from the marines on the ground that rely
on it for support. Absent of the ‘true’ test
of combat, the periodic ‘Combined Arms
Exercise’ (CAX) held several times a year
at Twentynine Palms ofered one of the
best forums in which to assess the AV-8A’s
potential as a real-world CAS platform.
After serving as commander of VMA-231,
Bill Spicer was given command of an
aviation combat element consisting
of AV-8As, F-4s, A-6s, and a composite
helicopter squadron. He says, ‘I had to take
it to Twentynine Palms and supported
two battalions as they came through.
They got to the point where if there was
an aircraft available for close air support,
they wanted it to be the Harrier. The fact
that we were visible with them made a
diference. I was talking to the battalion
commanders and what they said the
troops really liked was they felt that we
were there, that the air-ground team was
real. We weren’t some distant force that
would just show up.’Stepping stone
As many boxes as the Harrier ticked for
the marines, the AV-8A was an of-the-
shelf aircraft designed for another nation’s
armed forces to that nation’s speciications
and adapted to US Marine Corps needs.The AV-8A validated the utility of V/STOL
and the concept of lexible, forward
basing, but it did not quite live up to the
promise of matching the A-4’s combat
performance in a V/STOL platform. In
this regard, the AV-8A was efectively an
operational proof of concept.
Harrier veterans of that era are
unanimous in their conviction that had
the type been pressed into combat
service, the AV-8A would have acquitted
itself well. As Stromberg observes, ‘Itwas clearly a stepping-stone for a lot of
reasons. We needed to understand how
we could integrate the V/STOL concept
into the Marine Corps. But it was more
than a proof of concept. If the Harrier had
to have gone to combat, it would have
done so. So, calling it a proof of concept
doesn’t give the credit to the people who
pulled this program together and made it
work. By the same token, it didn’t have the
full combat capability of an A-4. It clearly
didn’t.’ Bill Spicer reinforced this, saying,
Above: A quartet
of AV-8As from
VMA-513 in tight
formation during
one of the many
international
expeditions that
proved the type’s
capabilities.
Right: Though
all three AV-8A
‘gun’ squadrons
were initially
based on the east
coast, VMA-513
relocated to
MCAS Yuma in
November 1976.
Yuma eventually
became home
to four AV-8B-
equipped VMA
squadrons,
with VMA-513
disestablishing in
2013.GLORY DAYS // AV-8A FROM THE COCKPIT
74 December 2018 December 2018 ////^ http://www.combataircraft.netwww.combataircraft.net