first-hand basis to compare it to an American counterpart.

A host of foreign stimulus bombarded my senses as I walked through the gallery's long stretches, gripping onto arched doorways from time to time when the sea's motion threatened to break my feeble landlubber's balance threshold. The temperature rose noticeably in the hangar, and cockney accents hung on palpable swelter as British air crews worked on idle machines. Scents from cream of broccoli -- the soup du jour -- and other English staples wafted from the mess hall.

U.S. Marines were on board HMS Illustrious in part to learn how to operate in a foreign environment alongside coalition counterparts. With members of England's Royal Navy and Air Force, they transformed the Eastern seaboard into a coalition-force classroom, exchanging operational expertise while strengthening international bonds that are increasingly vital to global security.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Marines onboard say the greatest barrier in the partnership lay in communication. Despite sharing English as the mother tongue, many have found that contrasts in each nation's military language are conspicuous.

"The gear that they use and our hand signals are all different. We've had to learn everything different than what we've been taught," said Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, of the Marine Attack Squadron 223 "Bulldogs," who works with British personnel onboard, fueling and maintaining idle aircrafts and directing jet aviators as a member of the flight line crew.

"Chains, chocks," he said, "it's all different words, which is very challenging as far as the language barrier goes."

While on HMS Illustrious, Smith said he became irked when he tried to buy a snack but was denied. "I can't use my money. I've tried it," he said. "Even If I want to buy a soda or a bag of chips, I've got to go downstairs and change it for the British sterling pound."

Smith said he recognizes that coalition exercises, despite the occasional cultural snag, are significant in forging combat partnerships. "I think in the future we'll probably see a lot more of this," he said. "It's important to start now so that when we do get out there and we're partnered up more, we have a feel for what's going on on both sides."

Through a series of strategic and symbolic events taking place on HMS Illustrious this month, the nations are demonstrating cooperation "in the air, on the sea, all over the globe, and in science and in industry" -- realizing hopes that Winston Churchill articulated in a famous 1946 speech lauding trans-Atlantic partnering.

Making history July 15, for example, 14 Marine AV-8B Harrier jets embarked on the ship, marking the highest number of foreign aircraft that HMS Illustrious has hosted in its battle-hardened 218-year military career. Likewise, it is the first time an American aviation unit of this scale embarked aboard a foreign warship.

From July 25-31, coalition members will engage in a U.S.-led joint task force exercise called Operation Bold Step. The exercise will test a range of ships across the spectrum of conflict, ranging from embargo operations involving British and U.S. boarding teams, to air strike missions dropping precision ordnance against simulated targets, English military officials said.

"The exercise is to stress the interoperability that we as Marines can operate with anybody," said Walsh, assistant deputy commandant for aviation who escorted American guests. "I think that it shows that the U.S. can operate with the coalition, not just working side by side, but actually aboard their ship."

Because U.S. Marines and Royal Navy sailors and Air Force operators have similar characteristics, Walsh said, achieving interoperability is an intuitive transition.

"I think the cultural piece there is that we're both naval in character," he said, "so if the (Royal Air Force) can operate on their navy ships, there's no reason why Marines, who are naval in character, can't jump aboard their ship and operate too."

Walsh brought the special guests and media members to HMS Illustrious to see the joint task force's inner-workings as it prepares for the war game. On the flight deck, we watched as Marine aviators in Harrier jets readied to blast off the "ski jump." Cutting through the deafening engines were British and American members of the flight line, working in concert to direct the assault aircrafts and speaking in hand signals.

As Harriers whizzed by spectators, then up and off the ramp, the engines bathed us in hot combusted jet fuel, which felt like sticking your face before a scalding oven and ripping the door open. Thickly-padded headphones couldn't damper the lion's roar of takeoff that rocked the flight deck and jostled onlookers' viscera.

In stoic terms, Marine aviator Maj. Stephan Bradicich, of the Marine Attack Squadron 542 "Tigers" described the drama involved in taking off from the short runway.

"When you're flying off a ship like this and you're looking 300 to 400 feet in front of you and then, all of a sudden, you're dropping off the end of the boat, there's a little apprehension," he said. "But the kick in the butt when you throw the power in the corner is absolutely phenomenal in the Harrier.

"Particularly with the ski jump on this ship," he said. "When you hit the end of the boat you're going up fast." With other visitors, I watched Bradicich and a team of Harrier pilots disappear over the horizon. When it dawned on me that the Marines' English counterparts were providing key information from the flight control tower as they flew mock sorties, I realized I was seeing a historically strong coalition partnership gain another dimension.

As Royal Air Force Commodore Phil Goodman, a visitor who accompanied Walsh, told me, "We've worked very closely with U.S. forces for many years in the air domain, and this is another string to that bow."