T
HE 1970S SAW the US Marine
Corps’ three AV-8A Harrier-
equipped ighter-attack VMA
squadrons seizing every
opportunity to show of
the aircraft and its unique
capabilities as the service’s V/STOL
(vertical/short take-of and landing)
evangelists looked for further converts.
Col Bill Spicer (ret’d), a veteran Sikorsky
H-34 helicopter pilot who transitioned
to the Harrier in 1974, recalled, ‘Our
mission was to prove the concept. We
had exercises just about anywhere we
could possibly work from.’
Spicer continued, ‘One of the big
ones was called ‘Solid Shield’. We
would go down to LZ [landing zone]
Bluebird, which was an 800ft Marston
matting strip that had six parking
places with hides — parking spaces
under a camoulage net. We operated
out of there a lot. We operated of of
Lyman Road down in Camp Lejeune.
I don’t know how many times I took a
detachment up to Quantico — they
have a place up there called ‘Davis
Crossroads’ where they do a big
weapons demonstration.
‘When they were just starting up
at Twentynine Palms, I remember
taking a detachment of six aircraft out
there. They had built an 800ft Marston
matting strip right near the front gate.
We were out there supporting the
‘Combined Arms Exercise’, CAX. We’d
go over there for six weeks at a time.
We’d support one battalion, then we’d
support the next, then we’d come
home. It was no-shit V/STOL. It was all
live ordnance, so we’d be lying out of
there really heavy.
‘There were a few sites when they were
working combined arms or something;
we would forward-position to show
them what our response time was. We’d
be out close to the battle area, outside
of the bad guys’ artillery fan, but close
enough that we could support them.
‘On average, when we would do
exercises with marines out there at
Twentynine Palms or even down at
Camp Lejeuene and other places, if they
forward-deployed us, we were there
within ive minutes. Even if we had
to launch of of an airield like Bogue
Field or somewhere like that, we would
still be there in less than 15 minutes.
But normally, when we were forward-
deployed we’d be there in ive minutes.
They loved it. I think we did a good job
of proving the concept.’During the ‘Harrier
Carrier’ cruise
about the USS
Nassau in 1982,
VMA-231 and
VMA-542 proved
the capability
of the AV-8A to
reach a shipboard
rate of strike
rivaling that of
conventional
naval aircraft
aboard big-deck
carriers.
All photos USMC
via author
unless credited
otherwise68 December 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net