CHANGE OF COMMAND NAVIAUX TAKES CHARGE OF UNIT AT EDWARDS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - A Marine officer who is a Delta Air Lines pilot in civilian life took over command of a reserve helicopter unit a month before it returns to Iraq.

Lt. Col. Jacques Naviaux II assumed command Tuesday of the 160-man Marine Helicopter Squadron 764, which spent seven months in Iraq last year and is due to go back in March.

``We've been there before,'' said Naviaux, who grew up as the son of a Marine officer and went to college on a Naval ROTC scholarship. ``We know the dangers and discomforts. We can handle them.''

Naviaux took over command from Col. Mark A. Bowen, who is being transferred to the squadron's parent unit's headquarters near San Diego and who in civilian life is a sheriff's deputy and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's chief pilot.

At the change of command ceremony in a cavernous hangar, Bowen was presented the Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership of the squadron, which returned from Iraq without losing an aircraft or a man.

``After taking the squadron to combat, the greatest reward I would ever get happened when we all got off the the aircraft and everybody hit the ground with all their parts,'' Bowen said.

The squadron flies Vietnam War-era twin-rotor CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters, ferrying troops and cargo. One helicopter parked in the hangar during Tuesday's ceremony was the one that evacuated the last U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam off the embassy roof at the 1975 fall of Saigon.

The squadron served from February through September in Iraq, where its helicopters spent more than 3,100 hours in the air and carried more than 9,000 Marines and 300 tons of cargo. Much of the flying was done at night.

``They'd be out there in the heat of the day getting the helicopters ready to fly through out the night,'' said Col. J.L. Marshall, commander of the squadron's parent unit at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

About half the squadron's Marines are reservists, mobilized in January 2004 after the invasion of Iraq. Many live in Orange County, where the unit was based until the 1999 closure of the El Toro Marine air station, but they come from as far away as Colorado.

Naviaux, whose nickname is ``Jackal,'' was commissioned a second lieutenant and went to flight school after graduating from the University of San Diego in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.

He flew in the Persian Gulf after the first Gulf War, in Somalia and in Rwanda. After going into the Marine Reserves in 1988, he was part of drug eradication missions in the West Indies.

He and his wife, Jeanine, have two sons, age 5 and 3.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Outgoing commander Col. Mark. A. Bowen, left, incoming commander Lt. Col. Jacques C. Naviaux II, and Lt. Col. David Cleary review the troops Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base after the change of command ceremony.

(2 -- color) Members of the 1st Marine Division Band from Camp Pendleton perform during the change of command ceremony Tuesday at Edwards AFB.

(3) Lt. Col. Jacques C. Naviaux II takes command of Marine Helicopter Squadron 764 in ceremonies Tuesday at Edwards AFB.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer