Fine Tune
Staff Sergeant Kristopher J. Battles, USMCR
Acquisition Number: 2008.25.14
Medium: Oil on Watercolor Paper

A civilian contractor works on the nacelle of an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, getting it ready to fly out to the USS Wasp from Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, in 2007. Their destination was al-Asad, Iraq, where Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 would fly these unique aircraft in combat for the first time during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ospreys promised to contribute to expeditionary maneuver warfare with improvements in speed, range, and altitude over the helicopters they were replacing.