Republic Of Vietnam Sea Commando

The Refugee come home / Commander Le Ba Hung

2009-11-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

The Communist Vietnam Officer waiting to welcome Commander H.B. Le

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Hung Ba Le comes out from his ship USS Lassen, which anckored off the Tien Sa Port in Danang, Vietnam, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009. On the day his side lost the Vietnam War, Hung Ba Le fled his homeland at the age of 5 in a fishing trawler crammed with 400 refugees. Thirty-four years later, he made an unlikely homecoming as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Le Ba Hung (R) commander of the USS Lassen and a Vietnamese native of Hue (central Vietnam) is greeted by Communist Vietnamese Army officers during a welcoming ceremony held in Vietnam's central coastal city of Da Nang on November 7, 2009 where Hung's destroyer is on an official port call. The commander who fled Vietnam as a five-year-old boat-people boy and was picked up by an US ship in 1975 has visited the country in command of a destroyer.

CORRECTION CITY IN IPTC FIELD Le Ba Hung, commander of the USS Lassen and a Vietnamese native of Hue (central Vietnam) stands on a speed boat near the destroyer at Vietnam's central coastal city of Da Nang on November 7, 2009 on an official port call. The commander who fled Vietnam as a five-year-old boat-people boy and was picked up by an US ship in 1975 has visited the country in command of a destroyer.

At the helm of a U.S. warship,

a Vietnam refugee comes home

By David J. Carter, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, November 7, 2009

Matthew White / U.S. Navy

Cmdr. Hung Ba Le, left, commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen, discusses the ship's position during operations at sea Wedneday. Le, the first Vietnamese-American to command a U.S. Navy ship, is returning to the country of his birth for the first time in 34 years.

Courtesy of the Le family

Cmdr. Hung Ba Le, front left, and his siblings on Thuan An beach, just south of their hometown of Hue, Vietnam, in 1974.

Courtesy of the Le family

Ensign Thong Ba Le, right, receives his Sword of Honor from Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem at his graduation from the Vietnamese Naval Academy in 1962.

Courtesy of the Le family

Courtesy of the Le family Cmdr. Hung Ba Le, left, and his father, Thong Ba Le.

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — As South Vietnam crumbled under advancing North Vietnamese forces 34 years ago, 5-year-old Hung Ba Le and his family escaped and eventually found refuge on a U.S. Navy ship.
This week, he returns to the land of his birth for the first time. And it is a U.S. Navy ship — the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen that he commands — that will take him there.
On April 30, 1975, Saigon’s fall was imminent. Le’s father, a South Vietnamese navy officer, had just assumed command of the Nha Be Naval Support Activity Base after learning the previous commander left the country without warning.
He led his sailors until the last possible moment. But finding himself unable to communicate with his headquarters and fearing the impending collapse of the government, he ordered his men to go home and be with their families.
In his online memoir, “The Journey of Destiny,” Le’s father wrote: “It was over. There was no one willing to fight because there was nothing for which to fight. The country was about to collapse under the Vietnamese Communist. I was so desperate, angry, and upset in my heart.”
Now the younger Le transits the same waters where he and his family sought refuge more than three decades ago.
“I feel blessed to be where I’m at today,” Le, the first Vietnamese-American to command a U.S. Navy ship, said during a phone interview from sea Tuesday. “It feels very neat to think that we left on a U.S. Navy ship, and to come back on one is pretty awesome.”
After the fall of Saigon, Le’s family escaped on a fishing trawler. Le’s father led the vessel and its 400 refugees out to sea on April 30, 1975. Numerous times, the younger Le said, the refugees were refused assistance from passing ships.
As Le’s father navigated the boat out to sea, he was leaving behind more than his native country: His four oldest children, living in the family’s hometown of Hue, were unable meet the rest of the family before the trawler departed.
After days at sea, sleep-deprived and hungry, Le, three other siblings, his parents and the other refugees were taken aboard the USS Barbour County, a ship participating in Operation Frequent Wind — the evacuation of foreigners and South Vietnamese from Saigon.
The Barbour County took the refugees to the Philippines.
“The cool ocean breeze could not comfort the wave of sorrow in the heart of this Vietnamese refugee,” the elder Le wrote in his memoir.
The Le family eventually made their way to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where they were kept in a refugee camp for several weeks.
They soon found sponsorship from an American family and made the trek to northern Virginia, where they would eventually settle.
With no money, Le’s father worked various jobs to support the family before settling into a job at Giant Food, a supermarket chain.
“We had some great help along the way from our sponsors,” the younger Le recalled.
Although the family’s journey to gain U.S. citizenship lasted eight years, Le describes his experience in America as one of little struggle.
“I always felt lucky to come to America when I did,” he said.
In 1983, the naturalization process concluded and the family’s four oldest children were permitted to join the family.
With a family deeply rooted in naval heritage, Le said that as a teenager getting accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy was his goal.
“I was never pressured over the years from my father to do so,” he said Tuesday as his ship steamed toward its scheduled Saturday port call to Da Nang with USS Blue Ridge. “But [I] enjoyed being able to follow in his footsteps.”
Le’s father recently told him that following his son’s career, and seeing him command a Navy warship, has added years to his life.
Graduating from the Naval Academy with merit in 1992, Le was designated as a surface warfare officer. Four ships and 17 years later, he finds himself leading one of the Navy’s premier warships back to a land of which he has few memories.
“It’s amazing to get an opportunity to get to go back, and one that I don’t know if I would have had otherwise,” said Le, who hopes to reconnect with relatives still in the country. “America gave my family a lot of opportunity, so I enjoy giving back by serving.”

Some pictures of Tien Sa today

Operation Vulcan

2009-11-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

The Secret Side of Tonkin Gulf Incident

As the sun rose over the Tonkin Gulf, fishing boats ventured out onto the sparkling sea. Behind them lay the verdant coast, sharply outlined in the clear morning light. Fishermen came here regularly to cast their nets, taking advantage of the rich waters near the mouth of the Gianh River, about 40 kilometers miles north of Dong Hoi, North Vietnam's southernmost town of any note. But this was wartime, and the peaceful appearance was merely a facade. A kilometer upriver, on the south bank. lay Quang Khe naval base, home to part of Hanoi's fledgling coastal defense fleet.

On 16 May 1962. the scene looked much the same as on any other day. No one suspected that just below the surface lurked an American submarine, the U.S.S.Catfish, carefully watching the naval base. A few days earlier, the submarine had sailed from the Philippines toward the mouth of the Gianh River on a mission codenamed WISE TIGER. Remaining in international waters, the Catfish was collecting data on Hanoi's fleet. The submarine was interested in Swatow gunboats, a Chinese-made vessel that formed the backbone of the North Vietnamese navy. Measuring 83-feet long, the boat packed up to three 37mm automatic cannons, two twin 14.5mm heavy machine guns, and eight depth charges. With a crew of 30, a Swatow could travel at 28 knots and use its surface-search radar to detect incoming boats. A trio of Swatows was thought to be harbored at Quang Khe. After patient monitoring, the Catfish confirmed the presence of all three and sent word back to Manila. This was then relayed to Saigon. where the CIA was finalizing plans for a bold maritime strike against the gunboats.

This mission was long in coming. Back in March 1961, the CIA had first proposed sabotaging North Vietnamese ports as part of a diverse covert warfare menu forwarded to president John F. Kennedy. The scheme lay dormant until the early spring of 1962, when Hanoi's increasing aggressiveness in both South Vietnam and neighboring Laos prompted Washington to re-examine its options. Frustrated by North Vietnamese involvement in the burgeoning southern insurgency, especially its expansion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the Kennedy administration groped for some way to react. Using covert action to send signals would become an increasingly common tool as the war escalated.

Maritime operations were nothing new to the CIA. Beginning in 1951, the Agency had frequently used motorized junks and Taiwanese commandos to strike at the Chinese mainland, and during the Korean War, had deployed sabotage teams along the northern half of the peninsula. Adapting this experience to a North Vietnamese setting, the CIA case officers in Saigon envisioned a motorized junk making its way up the coast, and from there deploying a team of commandos to steal up the Gianh River and set charges against the Swatows.

In April 1962, the CIA secured loan of Four Taiwan trained commandos. Code named Team VULCAN, they were brought to Danang and trained in planting limpet mines on the hulls of boats. The following month, after receiving confirmation of the gunboats' presence from the Catfish, the CIA decided to make a trial run. VULCAN and 10 crewmen loaded into the Agency's specially outfitted junk, Nautilus 2, and headed up the coast. Anchoring off the mouth of the Gianh River, the commandos sneaked to shore in a raft for a beach reconnaissance. After looking around for signs of activity, they returned to the junk. No one had seen them.

Borrowed Commandos

Captain Ha Ngoc Oanh, known by his call sign, Antoine, looked around the table at the four VULCAN commandos. A two-year veteran of the covert war, this was the first team under his direct supervision. When the final order to attack the Swatows came on 28 June, he scheduled this final briefing. Joined by a pair of CIA officers, Antoine translated instructions into Vietnamese, aided by aerial photos of Quang Khe taken just a few days earlier. On the wall behind him was a map of the naval base marked with avenues of approach and retreat. The commandos listened closely. From the junk, they would switch to a smaller wooden boat and head to the river mouth. Since there were three Swatows at Quang Khe, only three frogmen would enter the water and swim the rest of the way using scuba gear. The fourth combat swimmer, Nguyen Chuyen, would remain on the boat as backup. They would target one boat apiece, planting a limpet mine below the water line near the engine, then swim back to the boat.

On the night of 29 June, Team VULCAN boarded the junk along with a dozen crewmen and cast off. Sailing through the night and all the next day, Nautilus 2 blended with other junks at sea. The following night they closed on their objective. Darkness cloaked the coastline. Just before midnight on 30 June, they cut both engines. Two crewmen lowered a small motorized launch into the gentle swells, then climbed in. The VULCAN commandos, dressed in scuba gear and each clutching a limpet mine, joined them. As its small outboard coughed to life, the skiff slowly parted from the junk.

