Marine Air Control Squadron 4 (MACS-4) is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control squadron that provides

aerial surveillance A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, reconnaissance, observat ...

, Ground-controlled interception, and air traffic control for the III Marine Expeditionary Force. Originally formed in World War II, the squadron's most notable combat operations occurred during the Vietnam War when it was the first unit to ever use the Marine Tactical Data System. They are currently based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and fall under the command of

Marine Air Control Group 18 Marine Air Control Group 18 (MACG-18) is a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control unit based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma that is currently composed of 4 squadrons and 1 HQ support detachment. The Marine Air Control Group a ...

and the

1st Marine Aircraft Wing The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing is an aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps that serves as the Aviation Combat Element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The wing is headquartered at Camp Foster on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Activ ...

Subordinate units

The squadron is currently structured as follows:

Mission

Provide air surveillance and the control of aircraft and Surface-To-Air weapons for antiair warfare; Continuous All-Weather radar and Non-Radar air traffic control service, and airspace management in support of a

Marine Air-Ground Task Force Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF, pronounced MAG-TAF) is a term used by the United States Marine Corps to describe the principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air-ground, combined ar ...

(MAGTF)

History

Early years

''Air Warning Squadron 13'' was commissioned 5 May 1944 at

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point (*) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, United States, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and ...

, North Carolina and assigned to 1st Marine Air Warning Group,

9th Marine Aircraft Wing The 9th Marine Aircraft Wing was an aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. The wing was commissioned during World War II as a training unit for Marine Aviation personnel ...

. On 12 August 1944 the squadron moved to Naval Air Station Vero Beach, Florida to assist in the air control program and give squadron personnel experience in night intercept problems. The squadron was responsible for operating an

SCR-527 The SCR-527 (''Signal Corps Radio'' model 527) was a medium-range radar used by the United States for early warning and ground-controlled interception (GCI) during World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbrevia ...

radar at

Sebastian Sebastian may refer to: People * Sebastian (name), including a list of persons with the name Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Sebastian'' (1968 film), British spy film * ''Sebastian'' (1995 film), Swedish drama film ...

, the SCR-270 radars at

Stuart Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

and Roseland and the

Radio direction finder Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio station ...

(RDF) stations at Melbourne, Vero Beach and Stuart. The squadron departed NAS Vero Beach on 7 June 1945 heading for the west coast. They were redesignated 1 August 1946 to ''Marine Ground Control Intercept Squadron 4'' and assigned to Marine Air Control Group 2. The squadron was decommissioned 30 April 1947. They were reactivated 30 June 1951 at Marine Corps Air Station Santa Ana, California and assigned to Marine Air Control Group 3, Air Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. Re-designated 15 February 1954 as Marine Air Control Squadron 4. They moved in July 1959 to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan and were assigned to Marine Wing Headquarters Group,

. Their first deployment was to Thailand during May–July 1962 in connection with communist threat to that country.

Vietnam War

The squadron was relocated again to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California in October 1965. In late May 1967, MACS-4 departed San Diego onboard the

USS Hermitage (LSD-34) USS ''Hermitage'' (LSD-34) was a of the United States Navy. She was named for The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's estate just outside Nashville, Tennessee. ''Hermitage'' was laid down on 11 April 1955, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. ...

and landed in Danang, Republic of Vietnam. The squadron was emplaced at the Monkey Mountain Facility on Monkey Mountain east of Danang and was the first to utilize the newly fielded Marine Tactical Data System (MTDS). They began operations on July 6, 1967. This site was chosen because of it was co-located with the HAWK Missile Batteries of the

1st Light Antiaircraft Missile Battalion 1st Light Antiaircraft Missile Battalion (1st LAAM Bn) was a United States Marine Corps air defense unit equipped with the medium range surface-to-air MIM-23 HAWK Missile System. The battalion was the lineal descendant of the 1st Defense Battali ...

and the United States Air Force's Panama Air Control Facility. The site also provided excellent line of sight to United States Seventh Fleet ships operating in Yankee Station in the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern ...

. On September 1, 1967 the squadron was reassigned to the newly commissioned

(MACG-18), 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. MACS-4 provided positive radar control for the Marine Corps' area of operations in

I Corps Tactical Zone I Corps () was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps of the ARVN. This was the northernmost region of South Vietnam, bordering ...

. On 13 January 1971 at 0001, MACS-4 made its last tactical transmission in support of operations during the Vietnam War. During its time in Vietnam utilizing MTDS, MACS-4 controlled or assisted 472,146 aircraft. The squadron departed Vietnam embarking on the

USS Alamo (LSD-33) USS ''Alamo'' (LSD-33) was a of the United States Navy. She was named for the Alamo, site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. ''Alamo'' was laid down on 11 October 1954 at Pascagoula, Miss., by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 20 Janu ...

on January 31, 1971 to head back to MCAS Santa Ana, California. The squadron was decommissioned the same day it left Vietnam and was reactivated on June 15, 1971 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

remaining part of MACG-18. Even though MACS-4 departed Vietnam on January 31, 1971 it maintained a small detachment of twenty Marines on top of Monkey Mountain to man the AN/TYQ-3 - Tactical Data Communications Central (TDCC). The AN/TYQ-3 facilitated critical data exchange between the USAF and USN during the later stages of the Vietnam War. This detachment remained in support of operations until 14 February 1973.

Global War on Terror

Elements of the squadron participated in support of

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

, April 2002 through March 2004.

Citations

References

;Bibliography * ;Web
MACS-4’s official website
{{1stMAW Radar