United States Marine Corps Aviation

, first Marine Corps aviator (Naval Aviator # 49 and Marine Corps Aviator # 5) on far right. Marine Corps Aviation officially began on 22 May 1912, when First Lieutenant Alfred Austell Cunningham reported to Naval Aviation Camp in Annapolis, Maryland, "for duty in connection with aviation". On 20 August 1912, he became the first Marine aviator when he took off in a Burgess Model H given to him by the Burgess Company in Marblehead Harbor, Massachusetts. As the number of Marine Corps pilots grew, so did the desire to separate from Naval Aviation, an objective realized on 6 January 1914, when First Lieutenant Bernard L. Smith was directed to Culebra, Puerto Rico, to establish the Marine Section of the Navy Flying School. In 1915, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized the creation of a Marine Corps aviation company consisting of 10 officers and 40 enlisted men. The Marine Aviation Company was commissioned on 17 February 1917 as the first official Marine flying unit, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. World War I used by the Marine Corps during World War I The first major expansion of the Marine Corps' air component came with America's entrance into World War I in 1917. Wartime expansion saw the Aviation Company split into the 1st Marine Aeronautic Company which deployed to the Azores to hunt U-boats in January 1918 and the First Marine Air Squadron which was deployed to France as the newly renamed 1st Marine Aviation Force in July 1918 with Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot being the first Marine Corps aviator to earn the Medal of Honor, for action against the Luftstreitkräfte air arm of Imperial Germany on 8 October 1918. In 1919, the 1st Division/Squadron 1 was formed from these units and still exists today as VMA-231. Interwar period F from VO-1M in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic circa 1922 The end of World War I saw Congress authorize 1,020 men for Marine Corps Aviation and the establishment of permanent air stations at Quantico, Parris Island and San Diego. The United States embraced its role of global power, and the Marine Corps became the preferred force for military intervention; where the Marines went, so went Marine Corps Aviation. During the Banana Wars, while fighting bandits and insurgents in places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, Marine Corps aviators began to experiment with air-ground tactics and making the support of their fellow Marines on the ground their primary mission. It was in Haiti that Marines began to develop the tactic of dive bombing and in Nicaragua where they began to perfect it. While other nations and services had tried variations of this technique, Marine Corps pilots were the first to embrace it and make it part of their tactical doctrine. Marine Corps aviation in Nicaragua developed the skill of air resupply of outposts dropping bundles from Fokker F.VII tri-motors. Even prior to the events in the Caribbean, pioneering Marine Corps aviators such as Alfred Cunningham had noted in 1920 that, "...the only excuse for aviation in any service is its usefulness in assisting the troops on the ground to successfully carry out their missions. " It was not until 3 May 1925 that the Marine Corps officially appeared in the Navy's Aeronautical Organization when Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics, issued a directive officially authorizing three fighting squadrons. In the 1920s, Marine Corps squadrons began qualifying on board aircraft carriers. However, in terms of mission and training, the assignment of two Marine scouting squadrons as component units of the Pacific Fleet carriers would be one of the greatest advancements for Marine Corps Aviation. Prior to this, Marine Corps squadrons were loosely controlled with regard to doctrine and training. This assignment enabled nearly 60% of active duty aviators at the time to be exposed to a disciplined training syllabus under a clearly defined mission. The turning point for the long-term survival of Marine Air came with the structural change of the establishment of the Fleet Marine Force in 1933. This shifted Marine doctrine to focus less on expeditionary duty and more on supporting amphibious warfare by seizing advance naval bases in the event of war. This also saw the establishment of Aircraft One and Aircraft Two to replace the old Aircraft Squadron, East Coast and Aircraft Squadron, West Coast that had supported operations in the Caribbean and China as part of their expeditionary duties. This organization would remain until June 1940 when Congress authorized the Marine Corps 1,167 aircraft as part of its 10,000 plane program for the Navy. Just prior, in 1939, the Navy's General Board published a new mission for Marine Aviation, which stated: "Marine Aviation is to be equipped, organized and trained primarily for the support of the Fleet Marine Force in landing operations and in support of troop activities in the field; and secondarily as replacement