Maintenance Marines Keep Griffins Flying

US Marine Corps, AL ASAD, Iraq: Despite harsh conditions and a frantic work pace, the Flying Griffins of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 266 have kept the CH-46 at the tip of the spear in Operation Iraqi Freedom. 
 
During an average month at their home base, Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., the Griffins fly approximately 225 hours per month. 
 
But the demands of war have forced the squadron to average nearly four times that amount. The squadron flew 880 hours during December 2005, and the pace of operations for the CH-46 squadron deployed to Al Asad, Iraq, should remain high until the unit returns to the United States. What they