Operation Shufly was a United States Marine Corps operation to improve the mobility of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces in the early phases of the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1965. Beginning on 15 April 1962, Marine helicopter squadrons, associated maintenance units and air traffic control detachments deployed to Sóc Trăng Airfield in the Mekong Delta and later to Da Nang Air Base rotating every four months in order to provide assault support and CASEVAC assistance during combat operations. By early 1965 half of the Marine Corps' medium helicopter squadrons had rotated through a "Shufly" deployment. The operation ended on 8 March 1965, when the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade came ashore in Vietnam as the vanguard of the United States' commitment of large numbers of regular combat units into South Vietnam.
Background
After General Maxwell D. Taylor's report to President John F. Kennedy at the end of 1961, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent word to then Commander in Chief, Pacific Admiral Harry D. Felt to prepare for increased combat operations in South Vietnam. There was an immediate need for addition helicopter squadrons to augment United States Army units that were already there. On 6 March 1962, the Joint Chiefs approved Admiral Felt's recommendation for an additional Army squadron. After much back and forth between senior US leadership it was determined that the Marines would deploy a medium helicopter squadron from Marine Aircraft Group 16 (MAG-16) based at Marine Corps Air Station Futema in Okinawa, Japan to fulfill the need. The deployment order for the Marines was approved on 16 March 1962.
Marine planners from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW) built Task Unit 79.3.5 (codenamed "Shufly") around a Marine medium helicopter squadron. The Marine squadron would be based at an old Japanese airstrip near Sóc Trăng in the Mekong Delta some southwest of Saigon. Shufly was under the Operational control of ComUSMACV, but remained under administrative control of 1st MAW. This allowed the Marine Corps and Navy to provide the majority of logistical support for the unit.
Operations
Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 (HMM-362) served as the first Marine aircraft unit in South Vietnam. The squadron went ashore with their Sikorsky UH-34s on 15 April 1962 from the landing at Sóc Trăng Airfield in the Mekong Delta. The squadron was reinforced by three Cessna OE-1 observation aircraft from VMO-2 and one R4D for liaison and supply flights. This mission codenamed Operation Shufly was to increase the mobility of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units fighting the Vietcong (VC) in the rice producing Delta region. The squadron was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Archie Clapp and it gained the nickname "Archie’s Angels". The nickname evolved to "Ugly Angels" that gave HMM-362 their call sign. The squadron conducted their first operation on 22 April lifting soldiers from the ARVN 7th Division. On 24 April the squadron supported the ARVN 21st Division in Operation Nightingale near Cần Thơ, during this operation VC fire hit a UH-34 severing a hydraulic line forcing it to make an emergency landing, but the helicopter was repaired and flown out. In June the squadron developed the concept of the Eagle Flight where four Marine helicopters loaded with about 50 ARVN soldiers circled above an operational area on alert for any VC attempting to evade the ground forces. Once the VC were located, often by the OE-1 observation aircraft, the helicopters would land the ARVN soldiers at a position where they could block the VC escape.
In late July 1962, HMM-163 deployed to Sóc Trăng and on 1 August it replaced HMM-362 as the Shufly squadron. In early September 1962, HMM-163 began redeploying with its support units from MAG-16 to Da Nang Air Base, completing the redeployment by 20 September. On 6 October the squadron suffered its first fatalities when a search and rescue UH-34 crashed due to mechanical failure southwest of Tam Kỳ killing five Marines and two Navy corpsmen with only the pilot surviving. During their time in South Vietnam the squadron's crews had flown a total of 10,869 hours, 15,200 sorties and had lifted over 25,216 combat assault troops and 59,024 other passengers.
