European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 03, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday june 3, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 Over Here or. Jcj i Sas Gar a her turning the surface of the water into Spray a Navy Landing Craft air Cushion or , comes in for a soft Landing on the Bench at Capo Eulada Sardinia. Navy s Cushist Craft is Cousin to Frisbee Mediterranean Bureau Larry e. C Hildress. A 17-Ycar Veteran of inc Navy is ready for another decade of duty thanks to some thing i says is like flying a in the Navy s vocabulary Childress Frisbee car Ries the abbreviation of Lac which stands for Landing Craft air Cushion. While the Sailor and the service have different ways of describing the $24 million Craft both see it As the wave of the future. It s a kick. To Fly it the Navy master chief Petty officer said during the Craft s first Mediterranean deployment. It charged me Back up after 17 years in the Navy and now i m ready to do another 10 Childress has reason to be excited. With the Craft he can cruise Over a 4-Fooi-High Brick Wall operate in seas of up to 8 feel and skim along both land and sea at nearly 50 Mph. The marines look at the Lac and its High Speed performance As a Way to help put Surprise Back into amphibious operations. With the exceptionally Maneu Scrable Landing Craft the marines plan to transport troops and heavy equipment ashore during High Speed runs from ships operating 40 to 50 Miles out at sea and out of sight of defenders on land. An Lac can Fly a 60-ton payload troops tanks trucks armoured vehicles and ammunition to the Beach and. If needed Miles Inland. With the cacs the marines can feint toward one place and smash at another. We can carry anything the Marine corps has said Childress 37. Aboard one Lac we can Load an my Lank and two Howit cars with their trucks. The second Craft could carry four Light armoured recon vehicles and two hummers and the third Craft could Lake a do in the resident of Virginia Beach va., said the nearly 88-foot-Lqng Lac can transport a total of 24 marines Riding in two compartments to the Beach. The Navy intends to have a Fleet of 90 cacs split Between the East and West coasts by 1997. Currently in has 16, nine at Camp i Pendleton Calif and the remainder at Norfolk a. In the Mcd three cacs were carried on the Dock Landing ship Whitbey Island the first of a new class of naval vessels built to embark and support them. The Whitbey Island which can carry five of the Craft was taking part in an exercise in late april at Cape Culada in Southern Sardinia. During the exercises the Whitbey Island launched and recovered its three cacs at the Edge of their operating limits in High winds and 6-to-s fool seas. Childress said the hover Type Craft Are not easy to operate. We be had Many aviators aboard and they say the Lac is similar to Hying a helicopter. It s very weight conscious and our Load masters attend the air Force school for Load masters said c Hildress a Bosun s mate by training. The cacs arc powered by four 4.000-Horsepow or Gas Turbine engines two on each Side of the Craft. When lift is applied the Craft rises 5 to 7 feel up on its Cushion. Each Craft has a Crew of five All enlisted services a Gary Millet Petty officer 3rd class Antonio Bengson top and Petty officer 2nd class John Kihlman make re pairs on an Lac propeller. Members. It s flown from a Cabin armoured by Kev Lar and bulletproof Glass located on the Craft s Star Board Side. Sitting abreast within the Cabin Are the Craft master who does the flying navigator and an Engineer. A Landing wave commander May also ride with them. Seven troops ride in a compartment beneath them. A Cabin on the pint Side shelters a Load master and deck Mechanic plus 16 troops. The Craft depends on two m60 machine guns for firepower. Four giant fans pushing out 6 1.000 cubic feel of air per second provide the Craft Wilh lift and. Through Bow thrusters. The ability to Pivot quickly. The Craft s Speed Over land and water comes from to enormous shrouded propellers nearly 12 feet in diameter. The cacs Are not especially noisy. Childress said. If there is any wave action the enemy on the Beach won t hear us until we Are a half mile he said. The biggest advantage the Lac gives us is that we Are no longer restricted to world War ii doctrine. We Are flexible. I can get in and drop off a Load before the tear me up too badly i c Hildress said. If they Tell us they want logo 30 Miles Inland Well Lake them there. We can drive All Day at 25 Miles per hour Over land but it s More difficult be cause we have less friction to work with in the water we have about 6 inches of skirt dragging. On land the skin is completely off the Navy 1.1. Jel Cockrell. 29. The officer in charge of the Lac detachment aboard the Whitbey Island said Speed is the Craft s prime asset. One of the cacs can come Back from the Beach pick up More equipment even from another ship Load up and off Load on the Beach again in 30 minutes. We can off Load a Lank onto the Beach in six c Cockrell said. It could take one la u a conventional Landing Craft 72 hours to do what we did in 12 hours during an c Cockrell said that because cacs Are not affected by underwater slopes they can land on More than 70 percent of the world s beaches rather than the 17 percent of beaches conventional Landing Craft can land on. This he said allows the to land where the enemy in t. We still have a lot to learn about the cacs. We arc still developing tactics. We still find new uses for the helicopter after More than 30 years and that is analogous to the Lac Cockrell said. Childress said that one lesson already has been Learned in the services education about the Craft the marines like in it sure beats swimming to
