Originally flying the UH-34, the squadron deployed to Memphis, Tennessee shortly after commissioning in support of the Mississippi Crisis, a critical moment in the American civil rights movement.

The squadron had to address various technical teething problems including excessive rotor vibration and sand damage to the engines.

[6]: 281  As the SLF squadron, they were tasked with conducting heliborne search and destroy missions against Viet Cong targets along the coast.

On 1 September 1977, the squadron was reactivated at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Donald Klingler, reestablishing a presence in the Pacific that continues to this day.

[9] In April 1978, HMM-265 embarked onto USS New Orleans and departed for the Western Pacific in order to establish first-line-of-defense military presence during the Cold War era.

The squadron was away from Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station for six months, during which they completed a training exercises in Cebu, Philippines with additional port calls in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Once again under the command of Lt. Col. Donald Klingler, the squadron deployed with the Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) to combine with several additional MAUs to participate in Operation Fortress Gale in Okinawa.

Following that, they participated in exercise Kangaroo Three in Northeastern Australia, a joint operation between the squadron, the New Zealand and the Australian military forces.

After boarding USS Tarawa, Amphibious Squadron Seven left San Diego on from 14 October 1980, visiting Subic Bay, Philippines and participating in exercises Valiant Blitz in the Philippines, Amphibious Squadron Seven spent almost a week at Pattaya Beach, from 22 to 27 December, before moving on to Singapore where she arrived on the 30th.

The squadron was part of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade's amphibious feint into Kuwait, which succeeded in drawing the attention of Saddam Hussein's forces away from the actual attack that occurred inland.

While en route, they were called upon to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the country of Bangladesh during Operation Sea Angel.

The squadron was then called to Cambodia in support of Operation Full Accounting in 1992, where they assisted in the recovery of remains of U.S. servicemen lost during the Vietnam War.

Heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf during the fall of 1998 brought the squadron back on a no-notice deployment as the Aviation Combat Element (ACE) for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

This time, the Marines helped end the civil war on East Timor during Operation Stabilise in October 1999 and again during January and February 2000.

On 5 August 2017 a squadron MV-22 Osprey crashed in Shoalwater Bay on the east coast of Australia after taking off from the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard.