to Tanajib, Saudi Arabia, where it provided support for Operation Desert Storm. Following the conclusion of hostilities, the squadron returned to MCAS Tustin. During March 1991, the squadron received the 1990 Chief of Naval Operations Safety Award. In September, the squadron reached another milestone when it completed 15,000 class A mishap free flight hours. In 1992 it was also announced that HMH-462 had been selected for transition to the CH-53E Super Stallion. In June, the Heavy Haulers took possession of their first CH-53E Super Stallion and began the transition process. In 1996, the squadron reached another milestone when it completed 28,000 class A mishap free flight hours. In May of the same year, after completing another unit deployment to Okinawa, Japan. The "Heavy Haulers" received the Heavy Helicopter Squadron of the Year Award from the Marine Corps Aviation Association for 1996. In March 1997, HMH-462 surpassed 30,000 class A mishap free flight hours. After returning home in May 1998 from another unit deployment cycle. They became the first helicopter squadron in MAG-16 to make the transition from Tustin to MCAS Miramar, California. In December of the same year, HMH-462 surpassed yet another class A mishap free flight hour milestone of 35,000 hours and received the Heavy Helicopter Squadron of the Year award for 1998. The Global War on Terror HMH 462 served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2003 to October 2003 and Operation Enduring Freedom from September 2004 to May 2005. They flew many missions supporting logistics and combat missions involving insertion and extraction of special forces groups. Proposed Deactivation Commandant Gen. David Berger released a news statement on the future of the USMC. In it he states that, "Developing a force that incorporates emerging technologies and a significant change to force structure within our current resource constraints will require the Marine Corps to become smaller and remove legacy capabilities." As part of this significant change to force structure, in May 2020 the USMC reorganization plan proposed the squadron to be deactivated in 2022. However the proposed reorganization plan was changed to deactivate HMH-463 at MCAS Kaneohe Bay after a detailed cost analysis provided by HQMC Aviation. See also United States Marine Corps Aviation Organization of the United States Marine Corps List of active United States Marine Corps aircraft squadrons References Citations Bibliography External links Squadron's unofficial website H462