Osprey completes first humanitarian mission in Haiti

The MV-22 Osprey, the Marines’ unique tiltrotor aircraft, completed its first humanitarian mission in Haiti on Sunday, according to Marines from Camp Lejeune’s 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Two Ospreys launched from the deck of the USS Nassau around 8 a.m. Sunday morning to conduct aerial surveys of the towns and roadways of northern Haiti, according to releases. Later in the day, Ospreys were used to insert three teams of approximately 10 Marines each to meet with Haitians and assess local and regional needs and issues, officials said. And Ospreys were also deployed to pick up rations of rice and lentils from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bring the supplies back to the ship.

The rice and lentils, along with approximately 10,000 Meals Ready-to-Eat, were delivered to the Haitian town of Anse-a-Galets on Monday.

“The overall advantage for using the Osprey is the efficiency we can get all of this done with,” a spokesman for the 24th MEU, Capt. Robert Shuford, told the Daily News via e-mail on Monday. “The speed of the Osprey allows us to land multiple teams in areas all throughout northern Haiti, leave them there with enough time to get a good assessment and retrieve all these teams before nightfall — only using two Ospreys.”

The 24th MEU deployed with New River’s Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162, which comprises 10 of the aircraft and accompanying crew. The ability of the Osprey’s rotors to change angle means that it can hover like a helicopter or fly horizontally like an airplane, depending on mission needs.

Shuford said the MEU plans to use the Ospreys to insert more assessment teams and make more runs between the U.S.S. Nassau and Guantanamo Bay for supplies and logistics, although there is no clear timeline for the activities of the Osprey moving forward.

The deployment of VMM-162 to Haiti is only the Osprey’s second deployment with a MEU. A squadron of Ospreys, New River’s VMM-263, is also on its first deployment to Afghanistan, having been transitioned to the region by Camp Lejeune’s 22nd MEU.

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.