This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Greg McCourt-Historian
to remember
Marine Gen Vernon Megee.
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Contact Info
Last Address Tulsa
Date of Passing Jan 14, 1992
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Vernon E. Megee, a pioneer in combat aviation for the Marine Corps and the only person in that service to rise from private to the service's highest rank, four-star general, died Tuesday at the St. Francis Gardens nursing home in Albuquerque, N.M.
General Megee, who was 91 years old, was a resident of Albuquerque the past three years and previously lived in Austin, Tex. He died of pneumonia after a long illness, his family said.
General Megee helped develop the Marine tactic of supporting ground troops with air strikes against nearby positions, using rockets, napalm and strafing, with pilots directed by radio messages from land controllers. In World War II, he was the first commander of a Marine Landing Force Air Support Control Unit. 'Scrape Your Bellies'
Carrying out his strategy of close air support as an air commander at Iwo Jima in 1945, he instructed Marine pilots to "go in and scrape your bellies on the beach." He also commanded the air support units at Okinawa.
In his 40 years with the Marines, General Megee also fought against Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua in 1930, when a plane he piloted sustained dozens of hits, and in the Korean War, when he was commander of the First Marine Aircraft Wing. He won the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star and several other medals.
Among his assignments, he was the first aviator to serve as assistant commandant and chief of staff of the corps at the Washington headquarters and served on the staff of the War College. He was also director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chief of staff of the Fleet Marine Force in the Atlantic and assistant director of aviation at the Washington headquarters.
He reached his four-star rank toward the end of his career and retired in 1959 as commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific. An Enlistee in 1919
Born in Tulsa, Okla., General Megee grew up in Chandler, Okla., and attended Oklahoma A.&M. College. He finished his degree more 30 years later.
He enlisted in the Marines in 1919, then went through officers' training at Quantico, Va., and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1922. His early assignments took him to Haiti and China. Because Marine aviation was in its infancy, he trained at Navy aviation schools in San Diego , and Pensacola, Fla., and an Army Air Corps School in Montgomery, Ala.
After retiring from the military in 1959, General Magee earned a master's degree from the University of Texas in Austin with a thesis on the Marines' intervention in Nicaragua. Then he served about a decade as the first superintendent and president of the trustees of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Tex., a preparatory school with unofficial ties to the Marines, which opened in in 1963.
Other Comments:
Also awarded Peruvian Aviation Cross, 1st Class. I cannot find any information or photos on this award.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was commissioned on the 167th anniversary of the Marine Corps, Nov. 10, 1942, at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. with a personnel roster of 13 officers, 25 enlisted men and one aircraft - a trainer.
The Wing's combat history began with the World War II deployment of a bomber squadron on Dec. 3, 1943. A little more than a year later, the Wing deployed a night fighter squadron in support of the war effort.
On Apr. 21, 1944, the Wing boarded three carriers for a voyage to Hawaii and arrived May 8, where it assumed the functions of Marine Air, Hawaii Area.
When the Japanese surrendered, 3rd MAW was decommissioned and its personnel were assigned to other units. The Wing had played an important, but behind-the-scenes, role in defeating the Japanese by giving the best training available to Marine pilots and support personnel.
In 1952, as the Corps again fought in the Far East, the Wing was reactivated at Cherry Point for the Korean War. The main portion of the Wing began moving to the new Marine Corps Air Station Miami, the Marine Corps' first "flying field."
In September 1955, the Wing left Miami for Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Calif., and was rebuilt again, with the addition of Marine Aircraft Group 15, followed by Marine Aircraft Group 36 with its helicopter squadrons at a nearby Air Station in Santa Ana, CA.
Wing squadrons were detached and deployed to Vietnam as combat action in Southeast Asia flared. At the end of the Vietnam War several units were brought back to the United States and deactivated or redesignated, creating the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing of today.
The Wing saw action again as part of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, conducting operations in Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Shield/Storm/Saber. After the end of hostilities, 3rd MAW aircraft provided support in Operations Provide Comfort and Southern Watch over Iraq. The Wing was once more called into service in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
The fall of 2001 would reveal a new type of warfare, the War on Terror, and 3rd MAW answered the call again deploying several detachments in support of the ongoing Operation Enduring Freedom.
In the fall of 2002 the Wing began deploying to Kuwait to prepare for combat operations in Iraq. The Third Marine Aircraft Wing supported I MEF and coalition forces in liberating Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 3rd MAW has a well-proven, colorful battle history and today's Marines stand ready and prepared to meet the challenges of the ongoing War on Terror.
