In retrospect, 1962 bears assessment as an important watershed in the chronicle of U.S. Marine activities in Vietnam. As the year began only three Marine advisors and a handful of embassy guards were serving in the Republic. The initial months, however, brought a dramatic expansion of that role, both in terms of numbers and responsibilities. By March Marines were functioning on MAAG and MACV staffs in Saigon, in U.S. Army communications facilities in the Central Highlands, and throughout the provinces where Vietnamese Marine units operated. Their contributions to the war effort, therefore, were broad and varied, ranging from high level planning to infantry advisory duties. The Marine role had expanded in rough proportion to the broad-based expansion of the overall U.S. military assistance program. In this connection, Marine contributions tended to be concealed within the context of the American assistance effort. Still, by mid-1962 it could be said that the Marines in Vietnam were leaving the impact of their service on virtually every stage of the ground war. PART II MARINE HELICOPTERS GO TO WAR CHAPTER 5 SHUFLY at Soc Trang _The Decision--Deployment to Soc Trang--Mekong Delta Combat Support Operations--Preparations and Redeployment--Accomplishments_ One of the most important developments in the chronicle of U.S. Marine activities in South Vietnam during the early 1960s occurred shortly after the creation of MACV. In mid-April 1962, a Marine medium helicopter squadron was deployed to the Mekong Delta to provide support for the Government of Vietnam forces in their battle with the Communist guerrillas. The significance of the squadron’s arrival went beyond the added mobility that it afforded those Vietnamese units attempting to hold the rice producing delta region. Coinciding as it did with the increases in the number of Marines serving on the MACV staff and under the MAAG, its arrival indicated that the Marine role would expand in direct proportion to the widening U.S. effort to defend the Republic of Vietnam. _The Decision_ The decision to deploy the Marine aviation unit to the combat zone originated in the immediate aftermath of General Taylor’s report to President Kennedy. On 17 January 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed the Commander in Chief, Pacific (CinCPac), Admiral Harry D. Felt, to prepare for increased operations in South Vietnam. This order implied that the Pacific command should stand ready to deploy additional helicopter units to Diem’s republic in the event that it became necessary to augment the Army companies already operating there. (By now the number of Army helicopter companies in South Vietnam stood at three.) CinCPac was also instructed to explore South Vietnam’s requirements for additional helicopter units beyond the Army companies already present.[5-1]