15 May 1948. Commissioned at NAS Lakehurst, NJ on 1 April, 1948, the Navy’s first West Coast helicopter squadron opened for business at their new home at NAAF Miramar, CA. The original “Fleet Angels” of Helicopter Utility Squadron One (HU-1) consisted of 16 officers, 80 enlisted men, and a handful of Bell HTL trainers and Sikorsky HO-3 SAR aircraft. When the squadron transferred from Lakehurst to Miramar, skipper Maurice Peters and six other plank owners became the first helicopter pilots in the nation to make transcontinental helicopter flights since CAPT Clayton Marcy in 1945. Among them was Major Armond Delalio, USMC (not pictured) who proved so instrumental to the development of Marine Corps rotary wing aviation, that the elementary school at MCAS New River, NC was named to honor him.
The squadron was redesignated as HC-1 on 1 July 1965. By 1966, HC-1 was large enough to form four other squadrons: the Seawolves of HA(L)-3, The Pack Rats of HC-3, The Providers of HC-5, and the Sea Devils of HC-7. Of these, only HC-3 remains, although now known as the Merlins of HSC-3. HA(L)-3 disestablished in 1972. HC-5 became HSL-31 on 1 March, 1972, which disestablished in 1992. A new HC-5 (currently the Providers of HSC-25) was established in 1984. HC-7 disestablished in 1975. HC-1 itself was disestablished in 1994.
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