 Hi, I'm Captain Marianne Sparklin. I fly the UH-1 Yankee Huey helicopter. The Huey is one of the most versatile aircraft that the Marine Corps has to offer. It's a utility platform that can be used for a variety of mission sets ranging from delivering mail to taking Marines to a seasoned objective to providing close-air support to the friendly units on the deck. The Huey has the capability to carry a wide variety of weapon systems, whether it's 2.75-inch rockets, a GAL-17, which is a 7.62-millimeter minigun, a GAL-21, which is a 50-cow machine gun. The Huey is equipped with a bright star block to flare system. It gives us the opportunity to see both IR and color optics on the battlefield. The thing that motivates me to get into the pilot seat every day is knowing that every mission I go on is indirect support of the Marines that we fly for. When you're in the objective area, there's a lot going on. There's guys on the deck. There's other aviation assets all in support of the maneuver element. That's what I look forward to when I go out and fly the Huey. I wanted the opportunity to be in charge of other Marines and to lead them. The Marine Corps does a very good job of officer to enlist at relationships. There's a lot of interaction every day and that's the one beauty about the Marine Corps is that we take care of each other and that's something I look forward to.