Randy,

IIRC I still have info you gave me sometime ago, I will look for it and let you know.

Semper Fi,
Ryan

We had UH-1B's at New River VMO-1 in the fall of 1966. They were not armed.

Army planes

I rotated back in late 67-when I checked into VMO-1 @MCAF New River they had ~10+- UH1B's. The planes had the same gun/pod mounts that we had.

The Army reclaimed them in mid 68. They were painted Marine Corps Green when they went back. As I remember they went to Fort Bragg.

Mike Miller
VMO-2/VMO-1 😀

UH-1Bs

"In March 1966, although authorized 76 UH-1Es in the operating units, it had only 58. To alleviate the situation, the Marine Corps that month attempted to borrow UH-1Bs from the Army. The Army had none to spare, for it had found its UH-1 series to be well suited to combat as a light troop transport and for its increasing numbers of gunships. Though Bell was straining to meet the demands for more helicopters, the shortage in the Marine Corps continued. The addition of two temporary squadrons compounded the problem. Colonel Alan J. Armstrong, who filled the two-month gap between the departure of Gemeral Robertshaw as DC/S (Air) on 15 April and the arrival of General McCutcheon on 15 June, continued to press for the loan of Army UH-1Bs. A week after General McCutcheon took over his new duties, he was able to write that the Secretary of the Army had agreed to tranfer 20 helicopters. The Secretary of Defense approved the decision on 12 July.

Since the Army version had no rotor brake, it was only marginally suitable for shipboard operations. The helicopter forces in Vietnam had first priority for amphibious vertical assaults, so it was necessary that they be equipped with the Marine Corps design. All of the Army aircraft were delivered to New River, releasing UH-1Es for transfer to the Pacific area. While they reduced the amphibious assault capability of the FMFLant forces, the UH-1Bs without rotor brakes were better than nothing. Ten of them arrived in August and 10 more in January 1967."

Marines and Helicopters, 1962-1973 p.110

It doesn't say specifically which squadron got the B models, but I would guess that it was VMO-1.

typo?

According to a MOVREP (Movement Report) dated 29 Dec 1966, from CTG 76.5 to AIG 60(?), VMO-3 Det A had 2 UH-1Es and 2 UH-1Bs. HMM-362 is reported as having 23 UH-34Ds. These were aboard USS Iwo Jima LPH-2.

According to my records the Marines took charge of 20 UH-1B'S with VMO-1 at New River, from the Army.

They flew with an abbreviated US Army serial number and were all returned in February 1968, apart from 1 which was lost.
414001
603594
621912
621918
621957
622007
622040
622043
622057
624572
624581
624583
624590
624594
638554
638572 crashed and destroyed 23 Jun67.
638602
638646
638682
638687