WEBVTT

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- [Voiceover] Service members aboard

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Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni

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train daily to better themselves

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physically and professionally.

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Marines with Marine Attack Squadron VMA542

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conduct vertical short landing

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and take offs in Harriers, or jump jets,

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to keep up with operational readiness.

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- What's unique about the Harrier

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and its capabilities is that as

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a close air support platform, as a fixed wing jet,

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we can hover, so we don't require

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the super carrier catapult and trap system.

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We can actually come to the hover

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alongside the amphibious ship and make

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a vertical landing in order to facilitate

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flight operations off an amphibious ship.

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- [Voiceover] Harriers play a vital role

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in operations of the modern day theater of war.

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- The ability that a Harrier has

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to hover like a helicopter and the speed

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of a fixed wing aircraft is very unique to the Marine Corps

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and makes us highly expeditionary

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and having those veto pads set out

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and that puddle hopping type mentality,

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makes us more expeditious, makes us more expeditionary

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and we can go anywhere and do anything,

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so we directly directly impact

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whether that bird can support the guys on the ground.

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- [Voiceover] Being able to land and take off vertically

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makes boarding ships very simple.

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- What the coolest part is about being

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a Marine attack pilot, I fly the 88 B-2 Harrier,

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definitely the v-stall, the vertical short take off

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and landing aspects of the air craft itself,

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just the specifics and the regimes of flight

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that you can put this aircraft into that you

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can't normally do in any other aircraft.

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- [Voiceover] Reporting from Marine Corps

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Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, I'm Lance Corporal Calvin Hilt.