for carrier based naval aircraft. " On 7 December 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Marine Corps air units consisted of 13 flying squadrons and 230 aircraft. Because of the way the Pacific War unfolded, Marine Aviation was not able to achieve its 1939 mission of supporting the Fleet Marine Force at first. For the first two years of the war, the air arm spent most of its time protecting the fleet and land-based installations from attacks by enemy ships and aircraft. This began to change after the Battle of Tarawa as the air support for ground troops flown by Navy pilots left much to be desired. After the battle, General Holland Smith recommended, "Marine aviators, thoroughly schooled in the principles of direct air support," should do the job. The New Georgia campaign saw the first real close air support provided to Marine ground forces by Marine Air; the Bougainville campaign and the campaign to retake the Philippines saw the establishment of air liaison parties to coordinate air support with the Marines fighting on the ground and the Battle of Okinawa brought most of it together with the establishment of aviation command and control in the form of Landing Force Air Support Control Units pilots on an aircraft carrier flight deck in July 1945 During the course of the war, Marine Aviators were credited with shooting down 2,355 Japanese aircraft while losing 573 of their own aircraft in combat, they had 120 aces and earned 11 Medals of Honor. Immediately following the war, the strength of the Marine Corps flying arm was drastically cut as part of the post war drawdown of forces. Their active strength fell from 116,628 personnel and 103 squadrons on 31 August 1945 to 14,163 personnel and 21 squadrons on 30 June 1948. They maintained another 30 squadrons in the Marine Air Reserve. Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson attempted to eliminate Marine Corps aviation by transferring its air assets to other services and even proposed to progressively eliminate the Marine Corps altogether in a series of budget cutbacks and decommissioning of forces. Jets and helicopters After World War II, most propeller aircraft were gradually phased out as jet aircraft improved and helicopters were developed for use in amphibious operations. The first Marine jet squadron came in November 1947 when VMF-122 fielded the FH Phantom. In December 1950, VMF-311 became the first Marine jet squadron used in combat, providing close air support for the Marines and soldiers on the ground, flying the F9F Panther. In February 1957, VMA-214 became the first Marine squadron to be certified for "special weapons delivery": dropping nuclear weapons. Several others would receive certification, though eventually all nuclear weapons were turned over to Navy and Air Force responsibility. HMX-1, the first Marine helicopter squadron, was commissioned on 1 December 1947. Marine helicopters—VMO-6 flying the HO3S1 helicopter—made their combat debut in August 1950 during the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter. January 1951 saw the activation of HMR-161, the world's first helicopter transport squadron. from VMFA-314 returning to Chu Lai during the Vietnam War The Korean and Vietnam wars saw the size of Marine Aviation rebound from its post-WWII lows, emerging as the force that exists today, consisting of four air wings, 20 aircraft groups and 78 flying squadrons. By the end of the Vietnam War, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force had grown dependent on its multi-mission inventory of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, which could operate from land or sea bases to support Marines on the ground. Aircraft upgrades Since the Corps as a whole began to grow in 2007, Marine Aviation expanded with it and continues to grow. Several new squadrons have been activated, including VMFAT-501, and VMU-4. The Corps intends to procure 420 F-35B/Cs (353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs) to replace all F/A-18 Hornets, AV-8B Harrier IIs and EA-6B Prowlers in the fighter, attack, and electronic warfare roles. The MV-22B Osprey replaced the CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53D Sea Stallion. The Corps has transitioned all East Coast CH-46 squadrons to the MV-22, which has made its first combat deployments and Marine expeditionary unit deployments. The CH-53E Super Stallion will be replaced by the CH-53K King Stallion. The KC-130J Super Hercules will replace all other C-130 models. As part of the H-1 upgrade program, UH-1N Twin Hueys were replaced by UH-1Y Venoms, while AH-1W SuperCobras were upgraded to AH-1Z Vipers. The VH-3D Sea Kings and the VH-60N Blackhawks of HMX-1 are to be replaced by the Sikorsky VH-92 in the VXX program. Unmanned aerial vehicle programs will be upgraded in tiers, with the RQ-7 Shadow replacing the RQ-2 Pioneer and the RQ-11 Raven. They have also been in the lead in looking at unmanned helicopters to resupply troops at remote forward operating bases in places such as Afghanistan. ==Organization==