Carey explained that he led the first mission using helicopters to quickly relocate a battery of rocket launchers to avoid enemy counterfire. “They kicked up an awful lot of dust when they fired,” he said. “We had to get them out of there, and we did.” They moved the battery twice in one day, carrying the four launchers and extra rockets slung beneath their choppers and the crews inside, Carey said. “They had introduced a new infantry technique of ‘hit and run’ tactics….The Marine Corps wartime use of the new aerial vehicle had proven clearly that helicopters had become a necessary and integral component of the modern day balanced military force,” a Marine history pointed out.

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Although all of the early troop lift missions were carefully planned, the squadron was soon able to conduct them on short notice. After one such quick-reaction operation, the official report referred to HMR-161 as an “on-call tactical tool.”

The Army sent its first H-19s to Korea early in 1953 with the 6th Transportation Company (Helicopter). The company got its first mission on March 20, to supply forward elements of the 3rd Division that were cut off by floods. Ten choppers made a total of 30 round trips to lift 33,925 pounds of food, ammunition and charcoal to landing spots 300 yards behind the main line of resistance.

On May 1, the 13th Transportation Company (Heli-copter) arrived at Inchon, after which nine of its pilots were sent to the 6th for orientation and training. They teamed up with crews from the 6th to fly 16 of the H-19s to supply three frontline regiments of the 25th Infantry Division in Operation Skyhook on May 22-24.

To improve administrative control, on June 15 the two companies were united into the 1st Transportation Army Aviation Battalion. In June the Marine and Army cargo helicopter units teamed up in the largest chopper operation of the war, using a total of 45 aircraft to move 800 ROK troops. The two services also shared the duties of returning allied prisoners of war to freedom, starting with Operation Little Switch, on April 20-26, 1953, and accelerating with Operation Big Switch after the July 27 armistice. Thousands of U.S. and allied POWs were carried on helicopters to freedom from the exchange point at Panmunjom.

Although the first extensive use of helicopters in combat was handicapped by the limited capabilities of the early aircraft and the need to develop procedures under wartime pressure, they were widely hailed as tools that would be vital in future conflicts. On the basis of his experiences in Korea, Eighth Army commander Lt. Gen. Maxwell Taylor said: “The cargo helicopter, employed in mass, can extend the tactical mobility of the Army far beyond its normal capability. I hope that the United States Army will make ample provisions for the full exploitation of the helicopter in the future.”

By the time the United States went to war again in Vietnam, a decade later, helicopters had made the transition from useful novelty to a symbol of the American way of fighting.

This article was written by Retired U.S. Navy aviator and reporter Otto Kreisher and originally published in the January 2007 issue of Aviation History magazine. For more great articles subscribe to Aviation History magazine today!

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