Fifteen minutes later, Le Van Kinh, one of commandos, could clearly see the shores the Gianh River. In the darkness, the VULCAN members set their mines to detonate in two hours -- sufficient time for them swim in, plant the charges, and get back to the skiff. Kinh put on his mask, cleared his mouthpiece, and slipped into the water. He was soon joined by two other commandos, Nguyen Van Tam and Nguyen Huu Thao. They quietly adjusted their masks and mouthpieces and entered the sea.

The swimmers reached the North Vietnamese base about 45 minutes later and set about their work. In the oily water, Nguyen Huu Thao was in the process of fixing his limpet mine to a Swatow's hull. Hearing a commotion on the deck above, he apparently panicked - and the mine exploded in Thao's hands. What had been a stealthy raid was now a race for survival.

Kinh, the first commando in the water, had managed to place his mine without incident. Twenty meters from the Swatow, he surfaced to get his bearings. It was at that same moment that Thao's limpet detonated in a blinding flash. The shock wave hit Kinh on the back of the skull, then slammed into the rest of his body. As his limbs went numb, he floated helplessly on the surface. Kinh saw that the Swatow was badly damaged, but he also knew that the North Vietnamese would soon be swarming about the base.

In the skiff, Nguyen Chuyen and the two crewmen watched as the explosion lit up the night. It took only moments for the North Vietnamese to spot the bobbing boat silhouetted in the smoke and flames. Frightened by the sound of revving Swatow engines and fearing the worst, the men did not wait around to see what would happen next. Their own engine coughed to life and the little boat turned tail for the open sea. In the stern, Chuyen raised a machine gun and fired long bursts toward his pursuers. The North Vietnamese fired back, and by the time the little boat reached the junk, Chuyen was hit and bleeding

Alone in the water, Kinh had little time to think. In pain, he kicked toward shore and rolled out of the water into a bush. Peeling off his tanks and wetsuit, he planned to hide until the commotion subsided, then try to swim south. It was not to be. Within an hour, North Vietnamese patrols found him. Beating Kinh almost senseless, they marched him off for interrogation. Blindfolded, he managed a smile as the sound of a second limper detonation rumbled in the distance.

Nguyen Van Tam, the third swimmer, had only slightly better luck. After placing his limpet. he headed back toward the skiff. Then the first mine detonated prematurely and he suddenly found himself abandoned in the middle of the river. Tam spied a boat lying at anchor nearby and silently swam alongside. Hoping to creep out to sea unnoticed, he climbed over the gunwale-and into the arms of some North Vietnamese militiamen.

Sinking Ships

Quang Khe erupted into action. Holed by the first limpet, Swatow 185 was taking on water fast. In the confusion, one gun- boat, Swatow 161, took to sea after the escaping skiff.. Throttling up its engines, the gunboat surged into the bay looking for the culprits and soon spotted the little wooden boat. Tailing it back to the junk, the Swatow bore down on its quarry with guns blazing. Far from helpless, the crew of the Nautilus2 aimed machinegun fire at the gunboat in their wake. For the next three hours they kept the Swatow at bay as they ran south along the coast. At 0600 hours, however, gunfire from the North Vietnamese vessel struck the junk's engine compartment. With Nautilus 2 dead in the water, the circling Swatow pummeled it to matchwood. Nguyen Chuyen, the frogman who had earlier escaped in the skiff, and one other crewman died in the exchange.

As the Swatow picked its way among the floatsom, 10 surviving South Vietnamese were plucked from the water and blindfold ed. Unknown to the gunboat crew, an 1lth crew member, Nguyen Van Ngoc, was hiding in the junks partially submerged cabin. Clinging to the wreckage, he floated south toward the 17th Parallel, where he was spotted by a patrolling aircraft and rescued.

On 21 July. Hanoi placed the captured commandos and crew before a jury. Receiving sentences of up to life in prison, the somber commandos headed for their cells. Photos of their captured equipment were splashed across English-language publications coming out of Hanoi, and one of the commandos was even coerced into making a public condemnation of the program.

Try, Try Again

Despite the failure, there would be other operations. CIA headquarters sent a new man. Tucker Gougleman, to shape up the the maritime program. A seasoned paramilitary operative, Gougleman was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Pacific campaign who walked with a permanent limp courtesy of a Japanese bullet. This handicap had not pre vented him from transferring to the CIA, where he spent the Korean War conducting strikes along the embattled peninsula.

Gougleman could not have been pleased with the operation he took over. The CIA had half a dozen junks in Danang - and no qualified commandos. That fall the Agency put out a call for combat swimmers, and by November 1962 more than four dozen volunteers had been assembled at makeshift camps strung along the Danang waterfront. But without qualified teachers and training facilities, instruction proceeded at glacial speed.

Gougleman's arrival quickly improved things. Shortly after he took over, a team of U.S. Navy Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) commandos were detailed to Danang for support, making Gougleman's job much easier. Two SEAL officers and 10 enlisted men spent six months training the South Vietnamese, and by late summer 1963, four action teams were ready, each made up of civilian agents combined with a handful of former South Vietnamese army sergeants. One of them, NEPTUNE, was qualified in scuba. Another, CANCER, consisted almost entirely of ethnic Chinese Nungs.

Gougleman now had plenty of commandos, but he still had a problem with his boats. Although the North Vietnamese navy paled in comparison to the South Vietnamese, Hanoi's gunboats both outgunned and outpaced the CIA's motorized junks. Clearly, Gougleman needed a better vessel to get his men to and from their target.

The search for such a boat dated back to 1959 when the U.S. Navy began looking for something to replace its aging WWII torpedo boats. One of the top choices was the Norwegian Nasty-class patrol boat. Built by Westermoen in Mandel, Norway, the Nasty was one of the fastest and most reliable patrol boats of its day. Its superior performance came from two diesel Napier engines which could propel the 24-meter, 80-ton mahogany and fiberglass hull at speeds of more than 40 knots. Packing a wide range of light weapons, it could cover 1,600 kilometers without refueling. Best of all, its foreign manufacture afforded plausible deniability for covert operations.

Norwegian Nasty boat undergoing modifications at Subic Bay, Philippines, before being shipped to Danang to run covert operations along the North Vietnamese coast

The VULCAN failure brought the CIA into the picture. In Washington, the Joint Chiefs of Staff pushed for a new boat, a call echoed by American military commanders in Saigon (represented by the newly formed Military Advisory Command, Vietnam - MACV). In August 1962, General Paul D. Harkins, the MACV commander, had suggested that U.S. motor torpedo patrol (PT) boats be used for missions north. His proposal had already been sent for review by President John F. Kennedy's top national security advisors.

President Kennedy, himself a PT boat commander during WWII, liked the idea. On 27 September, Washington cabled approval for the scheme. Acting on this mandate, the U.S. Navy took two of its 1950-vintage, aluminum hulled torpedo boats, PT-810 and PT-811, out of mothballs at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to fill the bill until new boats could be sent to South Vietnam. The two aluminum boats, nicknamed "gassers" because their antiquated engines, burned gasoline rather than more efficient diesel, took a couple of months to refurbish. Each was given a 40mm automatic grenade launcher on the bow, a .50-caliber machine gun amidships, and engine muffling to run more quietly. They were also renamed: PTF- 1 and PTF-2 (Patrol Torpedo Boat, Fast, in Navy nomenclature).

The first "fast boats" sent to Vietnam for secret operations were WWII-era PT boats. the PT-810 was re-designated PTF-1 and took part in several operations.

While the gassers were being readied, the CIA bypassed the Pentagon's bureaucracy and ordered two Nastys. In early 1963, at the same time that Gougleman arrived in Danang, the Agency passed both ships to the U.S. Navy for comprehensive testing. Designated PTF-3 and PTF-4, they were refitted that spring with U.S. equipment for familiarization drills at Little Creek, Virginia.

On 28 June, Admiral George W. Anderson, the Chief of Naval Operations, assigned the boats to the Pacific Fleet's Amphibious Group I, to occur immediately following modifications to their armament. Technicians added two 40mm automatic grenade launchers and two 20mm automatic cannons, plus two 3.5-inch rocket launchers and provisions for up to three flamethrowers. Work was completed by the end of August, and the boats were loaded aboard the transport ship Vancouver- for the journey to San Diego via the Panama Canal.

All this took time, however and the CIA needed to gets its maritime operations back up to speed. Gougleman needed an interim boat to put into immediate operation before the arrival of the Nastys. The answer came from another covert operation, this one in Cuba. Since the 1961 Bay of Pigs disaster the Agency had been authorized to conduct a maritime harassment campaign against Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, and they picked a boat that already was a common sight on the Gulf of Mexico -- a vessel made by Seward Seacraft in Burwick, Louisiana, known as the Swift. Originally designed for oil companies operating in the Gulf's far flung drilling platforms, it was 15 meters long, displaced 20 tons, and had two diesel engines.

The Swifts were still in California undergoing modifications when the call came for boats to handle North Vietnam missions. Three were immediately crated and sent to the Philippines. From there, they were ferried to Saigon. Sailing up the coast to Danang, they were ready for action by October 1963. While the Swifts were a welcome addition to Gougleman's clandestine maritime force, they had one drawback. Though easier to maintain than the temperamental Nastys, they represented an insurmountable leap in technology for the CIA's existing roster of junk crewmen. This put the Agency in a fix. Forbidden from recruiting experienced sailors from the South Vietnamese navy, and also unable to use Americans in order to uphold plausible deniability, there was nobody on hand to operate the boats.

So the CIA turned to foreign experts. As they already had developed good contacts in Oslo during the Nasty purchase, they arranged for three Norwegian civilians to be hired on six-month contracts. Arriving in Danang, they were given the barely disguised codename "Viking" and assigned as skippers, one per Swift. Young and aggressive, the Norwegians got along well with the South Vietnamese. "They were real Vikings," remembers Captain Truong Duy Tai, a maritime case officer. "They knew about navigation so well."

Now with boats as well as crews, the CIA planned its first maritime hit-and-run since the VULCAN debacle. But planners showed little imagination --their plans called for essentially a repeat of the failed strike against the Swatows at Quang Khe. The only difference was the team would ride a Swift instead of a junk.

