There seems to be some confusion about the intro of Hawk missles.
In April of 1959 my first permanent duty station was 29 Palms and my unit was 1st 75's AA batallion. This was a radar guided 75mm anti aircraft weapon. The problem was that in firing at a towed drone the radar would creep up the tow cable and if the operator didn't manually keep it cranked back the weapon would, eventually, fire at the tow plane.
Sometime around the middle of that year we were reorganized as the 1st LAAM Batallion and were equipped with Hawk missles. Our first field problem was held at the old LTA (lighter than air) facility where the old Blimp hangers were. Formerly part of El Toro.
It was called a field problem but was treated by us as a Marine Corps sponsored liberty run what with being so close to Santa Ana.
My most interesting experience was while walking fire watch, I was a L/Cpl 2771. Someone had left several of the fire control systems on and whenever someone smoking would walk in front of the missles I could see their tail fins move as they tracked that cigarette
I hope this sheds some light on when the Hawks were put in service.
I remember a lot about 29 Palms including Lake Bandini and testing the Mule.
J. Lape, S/Sgt 1957-69