The photos are of 2 different aircraft, but there might have been as many as 4 aircraft painted up like these during Operation Desert Storm.
The interesting photos in this post feature U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) CH-53 heavy-lift helicopters sporting quite a sexy paint scheme.
In fact as John Faith explains in an interesting piece for Aircraft Resource Center, if you look closely you’ll see the outline of a woman on both sides of the fuselage of the CH-53s.
According to Faith the photos are of 2 different aircraft, but there might have been as many as 4 aircraft painted up like these during Operation Desert Storm (ODS). These choppers were with Helicopter Marine Heavy Helicopter 466 (HMH-466).
As Louis Lofton (who was a crew chief on one of the CH-53s) told to Faith, the helicopters ended up that way due to the rapid need for deployment to the Gulf. With so many to be painted, the Marines were allowed to paint their squadron aircraft in their own hangers before deploying. HMH-466 was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Tustin, California back then. The unit is located at MCAS Miramar, CA since 1996.
HMH-466) flies CH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopters. The squadron, known as the “Wolfpack”, falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 16 (MAG-16) and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (3rd MAW).
Photo credit: John Faith via Aircraft Resource Center and U.S. Marine Corps
