and his team were to test their Sea Cobras in combat attached to HML-367. The detachment spent the rest of February preparing the Sea Cobras, which had been brought from the United States in a C-150, for action while training the HML-367 pilots in their operation. On 2 March, the Cobras began flying combat missions. From then until the detachment redeployed to Okina­wa in May, the AH-1js, flown by members of HML-367 as well as Niesen's detachment, participated in every type of gunship operation. The aircraft especially dis­tinguished itself in Lam Son 719 and in repelling the enemy night attack on the South Vietnamese garri­son of Due Due. Beginning with its first combat mis­sions in 1971, the AH-lJ Sea Cobra demonstrated a vastly improved performance over its predecessor, af­forded by twin engine reliability, the increased fire-power of the 20mm cannon, and a greater diversity of weapon systems, including the ability to carry CBU-55s.*35

On 26 May 1971, as 3d MAB was standing down, two YOV-10Ds arrived at Da Nang for combat evalua­tion. These aircraft, an improved version of the Bron­co, were equipped with a Night Observation Gunship System (NOGS) and a 20mm turret cannon coupled to an infrared target locating device. The system was supposed to be able to detect enemy troops on the ground at night, even in light jungle foliage. Since all 1st MAW units had ended combat operations, the wing arranged for a detachment of 21 Marine pilots and ground crewmen to operate the YOV-10Ds, as part of the Navy's Light Attack Squadron (VAL) 4, in southern South Vietnam.** On missions in MRs 3 and 4, the modified OV-lOs performed satisfactorily. They were credited with killing 43 enemy in their first week of operation, causing three secondary explosions, and destroying a storage area, four sampans, and three bunkers. The detachment flew with the Navy squadron until late August, when it returned to the Unit­ed States to continue tests of the NOGS.

Aviation Achievements and Costs

In its final year and a half of combat, the efforts of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing diminished in quan­tity as units redeployed, but not in diversity The wing furnished the full range of fixed-wing and helicopter support to the 1st Marine Division and to other Unit­ed States, South Vietnamese, and Korean forces in Military Region 1, and it contributed significantly to the interdiction campaign in Laos. Marine aviators continually improved and refined the tactics and tech­niques for carrying out their many missions. These efforts and achievements had their price in men and equipment. Between January 1970 and 14 April 1971, the wing lost 40 Marines killed in action or dead of wounds, 193 wounded, and 9 missing in action. In the same period, 17 Marine fixed-wing air­craft and 31 helicopters were destroyed in combat.**38

Shortly before Marine aviators left Vietnam, for what most believed was the last time*** one of them, Lieutenant General McCutcheon, summed up the record:

Marine Corps aviation . . . performed its mission for nearly six years and carried out every function in the tactical air book- The innovations and developments it had worked on over the years were proven in combat. The new environ­ment created new challenges for men in Marine aviation, and these were met head-on and solved. The war was the longest, and in many ways the most difficult one in which Marines have had to participate. The restraints and con­straints placed upon the use of air power, and [he demand­ing management reports of all aspects of aviation required by higher authority, imposed additional requirements on staffs with no increase in resources, in most cases, to per­form the tasks. In spite of these difficulties. ... no one outflow the United States Marines.37

* For details of these actions, see Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.

** In early 1970, the Marine Corps and Navy had considered deployment of ordinary Marine OV-10As to support VAL-4, but the Marine Corps had opposed any diversion of its limited Bronco strength. Admin FMFPac msg to CGFMFPac, dtd 23Apr70, FMFPac Message Files.

*** These losses should be placed in context. During 1970. the U.S. Air Force reported 173 aircraft lost in combat; another 81 were des­troyed in 1971. The U.S. Army lost 347 helicopters in 1971. MACV ComdHist, 71. I. ch, 6, p. 20.

**** Marine aviation would return to Vietnam in 1972 to help con­tain the Communist "Easter Offensive."