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18 <a href="http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette">www.mca-marines.org/gazette</a> M a r i n e C o r p s G a z e t t e • M a y 2 0 0 9 IDEAS & ISSUES (AVIATION) ccording to Joint Publication 1 (JP 1), Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States, the Marine air- ground task force (MAGTF) com- mander retains operational control (OpCon) of all organic air assets, and the primary mission of the MAGTF aviation combat element (ACE) is to support the MAGTF ground combat element (GCE). When joint opera- tions are undertaken, MAGTF air as- sets will be in support of the MAGTF mission; however, the MAGTF com- mander will make sorties available to the joint force commander (JFC), for tasking through the joint force air com- ponent commander (JFACC), for air defense, long-range interdiction and long-range reconnaissance. JP 1 goes on further to state that sorties in excess of MAGTF direct support require- ments will be provided to the JFC for tasking through the JFACC for the support of other components of the joint force or the joint force as a whole. The purpose of this short article is to recap several major events during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM 08 (OIF 08) where I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) (I MEF(Fwd)) pro- vided historic Marine aviation support to Multinational Corps-Iraq (MNC-I), the JFC in Iraq. Upon completion of transfer of au- thority from II MEF(Fwd) on 9 Feb- ruary 2008, I MEF(Fwd) provided fixed-wing (F/W) tactical air (TacAir) sorties to MNC-I for combined force air component commander (CFACC) tasking. Previously, daily TacAir sup- port to MNC-I had not been provided by any of the prior MEFs. With im- proved security conditions and de- creased kinetic operations in the Multinational Force-West (MNF-W) area of operations (AO), I MEF(Fwd) provided over 1,000 F/W sorties to MNC-I for CFACC tasking during OIF 08. These missions were primarily supported by the F/A–18 Hornet, due to its longer legs and larger payload, but the AV–8B Harrier supplemented these missions until its off ramp from OIF in October 2008. While utilizing MAGTF Air A joint force supporter by LtCol Bradley E. Weisz A An F/A–18 flying out of Al Asad, Iraq. (Photo by GySgt Shannon Arledge.) . . . the MAGTF com- mander will make sor- ties available to the joint force commander (JFC). . . . >LtCol Weisz is the Air Officer, MNF- W, Iraq.
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