[54] PacFlt EvalRpt No. 4, p. 9-50.
During April, Lieutenant Colonel Herring’s VMO-6 employed its 11 single-engine OE-1 observation planes for a total of 508 fixed-wing combat flights. More than half of these, 275, were for artillery spotting; of the remainder, 166 were flown for reconnaissance and 67 represented photo, weather, liaison, and area check-out maneuvers. Combat flights by the squadron helicopters[55] during the month were 110 liaison, 45 reconnaissance, and 93 evacuations. Of the total 756 combat flights performed by both fixed-wing and rotary craft, 511 were over enemy territory.
[55] Rotary wing aircraft assigned were two types, HTL-4 and H03S-1. The former is a two-place, plastic-dome Bell product; the latter, the first helicopter operated by the Marine Corps, is an observation-utility, three-passenger Sikorsky-made craft. HistBr, G-3 Div, HQMC, Marine Corps Aircraft, 1913–1965, Marine Corps Historical Reference Pamphlet (Washington: 1967 ed.) pp. 34, 38.
During that same month, Marine squadrons operating under the Fifth Air Force put a total of 2,708 planes into the air despite restrictive or prohibitive weather on 20 days. Continuing its emphasis on attacking the North Korean transportation system, the Air Force command dispatched 1,397 Marine planes on interdiction missions. Marine-piloted close air support sorties flown to assist the 1st Marine Division numbered only 56 throughout April; those piloted by Marines for 16 other UN divisions totaled 547.
Not all the air sortie records were made by land-based Marine squadrons. On 18 April, VMA-312, the CTE 95.11 squadron provided by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, flew 80 sorties, a Korean record for a carrier-based squadron to that date and twice the daily average for the initial six months of 1952.
By 20 April the three tactical squadrons of MAG-12—VMF(N)-513, VMF-212, and VMF-323—had completed their relocations on the Korean west coast. Two days later, combined MAG-12 attack and -33 jet aircraft participated in what was a Fifth Air Force one-day combat record: 1,049 sorties.
One MAG-33 unit, the newly-formed Marine Photographic Squadron 1, was already flying a large number of aerial reconnaissance missions directed by Fifth Air Force. It provided almost one-third of the daylight photo effort required by FAF with but one-quarter of the aircraft.[56] VMJ-1’s complement of a dozen 550 mph McDonnell twin-jet Banshee F2H-2P aircraft mounted three cameras and were capable both of high altitude work and good speed. Introduction of this single-seat jet was considered the “first important development in aerial photography in the Korean War,”[57] since the Banshee could outproduce any photo plane in Korea.
[56] PacFlt EvalRpt No. 4, pp. 10-2, 10-108. This record was established despite the fact that the Marine squadron, with 10 jets, flying out of K-3 (Pohang) was more than 150 miles further from most targets than the other major photo unit, the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, based at K-14 (Kimpo).
[57] Ibid., p. 10-59.
The month of April also marked change of command ceremonies for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. On 11 April at K-3, General Schilt turned over wing responsibility to Brigadier General Clayton C. Jerome. Among the numerous civilian and military dignitaries attending the ceremony at the Pohang 1st MAW headquarters were the Honorable John J. Muccio, U.S. Ambassador to Korea; Air Force Lieutenant Generals Otto P. Weyland and Frank F. Everest, commanders of FEAF and FAF respectively; and the Marine division CG, Major General Selden.