Lieutenant Colonel Harvey M. Patton’s VMA-332, an A-4C (Skyhawk) jet attack squadron, claimed the distinction of being the first Marine unit to arrive in Thailand in response to the 1962 Laotian crisis. The 20 single-placed Skyhawks departed the Cubi Point Naval Air Station in the Philippines on the morning of 18 May, were refueled in flight by aircraft from VMA-211, another Marine A-4 squadron, and landed at Udorn around noon. The bulk of the Marine units began arriving in Thailand the following day. At Bangkok the Special Landing Force, composed of Lieutenant Colonel Harold W. Adams’ 1,500-man Battalion Landing Team 3/9 and Lieutenant Colonel Fred A. Steele’s HMM-261, an HUS-1 helicopter squadron, disembarked from the ships of the Amphibious Ready Group.[7-A] That same day Marine GV-1 refueler-transports began airlifting additional aviation support detachments from Okinawa to Udorn. These included detachments of Marine Air Control Squadrons 2 and 4 (MACS-2 and -4), Marine Air Base Squadron 12 (MABS-12), and a Provisional Marine Aircraft Group (ProvMAG) headquarters. Upon landing Colonel Ross S. Mickey, the commander of the ProvMAG, established his headquarters at the airfield and assumed operational control of all USMC aviation elements at Udorn. On the 18th, HMM-261’s helicopters began arriving at the now busy airfield, having flown from the Amphibious Ready Group with a refueling stop at Korat. Lieutenant Colonel Steele reported to the newly activated ProvMAG. [7-A] A Marine battalion landing team derives its designation from the infantry battalion around which it is built, in this case the 3d Battalion, 9th Marines. In 1962, the BLT included a howitzer battery, a tank platoon, an amphibious tractor platoon, a pioneer platoon, a motor transport platoon, an anti-tank platoon, and air and naval gunfire liaison teams. Following the commitment of the SLF on 19 May, another BLT and helicopter squadron from Okinawa reconstituted the Seventh Fleet Special Landing Force. On 19 May Brigadier General Ormand B. Simpson arrived at Udorn with the staff and communications personnel of the 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (3d MEB) headquarters. Simpson, a Texan who had been serving as Assistant Division Commander, 3d Marine Division, had assembled and activated this headquarters on Okinawa shortly after CinCPac’s activation of JTF 116. As Commanding General, 3d MEB, Simpson was to assume command of all Marine elements, air and ground, deployed to Udorn. In addition to being the CG 3d MEB, General Simpson carried the designation, Naval Component Commander, a title which gave him responsibility for all Navy as well as Marine forces operating at Udorn under JTF 116.