On 15 December, one of the new powerboats headed north. Aboard was Team NEPTUNE -- the lone scuba-qualified team - with a supply of limpet mines. Short of their target, however, the skipper became lost, forcing an abort.

Returning to Danang, the CIA waited out the New Year. Finally, on 14 January 1964, they launched an ambitious doubleheader. Plans called for two Swifts to leave their berths shortly before midnight. They would stay together until they crossed the Seventeenth Parallel, then continue to their objectives alone. One would head for a coastal desalinization plant near the town of Dong Hoi. The other would go to the Ron River, 18 kilometers farther up the Quang Binh coast from the Swatows on the Gianh. One kilometer inland along the Ron was a ferry which connected North Vietnam's major north-south logistical artery, Route 1.

The Dong Hoi team, codenamed ZEUS, had no problems. The Norwegian skipper approached his designated target just before dawn, throttling back on the engines as he neared shore. Unlike the earlier scuba attacks, the ZEUS commandos took a rubber boat to shore. There they off-loaded a makeshift weapons package devised by CIA technicians. Consisting of six 3.5-inch "flat-firing" rockets, the cluster was affixed to a central battery pack. Pointing it in the general direction of the desalinization plant, they set a timer, slipping back into their rafts, and reached the Swift without incident.

The second team, codenamed CHARON, was not as lucky. When the Swift was less than 19 kilometers from its target, the Norwegian skipper spotted a boat heading toward them from the north. Though not moving fast enough to pose a threat, the Viking reversed course, taking evasive turns until he lost his pursuer. Hugging the coast, he then doubled back north. They were now more than an hour behind schedule.

Electing to proceed with the mission, the team leader ordered CHARON into a rubber raft. As they neared the mouth of the Ron, the team donned flippers and entered the water. Dividing in two, a pair of swimmers headed along the north bank, while the other two pushed along the south. Quickly, things began to fall apart. One pair soon encountered a junk coming downriver. With heavy silt clogging the entrance of the Ron, they feared that the water was not deep enough to clear the passing hull without being seen. Panicking, they turned swam back to the rubber raft.

The second pair was nowhere found. After exceeding their proscribed wait, the first two swimmers headed the Swift alone. With dawn fast approaching, the Norwegian captain reluctantly decided it was time to leave. But as the engines throttled up, he spotted a flashlight blinking near shore. Taking an enormous risk, he turned the Swift inland. relief, bobbing in the water were 1 missing swimmers. With a full complement, they headed south.

Back at Danang, the CIA had mixed emotions about the missions. CHARON had failed to reach its objective, and while claiming it was sure the rockets went off, had not actually been there to witness the event. On the other hand, both teams had returned safely, marking the first time any of the Agency's saboteurs had managed to return home intact.

It would be one of the last CIA maritime operations in Vietnam. In January 1964 the entire covert program was transferred to the Pentagon and called Operational Plan 34A. The military would continue the missions using the new Nasty patrol boats - the command of SOG, the Studies Observation Group. Ranging up and down the North Vietnamese coast the Nastys were only moderately successful, but in 1964 they helped trigger a wider American role in the war with their role in the Gulf incident.

Dale Andrade, Ph.D., resides in Washington, D.C.

BY SEA, AIR, and LAND Chapter 1

2009-11-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 1: The Early Years, 1950-1959

From the beginning of the conflict in Southeast Asia, the Navy played a key role in support of American strategic objectives. With the Communist seizure of China in 1949 and the invasion of South Korea by North Korean and Chinese forces the following year, U.S. leaders concluded that the Indochina Peninsula and possibly all Southeast Asia soon might also sink under the rising Communist tide.

To prevent this loss, the administration of President Harry S. Truman provided military aid and advisory assistance to France,then fighting to retain control of its Indochinese possessions against an indigenous Communist movement, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh.

On 3 August 1950, the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group(MAAG), Indochina, arrived in Saigon to administer the material assistance program. The MAAG's Navy Section, comprised of Commander John B. Howland and seven other officers and men, was on hand at the end of October to process the first shipment of naval material, which consisted of Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, to French forces. During the next four years, as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, the United States delivered military aid totaling $2.6 billion, including two light aircraft carriers, renamed by the French Bois Belleau and La Fayette, 438 amphibious landing ships and craft, armored river patrol boats and other vessels, and 500 aircraft. In addition, the Navy Section of MAAG oversaw the provision of spare parts and the development of base facilities such as the Naval Shipyard in Saigon and the Naval Amphibious Base in Haiphong.

The fleet complemented these efforts with port calls and task force deployments intended to highlight American support for the anti-Communist stand of France and its Indochinese allies of the French Union. As early as March 1950, the Seventh Fleet commander, with destroyers Stickell (DD 888) and Richard B.Anderson (DD 786), visited Saigon while 60 plans aircraft carrier from Boxer (CVA 21) overflew the city. In October 1953, the four ships of Destroyer Division 30 conducted a similar show-the-flag voyage up the Saigon River.

In the spring of 1954, the fleet's presence took another form in Southeast Asian waters when the French military effort in Indochina reached a climax at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Responding to pleas from the French, who were fighting desperately to hold on to their isolated bastion in the mountains of Tonkin, the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed an aircraft carrier task force and supporting units into the South China Sea. At various times Wasp (CVA 18),Essex (CVA 9), Boxer, and Philippine Sea (CV 47) steamed off the Indochinese Peninsula prepared to launch their aircraft against Communist forces besieging the French base. Awaiting a possible order from Washington to enter the conflict, naval leaders dispatched carrier reconnaissance planes to fly over the area around Dien Bien Phu. The aircraft gathered intelligence on Viet Minh troop movements and logistic buildup. Finally, President Eisenhower, concluding that the risks of unilateral U.S. intervention might far outweigh the gains,decided against any action. On 7 May 1954, Viet Minh forces overwhelmed the last French defenders of the surrounded outpost. Two months later, hard on the heels of this defeat, France surrendered its interests to Indochina at an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Passage to Freedom

The Geneva Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities divided Vietnam into two zones for the regroupment of the contending Viet Minh and French forces. Ho Chi Minh's troops concentrated north of a provisional military demarcation line established along the Ben Hai River at the 17th parallel while French and allied indigenous forces regrouped to the south of it. At the same time, Vietnamese civilians were allowed to emigrate to the zone of their choice. The U.S Navy answered the French government call to assist in evacuating the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese who chose to live in the predominately non-Communist South. From August 1954 to May 1955 the Navy mounted a massive sea lift between the ports of Haiphong and Saigon. To carry out the operation, named Passage to Freedom, the Pacific Fleet concentrated 74 tank landing ships (LST), transports, attack cargo ships, dock landing ships (LSD), and other vessels in the South China Sea under Rear Admiral Lorenzo S. Sabin, Commander Amphibious Force, Western Pacific and Commander Amphibious Group 1.

The Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) provided an additional 39 transports. This large group of ships, shuttling between North and South Vietnam, was supplied and replenished by the Logistic Support Force, Western Pacific, whose oiler, cargo, provision, repair, salvage, and hospital ships were stationed at the midway point in Danang Bay. Fleet medical units and Naval Beach Group 1 elements helped ease the plight of the Vietnamese refugees encamped ashore at both ends of the transit route. By 20 May 1955, the Navy had transported 293,000 immigrants, many of them Catholics, who soon formed the core of the anti-Communist segment of the population in South Vietnam. In addition to 17,800 Vietnamese military personnel, the American flotilla carried south 8,135 vehicles and 68,757 tons of cargo,much of it material provided to the French under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.

Development of the Vietnamese Navy

In succeeding years, the Navy continued its support of the new Republic of Vietnam as the United States filled the vacuum left by the French. The Eisenhower administration, guided by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, was instrumental in forming the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a coalition of non-Communist states concerned with preventing the further extension of Communist influence in the region. In addition, the United States undertook the task of equipping and training an indigenous South Vietnamese armed force capable of defending the country during the initial phases of attack by an external power.

Because Ho Chi Minh's regime was concerned with consolidating control over North Vietnam in the years following the end of its war with France, the threat to President Ngo Dinh Diem's South Vietnam was temporarily limited. Thus, the U.S. military mission in the country had a grace period in which to prepare South Vietnam for the enemy's expected offensive.From 1954 to 1959, the Navy Section of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, worked to develop a viable navy for South Vietnam. The number of advisors allowed in-country at anyone time was limited by the Geneva Accord restriction on there introduction of military personnel. In this period there were never more than 79 naval advisors assigned to MAAG or to the Temporary Equipment Recovery Mission, created to salvage American aid material left in Vietnam by the French. But these Navy and marine Corps advisors were important in the development of the Vietnamese Navy, which grew from a force of 1,500 men, and a small number of ships and craft to a force of 5,000 men and 119 ships and craft. Controlled by the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Armed Forces, the navy was organized into a Naval Staff; Sea Force, River Force, and Marine Corps operating forces; and a shore establishment. The latter group comprised the Naval Stations and Schools and the Naval Supply Center, Saigon.

The American naval advisors concentrated on providing material assistance to the Vietnamese Navy. Many vessels were left behind by the French, but the advisory group designated additional material aid that was needed and administered the deliveries. Patrol craft, escorts, minesweepers, and landing craft were acquired so that the South Vietnamese could carry out the priority mission of supporting its army with coastal patrol, escort and transportation, harbor defense, limited minelaying and minesweeping, and antisubmarine warfare. In addition, the naval trainers taught gunnery, navigation, and other subjects at the Nha Trang Naval School and worked to improve management skills at the Saigon Naval Shipyard. The Navy Section also served as the field office for the evaluation of new weapons, boats, and equipment for possible future use in the special environment of Southeast Asia. These relatively modest efforts to prepare the South Vietnamese Navy for combat would soon be tested.

