A Marine helicopter with the president aboard uses the call sign " Marine One ". The VHA first flew in and became operational in In , General Roy S. Geiger observed the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll and instantly recognized that atomic bombs could render amphibious landings difficult because of the dense concentrations of troops, ships, and material at the beachhead.
The Commandant of the Marine Corps convened a special board, the Hogaboom Board, that recommended that the Marine Corps develop transport helicopters in order to allow a more diffuse attack on enemy shores. It also recommended that they stand up an experimental helicopter squadron. Dyer and based at MCAS Quantico, Virginia, because of its relative proximity to the Sikorsky and Piasecki plants in Connecticut , and to the Marine Corps schools where most of the original personnel would come from.
While the test aircraft could only carry three Marines each and required multiple trips, it did indicate the possibilities of the concept. The Marines used the term "vertical envelopment" instead of "air mobility" or " air assault ". HMX-1 performed the first ship-to-shore movement of troops from the deck of an aircraft carrier in an exercise in May They were used for battlefield observation and control as well as medical evacuation and the rescue of fliers.
The requirements of the Korean War exceeded the Navy's training requirement thus HMX-1 was pressed into service as a training command for the first few years of the war. They trained the nucleus of pilots that would form HMR , the first Marine helicopter transport squadron. On 7 September , President Dwight D. Eisenhower was vacationing in Newport, Rhode Island , when his immediate presence was needed at the White House.
President Eisenhower responded by sending the st Airborne into Little Rock to enforce the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education desegregation ruling handed down by the U. Supreme Court in May Typically, the return trip to Washington, D.
