Sergeant Orin Sanford, a crew chief with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and a native of Jefferson City, Mo., looks out the side door of a UH-1Y Huey after taking off from the flight deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) to provide assistance to the Commander, Republic of Korea Fleet’s efforts surrounding the sunken ferry Sewol off the coast of the Republic of Korea, April 18. The 31st MEU and Amphibious Squadron 11 (PHIBRON) had just completed participation in Exercise SSang Yong ’14 and were roughly 100 nautical miles away when they were tasked to respond to the incident April 16. The 31st MEU and PHIBRON 11 provide a forward-deployed maritime contingency response force capable of conducting a wide variety of operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