Chapter 2 / The Sea Commando

2009-11-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 2 : The Era of Growing Conflict, 1959-1965

In 1959 North Vietnam initiated a long-term campaign aimed at destroying the government of South Vietnam through political subversion and armed action. The goal was to unify Vietnam under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. To achieve this end, the North Vietnamese directed Communists in the South to spark unrest, infiltrated guerrilla reinforcements, and began preparing a logistical line of communication, soon labeled the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through neighboring Laos. To ease the threat to this supply system, the North Vietnamese exacerbated existing political tensions in Laos. They supported with troops and supplies the indigenous Pathet Lao Communists, who were attempting to overthrow the pro-Western Royal Laotian Government.

The Crises in Laos

The Navy was called upon to demonstrate American determination to oppose these actions. One of the means adopted was a show of force by the fleet. During September 1959, in the autumn of 1960, and again in January 1961, the Seventh Fleet deployed multiship carrier task forces into the South China Sea as a deterrent to further Communist guerrilla attacks on pro-American forces in Laos and as reassurance to friendly governments of U.S. resolve to stand by them. Although the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese supporting forces withdrew in each crisis, in the spring of 1961 their offensive appeared on the verge of overwhelming the pro- American Royal Laotian Army. Once again the fleet sortied into Southeast Asian waters. By the end of April most of the Seventh fleet was deployed off the Indochinese Peninsula preparing to initiate operations into Laos. The force consisted of Coral Sea (CVA 43) and Midway (CVA 41) carrier battle groups, antisubmarine support carrier Kearsarge (CVS 33), one helicopter carrier, three groups of amphibious ships, two submarines, and three Marine battalion landing teams. At the same time, shorebased air patrol squadrons and another three Marine battalion landing teams stood ready in Okinawa and the Philippines to support the afloat force. Although the administration of President John F. Kennedy already had decided against American intervention to rescue the Laotian government, Communist forces halted their advance and agreed to negotiations. The contending Laotian factions concluded a cease-fire on 8 May 1961, but it lasted only a year.

Fleet training exercises also served to highlight American strength and purpose in Southeast Asia. Exercise Pony Express, conducted on the northern coast of Borneo by 60 ships and 26,000 personnel from SEATO member states between late April and early May 1961, prominently displayed U.S. naval power and allied military solidarity. Throughout this period, the Navy took other steps to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to friendly governments. Heavy cruisers Toledo (CA 133) in October 1959 and Saint Paul (CA 73), the flagship of Commander Seventh Fleet, in October 1960 visited Saigon to participate in Vietnamese Independence Day celebrations. On 27 August 1961, Commander Mine Division 93, with ocean minesweepers Leader (MSO 490) and Excel (MSO 439), made the first official visit by ships of the U.S. Navy to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

In addition, less visible actions were taken to aid the anti- Communist cause in Laos. During 1959 several detachments from naval mobile construction battalions (NMCB), known as Seabees, improved strategically important roads and the country's main airfield, Wattay, at the capital of Vientiane. In June and July of the following year, men of Naval Beach Group 1 and Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) 12 pushed 430 miles up the unpredictable, rapid-strewn Mekong River to deliver ten landing craft to the Laotian armed forces. During the 1961 spring crisis, antisubmarine support carrier Bennington (CVS 20) carried 14 Sikorsky H-34 helicopters to the Gulf of Siam where they were flown off and transferred to friendly forces in Laos, then preparing to meet the next Pathet Lao assaults. However, relative calm settled over the country during the latter half of 1961 and early 1962. This lull was shattered when the Communists overran the pro-American defenders of Nam Tha on 6 May 1962, renewing fears for the survival of a non-Communist Laotian government.

Determined to preserve the status quo and at the same time reassure American allies, President Kennedy again ordered the Seventh Fleet into the South China Sea. The Hancock (CVA 19) carrier group and the Bennington submarine hunter-killer group steamed to a position off Danang, and the fleet's Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) carried the Marine Special Landing Force (SLF) into the Gulf of Siam. Then, in mid-May, U.S. ground, air, and naval forces deployed to Thailand. On the 17th, the Amphibious Ready Group landed a Marine ground-air team, which quickly moved forward to Udorn on the Thai-Laotian border. Other units, including elements of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 10, joined this force in succeeding days to form the 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade. With the forces in the area now more in balance, political compromise was possible. On 23 July 1962, the various Laotian parties formally agreed at the Geneva Conference to form a coalition government headed by the neutralist, Prince Souvanna Phouma.

U.S. Naval Advisors and the Vietnamese Navy

Even as the Laotian crisis subsided, Southeast Asia remained an area of concern because of developments in the Republic of Vietnam. That country was increasingly threatened by Communist insurgents who wreaked havoc on the political, economic, and military infrastructure. Bedeviled by the enemy's guerrilla attacks and political proselytizing, the South Vietnamese government looked to the United States for assistance.

After a fact-finding mission to South Vietnam in October 1961 by the President's chief military advisor, General Maxwell Taylor, the Kennedy administration, responded by: 1) increasing military aid and the number of advisors in-country, 2) adopting specialized counterinsurgency measures, and 3) deploying American support forces to Southeast Asia. The U.S. Navy played an important role in each of these three major programs. Paralleling the overall rise in MAAG strength, the Navy Section increased from 79 men in 1959 to 154 in early 1964. In addition, the naval advisors began to accompany South Vietnamese ships, river assault groups, and other units on combat operations. Another small naval contingent served on the staff of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), established on 8 February 1962 to coordinate the total U.S. effort in the Republic of Vietnam. The command function was centralized when the MAAG was disestablished on 15 May 1964, and its resources were absorbed by MACV. Thereafter, the Naval Advisory Group (NAG) continued the work of the old Navy Section. By the end of the year, 235 naval personnel were assigned to the 4,889-man military assistance command.

This increase in strength reflected the growth of the Republic of Vietnam Navy from 5,000 officers and men in 1959 to 8,162 in late 1964. During this same period the naval service doubled to a force of 44 seagoing ships and over 200 landing craft, patrol boats, and other vessels.

Among the ships and craft provided between 1961 and 1964 by the United States to the Vietnamese Navy's Sea Force were an additional 5 escorts (PCE), 12 motor gunboats (PGM), 3 medium landing ships (LSM), and 3 tank landing ships (LST), 1 fuel barge (YOG), and 12 minesweeping launches (MLMS). These vessels gave the oceangoing force a greater capability to carry out its responsibility for patrol and transport along the 1,200-mile coastline, gunfire support of troops ashore, amphibious landings, minesweeping, and open sea operations.

A similar burgeoning of resources enabled the River Force to create additional commands in support of its primary mission of aiding the South Vietnamese Army with river transportation, escort, patroling, minesweeping, and waterborne assaults. New infusions of specially configured American landing craft enabled the establishment of two 19-boat, 250-man, river assault groups (RAG) at Saigon. The existing river assault groups were based at My Tho, Vinh Long, Can Tho, and Long Xuyen. In addition, in October 1960, the navy formed the River Transport Escort Group as protection for the vital foodstuffs being convoyed through the Mekong Delta to Saigon. Later in the period, the navy created the River Transport Group to move army forces in the delta.

Recognizing that the sea was a likely avenue of approach for Communists infiltrating from North Vietnam or moving along the South Vietnamese littoral, in April 1960 the navy established the paramilitary Coastal Force. In line with its emphasis on counterinsurgency warfare, the Kennedy administration wholeheartedly endorsed the development of this junk fleet, providing the force with American naval advisors, boat design and construction funds, and stocks of small arms. By the end of 1964, the 3,800-man, 600-junk force patroled the offshore waters from 28 bases along the coast. To coordinate the operations of these 28 separate divisions, U.S. advisors helped set up coastal surveillance centers in Danang, Cam Ranh, Vung Tau, and An Thoi, the respective headquarters of the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Coastal Districts.

The advisory team also persuaded the Vietnamese Navy to create, on 16 October 1963, four naval zone commands, from the 1st Naval Zone in the north to the 4th Naval Zone in the Gulf of Siam. Thereafter, operations of the Sea Force, River Force, and Coastal Force in a particular zone were controlled by an overall commander whose area of responsibility now corresponded with that of an army corps commander.

The Navy's advisors undertook other specialized measures to strengthen the Vietnamese Navy, such as streamlining supply management at the Naval Supply Center in Saigon and improving repair procedures at the Saigon Naval Shipyard. Training in seagoing-ship and small-boat operation, gunnery, and proper maintenance routines were important parts of the advisory mission.

Temporarily deployed American mobile training teams complemented the advisory effort. These small detachments accomplished such specialized tasks as helping to develop a full-fledged intelligence department on the Vietnamese Naval Staff, reactivating an old French boat repair yard adjacent to the Saigon Naval Shipyard, and teaching courses in radar technology. In addition, the mobile training teams instructed Vietnamese Air Force mechanics in the maintenance of 63 Douglas A-1H Skyraiders and 15 North American T-28 Trojan aircraft that were transferred to the allied air service from 1960 to 1964. Also during this period, many Vietnamese naval personnel received training at U.S. facilities in the United States, including the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Other Vietnamese sailors served short tours in Seventh Fleet ships or benefited from combined antisubmarine warfare exercises with U.S. submarines Bluegill (SS 242), Queenfish (SS 393), and Capitaine (AGSS 336).

After nearly ten years of work, the naval advisory team had helped build a promising South Vietnamese naval arm. But the nature of the advisory role limited what Americans could do to effect change. The naval service was troubled with problems that continually resisted solution. The relatively few advisors were generally unable to speak the Vietnamese language or fully understand the culture. Between 1959 and 1964, poor leadership constituted the greatest hindrance to an effective Vietnamese Navy. Political intrigue, cultural differences, and seemingly petty personal disputes troubled the officer corps. Because of the navy's short existence, senior officers were relatively young and inexperienced. Its small size in comparison with the Vietnamese Army and the consequent domination by the ground force stifled the naval command's initiative. In the enlisted ranks, lack of motivation, low pay, austere living conditions, and inadequate training for navy life caused some to desert. Poor maintenance of obsolete World War II-vintage ships and craft and the inefficient repair and supply systems reflected a lack of modern technological heritage in South Vietnam. All of these factors resulted in the mediocre operational performance of the naval service. Many of the problems identified by Rear Admiral Henry S. Persons during his inspection of the Vietnamese Navy in November 1961 for the Commander in Chief, Pacific remained when Captain Phillip S. Bucklew made a similar visit in early 1964. Indeed, the disruption in the officer corps caused by the coup d'etat against President Diem in November 1963 and the Communist exploitation of the subsequent political and military chaos in South Vietnam even lessened the Vietnamese Navy's ability to carry out its mission at the end of 1964.

