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HMH-463 Pegasus Vietnam Patch- Plastic Backing

$12.99

19 in stock (can be backordered)

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Description

HMH-463 Pegasus Vietnam Patch- Plastic Backing

A 4″  HMH-463 Pegasus Squadron Patch  (Vietnam).

  • 4″ inches
  • Plastic Backing
  • US Veteran Owned Business
  • Reproduction Patch

Vietnam War

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 was reactivated on March 1, 1966 at MCAS Santa Ana and assigned to Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing flying the CH-53 Sea Stallion airframe. A four-plane detachment from HMH-463 deployed to Marble Mountain Air Facility, South Vietnam in December 1966. HMH-463 was reassigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16. The remainder of the squadron would deploy during May 1967 to Marble Mountain where they participated in combat operations during the Vietnam War for the next four years.[1] On 8 January 1968, CH-53A #65-100 crashed in the Hải Lăng Forest south of Đông Hà Combat Base, killing all 46 personnel on board.[2] One of the more different flights taken by the squadron occurred in 1968 when they participated in Operation Bahroom. This entailed delivering an elephant via helicopter from the airstrip at Chu Lai Air Base to the Special Forces camp at Tra Bong to work at a local saw mill.[3][4] 1970 saw the squadron start to delve into bombing missions or what they termed “barrel bombing.” During this time they would fly 2 – 4 ship flights at low altitude to draw enemy fire. Once they encountered enemy contact they would then fly over the area again and drop 55 gallon drums of gasoline and napalm that were sling-loaded to the bottom of the aircraft. Usually, the force of impact would ignite the barrel mixture but they would occasionally need machine gun fire from the helicopter door guns or rockets from an OV-10 Bronco or AH-1 Cobra. On a mission over “Charlie Ridge” just west of Danang the squadron dropped over 400 tons of the fuel mixture against entrenched North Vietnamese Army positions.[5] After the Vietnam War, HMH-463 relocated to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii in May 1971 and was reassigned to Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Brigade.

In 1973, HMH-463 returned to Vietnam and participated in Operation End Sweep, the minesweeping operations in the Haiphong/Hon Gai Area of North Vietnam from February through July.

 

 

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