Commandant dedicates training jet at Miramar honoring war heroes.
Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, dedicates an F/A-18 Hornet jet painted in tribute to Medal of Honor recipients.
Four F/A-18 Hornet jets streaked high over Marine Corps Air Station Miramar
Friday afternoon in a missing man formation. When Number 222 peeled away from
the others and landed, it was obvious that the latest aircraft added to Marine
Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101 was something special.
The jet parked near a red carpet rolled onto the flight line. Then Gen. James Amos, the 65-year-old commandant of the Marine Corps, climbed out of the backseat of the cockpit. It was the first time Amos, a fighter pilot by training, had flown a Hornet this year, aides said.
Instead of the normal flat gray, the B model F/A-18 had been painted a glossy white with green trim. The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, adorned the speedbrake between the tails. The names of the four most recent Navy Department recipients, two Marines and two Sailors, flanked the cockpit. Their citations were inscribed near the engine intakes.
During the ensuing dedication ceremony, Marine officials recounted the heroism of each young combat veteran, three of whom were mortally wounded by the actions for which they were honored.
Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, the only survivor among them, ventured repeatedly into a deadly maelstrom of gunfire in 2009 to search for four Americans missing during an ambush in Afghanistan.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, a Navy SEAL, smothered a grenade with his body in 2006 in Iraq to save two teammates. His parents, George and Sally Monsoor, sat in the front row at the ceremony, accepting hugs and private words from the heads of the Marine Corps, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the training squadron.
Lt. Michael Murphy, also a Navy SEAL, moved into an exposed position to call for help for his wounded teammates and then fought to his death in 2005 in Afghanistan.
Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham used his helmet and body to smother a grenade in 2004 in Iraq, saving at least two fellow Marines.
The jet painted in tribute to them served most recently with the Navy’s Hornet training squadron at Lemoore, and previously in Maryland at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and with NASA. Now Marine Corps and Navy instructors and aviators training at Miramar with VMFAT-101 will fly it in their honor, said Lt. Col. Robert Brodie, the squadron’s commanding officer.
The unit trains about 60 pilots and weapons systems officers annually.
“My hope is that as a training squadron that we get our young aviators who are coming in the door, when they see a jet like this it makes them think about the sacrifice and the commitment they are making to their country,” Brodie said.
Other special guests at the ceremony included retired pilots in town for an all-Marine F-4 Phantom reunion, the jet Amos flew before switching to the Hornet.
“Nobody appreciates something like this more than the old guys. Because we’ve been there and we’ve done it. It was the best years and we are so far away from it, it seems,” said retired Marine Maj. Gen. Michael “Lancer” Sullivan, 79, a two-time Vietnam War combat veteran who flew close to 9,000 hours during his career.
“These good-looking Marines, they haven’t missed a beat. The beat goes on and I am glad I was part of it,” said Sullivan, who lives in the Cherry Point, N.C. area.
The new generation of Marine aviators, including his son, Lt. Col. Byron “Shrek” Sullivan scheduled to take command this year of Miramar’s Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, must be more educated and better behaved, Sullivan said.
“They are more squared away than I was. … We partied harder,” even drinking champagne on the flight line, “and lost more airplanes” in combat, the elder Sullivan said.
gretel.kovach@uniontrib.com; (619) 293-1293; Facebook page: UT Military; Twitter @gckovach
The jet parked near a red carpet rolled onto the flight line. Then Gen. James Amos, the 65-year-old commandant of the Marine Corps, climbed out of the backseat of the cockpit. It was the first time Amos, a fighter pilot by training, had flown a Hornet this year, aides said.
Instead of the normal flat gray, the B model F/A-18 had been painted a glossy white with green trim. The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, adorned the speedbrake between the tails. The names of the four most recent Navy Department recipients, two Marines and two Sailors, flanked the cockpit. Their citations were inscribed near the engine intakes.
During the ensuing dedication ceremony, Marine officials recounted the heroism of each young combat veteran, three of whom were mortally wounded by the actions for which they were honored.
Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, the only survivor among them, ventured repeatedly into a deadly maelstrom of gunfire in 2009 to search for four Americans missing during an ambush in Afghanistan.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, a Navy SEAL, smothered a grenade with his body in 2006 in Iraq to save two teammates. His parents, George and Sally Monsoor, sat in the front row at the ceremony, accepting hugs and private words from the heads of the Marine Corps, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the training squadron.
Lt. Michael Murphy, also a Navy SEAL, moved into an exposed position to call for help for his wounded teammates and then fought to his death in 2005 in Afghanistan.
Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham used his helmet and body to smother a grenade in 2004 in Iraq, saving at least two fellow Marines.
The jet painted in tribute to them served most recently with the Navy’s Hornet training squadron at Lemoore, and previously in Maryland at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and with NASA. Now Marine Corps and Navy instructors and aviators training at Miramar with VMFAT-101 will fly it in their honor, said Lt. Col. Robert Brodie, the squadron’s commanding officer.
The unit trains about 60 pilots and weapons systems officers annually.
“My hope is that as a training squadron that we get our young aviators who are coming in the door, when they see a jet like this it makes them think about the sacrifice and the commitment they are making to their country,” Brodie said.
Other special guests at the ceremony included retired pilots in town for an all-Marine F-4 Phantom reunion, the jet Amos flew before switching to the Hornet.
“Nobody appreciates something like this more than the old guys. Because we’ve been there and we’ve done it. It was the best years and we are so far away from it, it seems,” said retired Marine Maj. Gen. Michael “Lancer” Sullivan, 79, a two-time Vietnam War combat veteran who flew close to 9,000 hours during his career.
“These good-looking Marines, they haven’t missed a beat. The beat goes on and I am glad I was part of it,” said Sullivan, who lives in the Cherry Point, N.C. area.
The new generation of Marine aviators, including his son, Lt. Col. Byron “Shrek” Sullivan scheduled to take command this year of Miramar’s Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, must be more educated and better behaved, Sullivan said.
“They are more squared away than I was. … We partied harder,” even drinking champagne on the flight line, “and lost more airplanes” in combat, the elder Sullivan said.
gretel.kovach@uniontrib.com; (619) 293-1293; Facebook page: UT Military; Twitter @gckovach