Counterinsurgency

The Kennedy administration concluded early that in addition to providing military aid and advice to friends in their fight against Communist "wars of national liberation," specially trained American units might be necessary to combat the enemy's political-military offensive. The Taylor mission to South Vietnam in October 1961 invigorated the American effort to develop specialized counterinsurgency units in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Stimulated by the Kennedy administration's direct interest, on 1 January 1962 the Navy established in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets 60-man naval special warfare units called SEAL teams (the name reflects a capability to fight on the sea, in the air, and on land). Their chief purpose was to carry out guerrilla and antiguerrilla operations in rivers, canals, harbors, and on adjacent land areas. The units were also charged with training American and allied forces for special operations. Throughout 1963 and 1964, detachments from SEAL Team 1 (the Pacific Fleet unit) deployed to South Vietnam and instructed American advisors, South Vietnamese "frogmen," or LDNN (Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai), and Coastal Force Biet Hai commandos in related skills.

On 19 February 1962, Admiral George W. Anderson, the Chief of Naval Operations, authorized establishment of another type of unit designed to counter Communist insurgencies through civic action programs. The 13-man Seabee Technical Assistance Teams (STAT), formed to help win the support of indigenous populations for their governments, also constructed traditional military posts for American and friendly forces.

The first of these specially configured construction units to deploy to South Vietnam arrived in-country on 25 January 1963. Fourteen teams were operating or had completed their six-month tours by the end of 1964. During the first deployments, Seabees took part in the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) Program, building or improving fortified outposts for U.S. Army Special Forces detachments and their Vietnamese and Montagnard (hill tribesmen) allies. After October 1963, a number of STAT teams deployed to South Vietnam for "nation building" work, were assigned to the Strategic Hamlet Program, designed to separate the Viet Cong from the civilian population by grouping the latter in defended hamlets. The Seabees aided this effort by building houses, schools, hospitals, roads, and bridges. A separate Seabee contingent, dispatched to South Vietnam from March 1964 to February 1965, dug deep wells at locations where fresh water was unavailable to villagers. To control the entire Seabee program in-country, on 30 September 1963 the Pacific Fleet commander established the billet of Commander Naval Construction Battalions, U.S. Pacific Fleet Detachment, Republic of Vietnam. The detachment worked under MACV.

The Navy took other steps to prepare its forces for counterinsurgency and counterguerrilla conflict. In late 1962, two Korean War-era motor torpedo boats were reactivated and armed with 40-millimeter and 20-millimeter guns. Soon afterward, the Navy acquired two modern, Norwegian-built PT boats of the "Nasty" class and refitted them with American equipment. The diesel- powered, fiberglass-hulled, 80-foot-long craft were capable of 41-knot speeds and were considered ideal for the Southeast Asian environment. The fast patrol boat (PTF) force, at the end of 1964 numbering eight craft with the procurement of four additional Nastys, was developed to carry out hit-and-run operations along enemy coasts and to support raids ashore by SEAL units. At the same time, the Navy recommissioned transport submarines Perch (APSS 313) and Sealion (APSS 315) to land and supply SEALs, collect intelligence, and perform rescue operations in enemy waters. To centralize administrative and logistic support of the growing number of SEAL, PT boat, underwater demolition team, and other special units, the Navy created Naval Operations Support Group commands in the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets on 10 October 1963.

In addition, training was reoriented to reflect the new strategic emphasis. The Chief of Naval Operations George W. Anderson, Jr, mandated a Navy-wide effort to prepare personnel for the political-military environment existing in areas such as Southeast Asia. After he issued a formal instruction on 19 July 1962 establishing the Counterinsurgency Education and Training Program, the Navy's major schools provided orientation courses in the military, economic, political, social, and psychological aspects of Communist revolutionary warfare. SEAL and STAT units, prospective advisors, selected fleet staff officers, and mobile training team personnel received rigorous, specialized training. All officers and men were encouraged to better their awareness and understanding of the causes, characteristics, and possible solutions to insurgency movements. Thus, by the end of this period, most naval personnel were at least familiar with the situation in Southeast Asia and the American approach to the region's problems.

Although developing a limited and specialized capability for guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency, primarily with the SEAL and STAT units, the Navy continued to stress that its forces were designed to fulfill many diverse roles. Thus, amphibious units, with their attached Marines, were believed to be as able to carry out small raiding operations along rivers in the heart of the Mekong Delta as to take part in major amphibious assaults on enemy coastlines. Many of the aircraft in the fleet were prepared to carry out reconnaissance or air strikes against the Soviet fleet, should that become necessary, and at the same time to find and attack Communist junks infiltrating munitions into guerrilla-held areas of South Vietnam.

U.S. Navy Direct Support

As a result of President Kennedy's decision in November 1961 to expand the use of American support units in South Vietnam, in "limited partnership" with the South Vietnamese Armed Forces, the U.S. Navy deployed major fleet units to the increasingly hostile region. Beginning in December 1961, Seventh Fleet and Vietnamese Navy units conducted combined surface and air patrol operations from the 17th parallel eastward to the Paracel Islands. The purpose of the patrols was to train the South Vietnamese Sea Force in open sea deployments and to determine the extent of any waterborne infiltration of munitions from North Vietnam. Aided in their surveillance mission by Martin SP-5B Marlin seaplanes based on Taiwan, five minesweepers of Minesweeping Division 73 carried out the first patrols. Faster and more seaworthy destroyer escort ships soon relieved the minesweepers on patrol.

Seeking to verify any Communist infiltration of arms and supplies from Cambodia into the Ca Mau Peninsula and adjacent areas, U.S. and South Vietnamese naval forces mounted a similar effort in the Gulf of Siam. Training the Vietnamese Navy in blue-water surveillance operations also became a goal in this area. Destroyer escorts Wiseman (DE 667) and Walton (DE 361) initiated the combined patrol when they steamed into the gulf on 27 February 1962. For the next three months, U.S. ships' radar vectored South Vietnamese ships toward suspicious contacts for boarding and search. Nonetheless, the gulf's shallow waters precluded combined operations by U.S. and Vietnamese ships, thus allowing little opportunity for training. At the same time, the forces found no appreciable infiltration. Accordingly, U.S. participation in the gulf patrol was ended on 21 May, when the ships of Escort Division 72 departed South Vietnamese waters for their scheduled return to the United States.

Training was more effective on the simultaneously conducted 17th parallel patrol. But there too, the allies did not discover significant infiltration, even after boarding and searching or seizing thousands of suspicious vessels. On 1 August 1962, Minesweeping Division 71 sailed from the area, thus ending the 7-month-long combined patrol. Other Seventh Fleet ships gathered information on the suitability of South Vietnamese beaches for amphibious landings. During January 1962, high-speed transport Cook (APD 130) conducted beach surveys along the South Vietnamese coast from Quang Tri in the north to Vung Tau in the south. In February and March of the following year, Weiss (APD 135) made a similar transit along the South Vietnamese littoral. On several occasions, the Viet Cong fired on shore parties from the ship. Fleet units also transported American support forces to South Vietnam. On 11 December 1961, aircraft ferry Core (T-AKV 13) of the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) arrived in Saigon and offloaded two Army helicopter transportation companies. At the end of January 1962, Card (T-AKV 40) carried another such unit to Subic Bay. There, it was transferred to amphibious assault ship Princeton (LPH 5), LST 629, and LST 630 for the last leg of the journey to Danang. Soon afterward, on 15 April Princeton steamed with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 362 to a point south of the Mekong Delta. Under cover of Hancock's air group, the squadron flew off Princeton to the unit's subsequent base at Soc Trang.

Throughout this period, other Seventh Fleet ships carried out traditional show-the-flag visits to South Vietnam. The units included fleet flagships guided missile cruisers Providence (CLG 6) and Oklahoma City (CLG 5), guided missile destroyer Mahan (DLG 11), and submarine Bluegill.

The Seventh Fleet's air units also supported the Republic of Vietnam in its struggle with the Communist foe. During the 1961 fall crisis, planes from Ticonderoga (CVA 14) conducted photographic reconnaissance over the Central Highlands. In September and October, Douglas A3D-2P Skywarriors and Vought F8U-IP Crusaders flew random missions over suspected infiltration routes. During May of the following year and then from November 1962 to February 1963, Douglas RA-3B Skywarriors of Heavy Photographic Squadron 61 photographed large segments of the country for use in a crash mapmaking program.

Responding to South Vietnamese reports of air intrusions by unidentified aircraft in August 1962, the Navy dispatched an AD-5Q (EA-IF) Skyraider detachment of Air Early Warning Squadron 13 to Tan Son Nhut Airfield near Saigon. From that location, the five-aircraft interceptor team, alternating deployments to South Vietnam with a similar Air Force unit, practiced how to discover and identify aerial intruders. During the deployments of August- September 1962, January-February 1963, and November 1963, the naval air detachment, under the operational control of COMUSMACV, protected South Vietnamese air space from Communist violation.

The growing American military presence in South Vietnam demanded expansion of the logistic and administrative support establishment. Because the Navy had been charged in 1958 with the responsibility for the unified commands in the Pacific area, on 1 July 1962 the naval service established the Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon (HSAS), under the operational control of MACV. By the end of 1964, the headquarters was staffed by 600 mostly naval personnel who provided the MACV and MAAG headquarters and the American forces in the Saigon area with a wide range of support. This included medical and dental services from the Saigon Station Hospital, commissioned on 1 October 1963; accounting and disbursing of funds; religious activities by service chaplains; morale improvement through rest and recuperation (R&R) flights to Asian cities, moving pictures, and USO shows; and management of 32 bachelor officer, enlisted, and transient quarters. In addition, HSAS was responsible for the unloading, storage, and transportation to outlying ports of supplies required by the services. The 100 incountry exchange stores also came under HSAS purview. The physical security of this burgeoning logistic establishment (a difficult task during the dangerous and chaotic months of 1964) was another responsibility of the naval command. By the end of the year, HSAS was the primary logistic command for an American military contingent in South Vietnam that totaled 23,000 men and women.

