This entry is a subentry of Marine Corps Combat Branches.
Since its beginning in 1912, Marine Corps Aviation has defined an enduring relationship to Marine ground units and to aerial components of the U.S. Navy, Army, and, after 1947, to the U.S. Air Force.
During World War I (1917–18), the Marine aviators flew their missions far from the Marine brigade fighting alongside the army in France, either bombing targets in Belgium or patrolling from the Azores for German submarines. After the war, in the course of expeditionary duty in Haiti (1920–34) and in Nicaragua (1927–32), Marine airmen began specializing in the support of ground forces—conducting reconnaissance, strafing, dive‐bombing, delivering supplies, and evacuating casualties. By the time the United States entered World War II in 1941, aviation formed an integral part of the Fleet Marine Force, organized in 1933 for expeditionary service and operated from the navy's aircraft carriers.
During World War II, Marine aviation supported amphibious, ground, and sea operations against the Japanese. In 1945 on Luzon during the liberation of the Philippines, Marine dive‐bombers protected the flank of an army division. Ground support, however, was overshadowed by aerial combat; Marine fighter pilots downed 2,300 Japanese aircraft.
By the Korean War (1950–53), the Marine Corps embraced the concept of the air‐ground team, normally pairing an aircraft wing with a ground division. Although Marine pilots scored a few aerial victories in Korea, they concentrated on supporting Marine ground forces.
In the Vietnam War (1965–73), since the objective of an air‐ground team under Marine control clashed with U.S. Air Force doctrine, which centralized all land‐based combat aviation under air force control—overcoming intense objections—the Air Force in March 1968 obtained operational control over all Marine Corps aircraft in Southeast Asia, except for transports, reconnaissance craft, and helicopters. In practice, such centralization proved too cumbersome, and within six months the air force headquarters in the theater began releasing blocks of sorties for the Marines to use in support of their own ground forces.
After Vietnam, Marine Corps Aviation evolved into a force—roughly 60 percent fixed‐wing aircraft and 40 percent helicopters—designed to operate from small aircraft carriers in support of amphibious operations but also capable of sustained activity from airfields ashore. During the Persian Gulf War (1991), the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing operated against Iraqi troops opposing two Marine divisions. Because the coalition dominated the air, centralization proved unnecessary and the Marines used their sorties as they chose.
Bibliography
- Robert Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II, 1952; repr. 1987.
- Peter B. Mersky, Marine Corps Aviation, 1912 to the Present, 1983
