Combat· Vietnam War
Operation SHUFLY
Operation SHUFLY was the deployment of a Marine helicopter task unit to South Vietnam, the Corps' first sustained operational commitment to the war.
Beginning with the arrival of a medium helicopter squadron and its supporting elements, SHUFLY put Marine aircraft and crews to work flying combat support for Vietnamese forces, lifting troops into battle, carrying supplies, and evacuating the wounded across difficult terrain. The unit first operated from the Mekong Delta before relocating to the northern part of the country, where its base would later grow into a major center of Marine operations. SHUFLY gave the Marine Corps early, direct experience of the Vietnamese battlefield, exposing its aviators and support troops to the realities of helicopter warfare against an elusive enemy years before the main force arrived. It was the operational seed from which the Corps' enormous later involvement in Vietnam would grow, a modest but consequential first step.
Record no. 664