The worsening situation in South Vietnam during 1963 prompted measures to evacuate Americans in the event of a general emergency. Saigon street demonstrations by Buddhists and other Vietnamese disaffected with the Diem government occurred throughout the summer. The public self-immolation of several Buddhist monks drew world attention, as did the government's heavy-handed counteractions. When the political turmoil in the capital reached a peak at the end of August 1963, the Seventh Fleet deployed the Amphibious Ready Group and the Marine Special Landing Force to a point off Vung Tau, where they prepared to take out the 4,600 American noncombatants in the Saigon area. Although the crisis in the capital abated, the relief was only temporary. In response to the overthrow of the Diem government on 1 November, U.S. naval forces again concentrated off South Vietnam and prepared to ferry evacuees by helicopter from Saigon to transport them by boat from the nearby Vung Tau Peninsula. When the political unrest in the capital once again quickly subsided, the fleet steamed from the South Vietnamese coast and resumed normal operations.

Expanding Operations into North Vietnam and Laos

Despite material aid, advisory assistance, and direct support by American military units, by 1964 the failure of the counterinsurgency struggle in South Vietnam was apparent. The Communists exploited the crisis with attacks on South Vietnamese regular and paramilitary forces and with stepped-up infiltration of reinforcements and supplies, primarily through Laos. To curtail this external direction and armed support, the new administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson adopted a different strategy. Its intention: to signal the North Vietnamese leadership, through increasingly severe military pressure applied in Laos and North Vietnam, that the United States would not abide the Communist efforts against the South Vietnamese and Laotian governments.

The Navy was a key component of this broader counterinsurgency effort. One of the initial measures was a series of maritime harassment operations in North Vietnam begun in February 1964 under Operation Plan 34A. South Vietnamese "frogmen" and boat crews carried out the action using the American PTF motor torpedo boats reactivated or bought in 1963. A U.S. Naval Advisory Detachment established in Danang maintained the boats and trained the Vietnamese Navy personnel. Beginning in May a major part of the Seventh Fleet was deployed off the South Vietnamese coast to show U.S. determination to preserve South Vietnam and the now pro-American Laotian government of Souvanna Phouma. For the remainder of the year, up to three carrier task groups steamed at the soon-to-be famous Yankee Station, the operational staging area at 16N 110E. Aside from a naval presence, carriers supported U.S. policy with low-level aerial reconnaissance of suspected Communist infiltration routes in eastern and southern Laos. The Navy's participation in this joint Navy-Air Force operation, designated Yankee Team, was inaugurated on 21 May by two Chance-Vought RF-8A Crusader photo reconnaissance planes from Kitty Hawk (CVA 63). The aircraft discovered a Communist military presence in the Plain of Jars region, from both a photographic record and direct hit on one plane by antiaircraft fire. Between 21 May and 9 June, 130 Navy and Air Force flights over Laos confirmed the existence of a North Vietnamese infiltration system in the southern panhandle.

On the 6th, Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann became the first American aviator taken prisoner in the long Southeast Asian conflict when his Crusader was shot down over eastern Laos. Held captive by the Pathet Lao for 86 days, Klusmann managed to escape and make his way to friendly forces. The day after Klusmann's shoot-down, escort aircraft were added to reconnaissance missions with orders to retaliate against antiaircraft guns that opened fire on American planes. In spite of this protection, on 7 June enemy gunners downed the F-8D of Commander Doyle W. Lynn, who was rescued the next day after a well-executed search and rescue effort. Although Air Force aircraft hit enemy antiaircraft installations at Xieng Khouang in retaliation on 9 June, the Yankee Team operation was temporarily called off to assess the situation.

When resumed on the 14th, reconnaissance flights were conducted from a higher altitude and away from the more lethal areas of Laos. These steps limited losses to two Air Force planes for the next six months, but also muted the intended message of U.S. resolve and lessened the quality of the intelligence. RF-8A Crusaders, RA-3B Skywarriors, and newly deployed North American RA-5C Vigilantes carried out the aerial reconnaissance of Laos from carriers in the South China Sea. The Navy's aircraft flew more than half of the 198 photographic, 171 escort, and 81 weather missions of the Yankee Team program. In addition to acquiring useful intelligence of enemy activity in the Plain of Jars and on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the officers and men of the Seventh Fleet task force gained practical experience in the command, conduct, and support of intended operations. This experience would prove beneficial as the fleet was increasingly drawn into the Southeast Asian conflict.

Gulf of Tonkin Incidents

Even as the fleet shows of force and armed reconnaissance operations were initiated, steps were taken to improve the prospects of the 34A maritime program against North Vietnam. Lack of information on North Vietnamese coastal defenses, including the enemy's patrol vessel disposition, bases, and coastal radar sites, frustrated operations by the South Vietnamese raiders during early 1964. Accordingly, the U.S. Navy was directed to focus its longstanding patrol along the Chinese Communist, North Korean, and North Vietnamese coastlines (named the Desoto Patrol) on the collection of intelligence relevant to the 34A program. Authorized to approach no closer than four miles to islands off the North Vietnamese littoral, destroyer John R. Craig (DD 885) cruised along the coast from 25 February to 6 March 1964. Foggy conditions in the coastal waters hindered the patrol mission, so Commander in Chief, Pacific ordered subordinate naval commands to dispatch another destroyer to the patrol area. Maddox (DD 731), with Captain John J. Herrick, Commander Destroyer Division 192, embarked, was directed to obtain intelligence on coastal geography and hydrography, defensive installations, naval forces, and junk traffic, especially in the area around the Hon Me, Hon Nieu, and Hon Matt islands and off Vinh Son.

As Maddox prepared to steam into the Gulf of Tonkin at the end of July, the 34A boat force for the first time was authorized to conduct offshore bombardment of targets in North Vietnam. Shortly after midnight on the 30th, local time, four PTFs shelled the sites on the islands of Hon Me and Hon Nieu. Their mission completed, the PTFs returned to Danang the following morning, passing Maddox between 0820 and 0845, then refueling near the 17th parallel. Observers in Maddox sighted the unidentified boats. During 31 July and 1 August Maddox cruised uneventfully along a predesignated track in international waters off the North Vietnamese coast. However, in the early morning hours of 2 August, Captain Herrick learned from intelligence that North Vietnamese naval forces planned to attack his destroyer that day. Directed to continue the patrol, Maddox reached a point east of Thanh Hoa about 1045. Two hours later, lookouts and radars on Maddox picked up five North Vietnamese naval craft north of Hon Me. Even though the destroyer headed away from the area in a northeasterly direction, at about 1400 the enemy force was ordered to carry out a torpedo attack on the ship. Between 1500 and 1600, North Vietnamese boats closed on the ship as Captain Herrick increased speed, headed for the mouth of the gulf, called General Quarters, and radioed for air support. At 1608, after firing three warning shots with her 5-inch, 38-caliber guns at the fast-approaching vessels, by then identified as three P-4 motor torpedo boats in column, Maddox opened fire. For the next 20 minutes the ship maneuvered to avoid torpedoes and raked the still closing PTs with gunfire. Passing astern of the ship, all three P-4s were hit. Struck by only one 14.5-millimeter round, Maddox headed out to sea as four F-8 Crusaders from Ticonderoga arrived overhead and attacked the now retiring North Vietnamese craft. One of the P-4s, already slowed by damage, was set afire and left dead in the water; the boat later sank. This short, sharp naval action was only the first round in a new confrontation with North Vietnam. Within hours of the engagement, Maddox, accompanied by destroyer Turner Joy (DD 951), was ordered to resume the interrupted patrol in international waters around Hon Me. Washington wished to reassert traditional freedom of the seas and to avoid any appearance of backing down in the face of the Communist challenge. This decision was made despite intelligence reports from various sources that the North Vietnamese, who apparently linked the Desoto Patrol with the 34A operation, again might attack. The two destroyers headed back into the Gulf of Tonkin toward the North Vietnamese coast at first light on 3 August. Between 1600 and 1727 the ships turned north, passed by Hon Me, and retired to the east for a nighttime steaming area in the middle of the gulf. During that time, 240 miles to the south in Danang, the 34A maritime force got underway for another operation in North Vietnamese waters. Around midnight on 3 August, three South Vietnamese-crewed Nastys reached their operating area off Cape Doc, 95 miles south of Hon Me. The PTFs shelled a radar facility at Vinh Son and a security post on the south bank of the Ron River. Their mission accomplished, the boats withdrew and made for Danang, the last PTF putting in at 0715 on 4 August.

Having spent a routine night out in the gulf, Maddox and Turner Joy changed course to the west and headed for North Vietnamese coastal waters at 0700 on the 4th. All that afternoon the destroyers cruised to the north and south of Hon Me along a track that came no closer than 16 miles to the North Vietnamese coast. Meanwhile, the enemy's naval forces were ordered to prepare for military operations that night. As they had the previous night, Maddox and Turner Joy retired to an area in the middle of the gulf to await the dawn.

Beginning at 2041, the ships picked up fast approaching contacts on their radars. Captain Herrick ordered his destroyers to change course in order to avoid what he believed were hostile surface craft. At 2239, when one of the contacts closed to 7,000 yards, Captain Herrick directed Turner Joy to open fire. For the next two hours the American destroyers, covered overhead by carrier aircraft, evaded what lookouts and sonar rated as torpedoes and fired on contacts, visually identified by Turner Joy crewmen as P-4 motor torpedo boats. Thereafter, the ships headed for the Ticonderoga carrier task group steaming around the entrance to the gulf.

