Tag Archives: UH-1Y Venom

Boxer Walkaround

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With a big boxing match in the news today, how about the biggest Boxer we care about here on the blog, recently seen at play in the historically significant Tsushima Strait. We’re talking about the 29-year-old Ingalls-built Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), seen conducting flight ops on 18 September 2024 while on her, um, abbreviated Westpac deployment. 

All are U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Finney.

It looks like “America’s Golden Gator” has a good mix of 15th MEU aviation assets aboard including five F-35B Lightning IIs of VMFA-225, and nine MV-22 Ospreys of VMM-165 along with a mix of eight AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venoms of HMLA-369. Sadly, no CH-53s are embarked it would seem.

How about this great shot of Boxer’s stern, showing a good mix of her self-defense suite to include an MK 38 Mod 2 25mm gun mount (one of four installed) centerline above her dock door, with an eight-cell Sea Sparrow launcher (one of two) above it. There is a 21-cell RAM launcher (1 of 2) to port and a CIWS (1 of 3) to starboard. Note the unmanned M2 .50 cal mounts as well.

The great bow-on flightline shot also shows off Boxer’s 2nd RAM and CIWS installation, just ahead of the island, as well as her SLQ-32 EW suite and commo array on the roof, with the big AN/SPS-48 air search radar on top. Also, it gives some appreciation of the size of the Osprey, which sports a 45-foot wingspan and 30-ton max TO weight. For reference, the big A-5 Vigilante of the Cold War only had a 53-foot span with roughly the same TO weight.

The More Things Change, Huey Boxer Edition

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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)