During his first of two deployments in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Major Thomas Keating served as officer in charge of the combat operations center for Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 16, part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, from January to June 2003. An assault support heavy helicopter squadron operating in the Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Boxer, MAG 16 was tasked with moving units "from Navy ships into their tactical assembly areas" and performed a wide range of logistical support missions as well. Keating's second deployment to Iraq - running from February to September 2004 - was as a CH-53E Super Stallion pilot and as the assistant operations officer for Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466. Based in Al Asad, Iraq, in the country's Anbar Province, he provided mainly logistics sustainment to outlying forward operating bases - a service that was highly appreciated by fellow soldiers and Marines as attacks on convoys became more frequent and deadly. “One forward air controller,” Keating said, “told us: ‘Every time you guys do externals for us, you keep us from having to do a convoy.’ That’s how I personally found value in what I was doing,” Keating added. In this interview, he also discusses the effects, on both equipment and individual Marines, of his squadron’s intense operational tempo, which required them to fly approximately 800 hours a month – almost a three-fold increase from what would be normal in garrison.

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