As they had on 2 August, American civilian and military decision makers were kept informed of developments on the 4th. Reports of a North Vietnamese attack streamed into Washington along with a message from Herrick that doubted the validity of some of that information. Since 1964, several other witnesses to the events in the Tonkin Gulf, including later Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, have expressed their belief that no North Vietnamese attack took place on the night of 4 August.
However, once they received additional information from Herrick's command and important intelligence from other sources, U.S. leaders were convinced that North Vietnamese naval forces had attacked U.S. ships in international waters. Accordingly, President Johnson ordered U.S. naval forces to prepare for a retaliatory air strike against North Vietnam and that it be carried out at 0800 local time on 5 August. Although the short warning time and operational difficulties delayed the actual launch of aircraft from Ticonderoga and Constellation (CVA 64), both positioned in the South China Sea, 16 aircraft from the first carrier struck the petroleum storage complex near Vinh at 1320. Other Ticonderoga flights attacked the enemy Swatow gunboats and P-4 PT boats at Quang Khe and Ben Thuy. Douglas A-l Skyraiders and A-4 Skyhawks from Constellation's Carrier Air Wing 14 then bombed and strafed the North Vietnamese naval craft near their bases at Hon Gai and in the Lach Chao Estuary. The results were impressive. At Vinh, North Vietnam's chief fuel facility, 90 percent of the storage capacity went up in flames. At the nearby Ben Thuy naval base, three craft were sunk. The naval aviators sank one boat and damaged five others at Quang Khe. Under intense antiaircraft fire, the Skyraiders and Skyhawks from Constellation sank or disabled six Swatows and P-4s in Hon Gai's inner harbor. Unfortunately, the A-4 of Lieutenant (jg) Everett Alvarez, Jr., was shot down and he became the first naval aviator interned in North Vietnamese prisons, where he spent the next eight and a half years. Other Constellation attack aircraft en route the Lach Chao Estuary sank or damaged five enemy craft near Hon Me. The two-carrier, 67-plane attack destroyed 7 enemy vessels, severely damaged 10 more, and inflicted lesser damage to another 16. However, Lieutenant (jg) Richard C. Sather went down with his crippled aircraft. He was the first of many naval aviators who died in the line of duty over Southeast Asia.

Soon after these actions in the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States Congress took a step that would have long-term influence on the role of the United States in Southeast Asia. On 7 August, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, as proposed by the Johnson administration, was passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and approved in the Senate by an 88 to 2 margin. Based upon the events in the Gulf of Tonkin, this measure authorized the President to use the U.S. Armed Forces to assist in the defense of the non-Communist nations of Southeast Asia. This resolution served as the legal basis for the armed support provided by the United States to South Vietnam throughout the war.

Soon after these incidents, concern grew in Washington that U.S. actions in the gulf might unnecessarily escalate the conflict. Thus, despite recommendations from Pacific naval leaders to maintain pressure on the North Vietnamese, the Johnson administration gradually decreased American presence in those waters. The 34A maritime operations along the North Vietnamese coast were postponed until early October 1964 and then conducted only sporadically through December. Operational problems and foul weather negated the program's effectiveness.

Not until mid-September did American leaders authorize another Desoto Patrol into the gulf. On the 17th and 18th, Morton (DD 948) and Richard E. Edwards (DD 950) cruised along a track no closer than 20 miles to the North Vietnamese mainland without incident. On the night of 18 September, however, both destroyers opened fire on what their crews believed were attacking high-speed surface vessels. While a subsequent naval investigation concluded that at least one unidentified, hostile-acting fast craft was in the area, the validity of an attack was called into question by the lack of firm evidence. Following this incident, never again were Desoto Patrols conducted in the Gulf of Tonkin. Thus, from a military standpoint, the naval actions in August initiated a temporary downturn rather than an escalation in the Southeast Asian crisis.

The Conflict in Transition

During the fall of 1964, the Johnson administration refrained from actions that might precipitate a broader confrontation. When the Viet Cong mortared the American military barracks at South Vietnam's Bien Hoa Airbase on 1 November, killing 4 men and wounding 72 others, a preplanned reprisal air strike against North Vietnam was not authorized. Similarly, the President denied permission for a retaliatory air strike when the enemy sabotaged the American Bachelor Officers' Quarters in Saigon's Brink Hotel on Christmas Eve. Over one hundred Americans, Australians, and Vietnamese were injured and two Americans were killed. In each of these instances, major Seventh Fleet units had sortied into the South China Sea prepared to launch air strikes, evacuate American dependents in danger, or take any number of contingent actions.

Despite the relative lull in active military operations, U.S. naval leaders anticipated an intensification of the conflict in Southeast Asia. They accelerated preparation of the fleet for the limited conventional war that national strategists had long studied as the logical response to localized aggression. During late 1964 and early 1965, 15 ships (1 attack carrier, 3 submarines, 10 destroyer types, and 1 LST) augmented the Seventh Fleet. Another ten ships were scheduled for deployment. Early in 1965 the Navy shifted MSTS passenger, cargo, and tanker ships to the Western Pacific, reactivated National Defense Reserve Fleet auxiliary ships, and chartered U.S. and foreign merchantmen to establish an efficient logistic pipeline to Southeast Asia. The number of aircraft in the fleet replacement pool was doubled and a patrol squadron, equipped with Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, was relocated to the Western Pacific. The latest material, including improved Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles, the new antiradar Shrike air-to-ground missile, and modernized 20- millimeter cannon were rushed to the fleet. Stocks of bombs, missiles, and other ordnance were increased and the replacement process streamlined. Naval communications were upgraded. Intelligence and information on enemy forces and targets in North Vietnam were updated and provided to the fleet. Construction of additional fuel storage tanks, ammunition magazines, warehouses, hangars, and ship berthing facilities was begun at the U.S. Navy's installations on Guam, Okinawa, and especially at Subic Bay in the Philippines.

While naval forces prepared for extended combat, the Johnson administration reinvigorated its program to dissuade the North Vietnamese from supporting insurgency in Southeast Asia and chose Laos as the locus of this effort. As part of this renewed campaign, on 17 December 1964 A-1H Skyraiders escorted by McDonnell-Douglas F-4B Phantoms and followed by RF-8A photo reconnaissance aircraft from Ranger (CVA 61)) conducted the Navy's first armed reconnaissance mission over eastern Laos. In this joint Navy-Air Force program, named Barrel Roll, American aircraft flew over likely infiltration routes and attacked Communist supply vehicles or other targets of opportunity. If none was sighted, the flight was authorized to strike preselected storage buildings, antiaircraft emplacements, and related facilities of a military nature. The military objective, however, was considered secondary to the political one of sending Hanoi a message of U.S. determination to prevail in Southeast Asia. Analyzing the program at the beginning of 1965, U.S. leaders concluded that the small-scale military effort had failed to deter the enemy. As a result, the joint Barrel Roll force was redirected toward key transportation bottlenecks or "chokeplanes points." On 28 February, Skyraiders and Skyhawks from Coral Sea carried out the first such attack with a concentrated strike on Mu Gia Pass near the North Vietnamese-Laotian border. After an Air Force attack on critical Nape Pass, early in March, Hancock planes again struck Mu Gia. In both operations the logistic routes were cut at critical points and delayed- action bombs made the areas difficult for the enemy to traverse. Still, the North Vietnamese soon managed to repair the roads, construct bypasses, and maintain the logistic flow. By 23 March 1965, Seventh Fleet aircraft had carried out half of the 43 Barrel Roll missions with 134 strike, 28 flak suppression, 56 combat air patrol, 32 aerial photographic, and 25 escort sorties. Nonetheless, American military and civilian leaders concluded that the overriding political objective of the campaign, to deter North Vietnamese subversion of South Vietnam and Laos, had not been achieved.

Now convinced that even stronger actions were required, the Johnson administration reacted vigorously to Viet Cong mortaring of an American advisors', compound at Pleiku, South Vietnam, on 7 February 1965. Johnson ordered a one-time, "tit for tat" reprisal strike on enemy barracks in North Vietnam. That same day Coral Sea's Air Wing 15 and Hancock's Air Wing 21 conducted Flaming Dart I, a multiplane attack on Dong Hoi.

On the 1Oth, carrier forces were ordered to respond to yet another Communist attack, this time the sabotage of the American quarters in Qui Nhon, which resulted in 54 casualties. The following day, as the U.S. and South Vietnamese Air Forces hit Vu Con, 95 aircraft from Ranger, Hancock, and Coral Sea, in Flaming Dart II, bombed and strafed enemy barracks at Chanh Hoa. But even as the Flaming Dart operations were underway, U.S. leaders decided that continued Communist resistance demanded resort to the last stage in the program of military persuasion, a sustained and increasingly intensive bombing effort in North Vietnam. Accordingly, on 2 March, three weeks after Flaming Dart II, the U.S. and South Vietnamese Air Forces opened the Rolling Thunder campaign with strikes on Xom Bang and Quang Khe. Because of heavy weather, international concerns, and the unstable political situation in South Vietnam, the second operation was delayed for another 12 days. Then, on the 15th, the Navy joined the fray when 64 Skyhawks and Skyraiders and 30 supporting planes from Task Force 77 carriers Hancock and Ranger hit the Phu Qui ammunition depot.

The Rolling Thunder bombing campaign and the 34A operation in North Vietnam, the Yankee Team and Barrel Roll programs in Laos, the 34A operations, and the fleet's presence in the South China Sea would continue for years. By mid-March of 1965, however, American leaders concluded that these actions would not compel the North Vietnamese and the subordinate Viet Cong and Pathet Lao to forego their drive for control of Southeast Asia. Indeed, the enemy attacks on the Desoto Patrol, stepped up Communist activity in South Vietnam and Laos, and infiltration of regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units southward revealed Hanoi's intention to turn up the heat. Having exhausted most of the options in the campaign of coercion initiated in early 1964 without achieving the desired result, the Johnson administration sought a new strategy in Southeast Asia.

Chapter 3

2009-11-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 3: The Years of Combat, 1965-1968

By March 1965, the government and armed forces of South Vietnam were on the verge of collapse under the weight of the enemy's political-military offensive. Since the year-long American punitive campaign failed to deter the North Vietnamese, the Johnson administration decided that a massive effort was required to strengthen the South's stand against its Communist foe. The regular and paramilitary units were especially in need of increased American assistance. But in a departure from previous assumptions, U.S. leaders concluded that a rebuilding program would succeed only behind a shield of American military power. At the same time, they intended to make the cost of continued military action increasingly prohibitive for the Communists. In practical terms, this meant the use of the American Armed Forces 1) to interdict the infiltration of enemy supplies and reinforcements into the South and 2) to destroy Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units in-country so that a renewed nation- building effort could proceed and, it was hoped, prosper.

