CHAPTER 5
SHUFLY at
Soc Trang
The
Decision-Deployment to Soc Trang-Mekong Delta Combat Support
Operations-Preparations and Redeployment-Accomplishments
One of the most important developments
in the chronicle of U.S. Marine activities in South Vietnam during the early
1960s occurred shortly after the creation of MACV. In mid-April 1962, a Marine
medium helicopter squadron was deployed to the Mekong Delta to provide support
for the Government of Vietnam forces in their battle with the Communist
guerrillas. The significance of the squadron's arrival went beyond the added
mobility that it afforded those Vietnamese units attempting to hold the rice
producing delta region. Coinciding as it did with the increases in the number of
Marines serving on the MACV staff and under the MAAG, its arrival indicated that
the Marine role would expand in direct proportion to the widening U.S. effort to
defend the Republic of Vietnam.
The
Decision
The decision to deploy the Marine
aviation unit to the combat zone originated in the immediate aftermath of
General Taylor's report to President Kennedy. On 17 January 1962, the Joint
Chiefs of Staff directed the Commander in Chief, Pacific (CinCPac), Admiral
Harry D. Felt, to prepare for increased operations in South Vietnam. This order
implied that the Pacific command should stand ready to deploy additional
helicopter units to Diem's republic in the eventthat it became necessary to
augment the Army companies already operating there. (By now the number of Army
helicopter companies in South Vietnam stood at three.) CinCPac was also
instructed to explore South Vietnam's requirements for additional helicopter
units beyond the Army companies already present.1
Shortly afterward. Admiral Felt advised
the Joint Chiefs of Staff that a valid requirement for additional helicopter
support did exist in the
Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam. He
recommended that a fourth U.S. Army light helicopter company be deployed to the
area. Included in the admiral's recommendation was a proposal to support the
aviation unit with a composite maintenance, avionics, and medical group.2
Admiral Felt's recommendations were approved by the Secretary of Defense on 6
March. The Joint Chiefs immediately assigned the responsibility for providing
the support package and helicopter unit to the Army. In turn, Army authorities
alerted the 33d Transportation Light Helicopter Company at Fort Ord, California
for the move. Its departure date was set for 18 April.3 Unknown to the officers
and men of the alerted unit, the plans for its deployment to combat were being
reconsidered at the time the orders were received. Two days before Admiral
Felt's recommendation reached the Joint Chiefs, a proposal to augment Army
helicopter units with Marine pilots had been advanced by General Timmes, the
MAAG chief. This proposal triggered a brief but eventful debate within U.S.
military circles. With General Harkins' concurrence, Timmes recommended that
nine Marine helicopter pilots be assigned to the Army aviation units in Vietnam
for periods of 60 to 90 days. This arrangement, he pointed out, would enable the
Marine pilots to become familiar with the nature of the combat support
operations in South Vietnam and would provide them with transitional training in
the Army's Piasccki-built tandcm-rotored H-21 helicopter (nicknamed the 'Flying
Banana').4
Admiral Felt turned to the Commanding
General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPac), Lieutenant General Alan Shapley,
for his comments on the MAAG chief's plan. Shapley in turn instructed Major
General Carson A. Roberts, the Commanding General, Aircraft, FMFPac to study the
proposal
