Marston Matting In Vietnam Usmc

The name and the airport entered the history of vietnam and the united states in the first half of 1965 when marines and the seabees of naval mobile construction battalion nmcb 10 arrived and turned the coastal area into a major military installation.

Marston matting in vietnam usmc.

Otherwise identical to steel mat its unit weight was 32 5 pounds. The material is also commonly known as marston mats or marston plate for a town in north carolina adjacent to camp mackall airfield where the. Marston mat had its first large test in november of 1941 for the carolina maneuvers a massive war game pitting hundreds of thousands of troops against rival military camps in rural towns. Developed in the early 1960s am 2 is an extruded aluminum mat that is 3 8cm 1 5in thick comes in a nominal 0 607m x 3 66m 2ft x 12ft panel size and weighs roughly 310 1n m2 6 46lbs ft2.

Most recently known as the lancers the squadron was last based at marine corps air station iwakuni japan and fell under the command of marine aircraft group 12 mag 12 and the 1st marine aircraft wing 1st maw. Due to a re organization within marine aviation the squadron was. The united states air force and marine corps currently use a matting system known as am 2 for rpre as shown in figure 1 and detailed in figure 2. By the end of the war marston mat was being manufactured in an aluminum alloy.

Marine fighter attack squadron 212 vmfa 212 was a united states marine corps f a 18 hornet squadron. Inevitably marston mat became damaged by use but it was not dis carded. Jar head devil dog leather neck ground pounder infantry bullet catcher infantry grunt infantry hollywood marine marine from mcrd san diego dump dogs ammo techs arty mech artillery mechanic hog sniper pig rifleman 03 hump a lot in. Operation beacon star khe sanh the 1967 hill fights by lt.

It was intended for special airborne operations but the war ended before it saw combat. An early in theater use of psp was in constructing a 5 000 foot runway on greenland s bluie west one bw 1 an allied ferry command and u s a a f airfield located on the extreme southwest corner of. Marston mat was extensively used during world war ii by army engineers and seabees construction battalions to build runways and other readily usable surfaces over all kinds of terrain. Ray madonna usmc ret 10 may 2014 in may 2014 on the occasion of a class reunion in san antonio texas a group of my 1962 us naval academy classmates asked me to give a talk at san antonio s vietnam veterans memorial.

Conflict aircraft actually landed on pierced steel mats known as marston matting. The site was the statue depicting a scene from a battle at hill 881south. Us army each section of mat ran 10 feet long by 15 inches wide with integrated hooks and slots so a construction battalion of navy seabees could.