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The More Things Change, Huey Boxer Edition

Some 59 years ago this month: Benson E.L. Timmons III, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, arrives aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LPH-4) in September 1964. Note the beautiful early UH-1E in bright full-color livery.

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From the William C. Reed Collection (COLL/5634) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

The Marine Corps adopted the UH-1E— essentially the same as the Army’s UH-1B but with a rotor stop to allow shipboard stowage and a rescue hoist installed– in March 1962 with the first deliveries arriving in February 1964. That means Ambassador Timmons’ bird was one of the first USMC Hueys in service, likely of VMO-1, the inagural East Coast UH-1E squadron.

As for Boxer, the former Essex-class fleet carrier (CV-21) came late to World War II, commissioned on 16 April 1945. She did, however, see extensive service in Korea, earning eight (of a possible 10) battle stars for the conflict. Converting to an ASW carrier in 1955 (with the same hull number but with an “S” added) she changed her entire game in 1959 by becoming an LPH (“Landing Platform Helicopter”).

She would maintain the designation in the “Gator Navy” for a decade including sending Marines ashore via vertical envelopment in Operation Powerpack in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and moving 200 helicopters and a brigade’s worth of troopers of the 1st Cavalry to Vietnam.

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Operation Power Pack, Dominican Republic, February 1965. USS Boxer (LPH-4) getting it done. 

Decommissioned in 1969 as one of the last “straight deck” Essex class carriers in service, she was quickly sold for scrap.

Today, a new Gator with the same magic “4” on her island has been in service since 1995.

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USS Boxer (LPH-4) of 1959 compared to today’s USS Boxer (LHD-4)

Roughly the same size and with the same sort of deck as the old LPH-4, the newer USS Boxer (LHD 4) also runs Hueys to this day.

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STRAIT OF HORMUZ (July 18, 2019) A UH-1Y Venom helicopter assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 163 (Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) during a strait transit. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dalton Swanbeck/Released)


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