This new direction in American strategy jelled during a meeting in Washington on 15 March 1965 of the U.S. foreign policy and military establishment. The President authorized the Pacific Command to carry out a systematic bombing campaign against North Vietnamese lines of communication, military installations, and logistic facilities south of the 20th parallel. Thereafter, the Rolling Thunder program focused less on influencing the enemy's will than on hurting his actual physical capability to support the military venture in the South. Much the same occurred with the Yankee Team and Barrel Roll operations in Laos. The Seventh Fleet's naval air forces were given somewhat greater latitude in target, ordnance, and aircraft selection, in operational control, and in other tactical considerations. Reflecting the desire to concentrate greater resources against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, on 3 April the southern Laotian Panhandle was separated from the Barrel Roll operational area in northeastern Laos and designated Steel Tiger.

Even as carrier air squadrons moved to staunch the flow of men and supplies through southern North Vietnam and Laos, other fleet units moved to cut the enemy's seaborne infiltration into South Vietnam. This measure initially was motivated by discovery of a 100-ton North Vietnamese trawler unloading munitions on a beach in South Vietnam's Vung Ro Bay on 16 February 1965. Later evidence confirmed that since late 1963 the enemy had mounted a significant coastal infiltration effort. Meeting in Saigon from 3 to 10 March, representatives from MACV, the U.S. Navy, and the South Vietnamese Navy hammered out details of the establishment of a combined coastal patrol. The operation, named Market Time, was intended to complete the cordon being drawn around the South Vietnamese battleground. The decision for American forces to join in combat with the enemy in South Vietnam was also reached during this period. At first, ground troops were considered only as protection for the vital American air and naval installations at Danang against Viet Cong and regular North Vietnamese attack. For this purpose, on 26 February President Johnson authorized the deployment to Danang of two Marine battalion landing teams, a medium helicopter squadron, and headquarters elements of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

At 0600 on 8 March 1965, Rear Admiral Donald W. Wulzen, commander of the Seventh Fleet's Amphibious Task Force, issued the traditional order to "land the landing force." Soon afterward, Vancouver (LPD 2), Mount McKinley (AGC 7), Henrico (APA 45), and Union (AKA 106) began disembarking Marines for the movement ashore. When the 3d Battalion, 9th Marines crossed the beach between 0902 and 0918, it became the first battalion-size American ground combat unit deployed ashore in the extended Southeast Asian conflict. Even before the full 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade had been deployed to Danang, American leaders were considering the use of these Marine and following Army units in active operations against the Viet Cong. The passive defense mission was shelved on 1 April 1965 when President Johnson authorized the Marines at Danang to move out and engage Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in combat.

Coupled with this decision was approval during March for U.S. carrier aircraft to strike enemy forces in South Vietnam. On 15 April planes from Midway, Coral Sea, and Yorktown (CVS 10) conducted the first such attack against Viet Cong positions northwest of Saigon. The ships sailed in a new carrier operating area southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, at 11N 110E, known as Dixie Station. An aircraft carrier was constantly stationed at Dixie Station between June 1965 and August 1966.

The Naval Command in Southeast Asia

As the Navy entered heavy combat in Southeast Asia between 1965 and 1968, a chain of command evolved which reflected the complex character of the war. In theory, Commander in Chief, Pacific was the commander of all American forces in Asia, including those assigned to Commander U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (COMUSMACV). However, as the conflict in South Vietnam intensified, COMUSMACV came to exert the greatest influence over in-country operations. At the same time, CINCPAC's attention was occupied by the need to control and coordinate the bombing campaign in North Vietnam and Laos, the massive transpacific logistic effort, and other American military activities in the Far East.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet was the naval component of the Pacific Command and as such directed the Navy's activities in that ocean. Subordinate to Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT) was Commander Seventh Fleet, who conducted those naval operations in Southeast Asia primarily external to South Vietnam. The fleet's Attack Carrier Striking Force (Task Force 77) mounted from the South China Sea the aerial interdiction campaign in Laos and North Vietnam. Commander Seventh Fleet's cruiser and destroyer units hunted the enemy's logistic craft along the North Vietnamese coast, bombarded targets ashore, and provided naval gunfire support to allied forces in South Vietnam. The Amphibious Force (Task Force 76) and its attached Marine units conducted numerous over-the-beach and helicopter landings in South Vietnam in search of the elusive Viet Cong. The Mobile Logistic Support Force (Task Force 73) labored to keep the fleet's combatants on station and engaged with the enemy.

The Carrier Force

From the South China Sea, the Seventh Fleet's Attack Carrier Strike Force mounted the Rolling Thunder bombing and Blue Tree tactical reconnaissance operations in North Vietnam; the Barrel Roll, Steel Tiger, and Tiger Hound bombing and Yankee Team reconnaissance efforts in Laos; and the ground support mission in South Vietnam. Except during the period in 1965 and 1966 when the aircraft carrier supporting operations in the South sailed at Dixie Station, the carrier task force was deployed at Yankee Station (after April 1966 at 1730'N 10830'E). Generally, before August 1966, two or three carriers operated in Task Force 77, and after that date the number was often three or four. On each ship a carrier air wing controlled 70 to 100 aircraft, usually grouped in two fighter and three attack squadrons and smaller detachments. However, the number depended on the size and class of the carriers, which varied from the large-deck 65,000-ton Forrestal-class ships to the 27,000-ton, World War II Essex-class ships.

The Navy's first-line aircraft for strike operations included the maneuverable A-4 Skyhawk, A-l Skyraider, A-7 Corsair II, and the all-weather, day-night Grumman A-6 Intruder. The workhorse F-4 Phantom II, in addition to its attack role, flew fighter escort, as did the F-8 Crusader. Aerial reconnaissance missions were carried out by the heavy RA-5 Vigilante, the older RA-3B Skywarrior, and reconfigured Crusaders and Phantoms. Intruder, Skyraider, and Skywarrior variants also provided electronic countermeasure support in an enemy air defense environment that became increasingly lethal. Detection of enemy MiG's approaching the fleet, guidance of U.S. aircraft to and from their targets, and airborne communications support were all functions of the versatile Grumman E-2 Hawkeye. Ship-based helicopters such as the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King and Kaman UH-2 Sea Sprite were key components of the search and rescue (SAR) system established to retrieve downed fliers both at sea and in enemy territory. Helicopters also transported ammunition and supplies from logistic ships to the combatants on station in a relatively new procedure called vertical replenishment. The UH-34 Seahorse Boling-Vertol, CH-46 Sea Knight, and Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion troop-carrying helicopters provided essential mobility to the fleet's Marine units.

Fleet aircraft carried a vast array of ordnance, from Korean-era bombs to advanced missiles and precision guided munitions. For their strikes in North Vietnam, Laos, and South Vietnam, attack aircraft dropped 250-, 500-, 1,000-, and 2,000-pound general purpose bombs, napalm bombs, and magnetic mines, and fired 5-inch Zuni and 2.75-inch high-explosive rockets. The carrier aircraft used Bullpup air-to-ground weapons, the newly developed Walleye TV-guided bomb, and the Shrike antiradar missile to great effect. Fighters were equipped with highly effective Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles and 20-millimeter machine guns. This array of ordnance helped to restrict enemy movement on the ground and to achieve strategic air superiority over coastal North Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin.

Although air power was the cutting edge of Task Force 77, surface ships were essential to the interdiction campaign in North Vietnam and Laos. In Operation Sea Dragon, begun in October 1966, cruisers, destroyers, and for one month battleship New Jersey (BB 62) ranged the North Vietnamese littoral sinking Communist supply craft, shelling coastal batteries and radar sites, and complementing the aerial interdiction effort by bombarding the infiltration routes ashore. While at first restricted to coastal waters south of 1731'N, by February 1967 the Sea Dragon force was authorized to operate as far north as the 20th parallel. This area was constricted in April 1968 when the bombing halt ended American combat activity north of the 19th parallel.

Steaming generally in pairs, the two to four American and Australian destroyers and one cruiser worked with carrier-based spotter planes, such as the A-l Skyraider and Grumman S-2 Tracker, to find, identify, and destroy infiltrating vessels and shore targets. Often, North Vietnamese coastal batteries fired back. Although several of the 19 ships that were hit required repairs at shipyards in Japan and the Philippines, no vessel was sunk during the two-year-long Sea Dragon operation. Damaged ships were quickly replaced on the gun line and the coastal deployment was maintained. Periodically, this group reinforced the Seventh Fleet cruisers and destroyers providing naval gunfire support to allied forces in South Vietnam. The naval surface group conducted the Sea Dragon effort until the end of October 1968, when American combat operations in North Vietnam ceased.

The carrier task force at Yankee Station was assisted by other surface combatants as well. Around each aircraft carrier, two to four destroyers steamed in a protective screen to defend the ship from any submarine or air threat. To provide the deployed task force with distant warning of air attack, beginning in April 1965 the fleet created a radar picket station between the Communist mainland and Task Force 77 sailing in Tonkin Gulf. Normally, two destroyers stayed on alert at this forward station. In July of the following year, this deployment was formalized with establishment of PIRAZ (positive identification radar advisory zone), which entailed locating and tracking all planes over the eastern regions of North Vietnam and the gulf by a positioned surface ship equipped with advanced radar and communications. The unit also vectored naval aircraft to and from their targets and warned them of approaching MiGs.

Throughout the Rolling Thunder campaign, the Navy maintained units in the Gulf of Tonkin to retrieve downed fliers from the sea and from North Vietnam and Laos. Normally, two destroyers were deployed to the forward, North SAR Station (20N 107E) and another two to the South SAR Station (19N 106E). To carry out rescues in North Vietnam's lethal environment, one UH-2 Sea Sprite helicopter equipped with self-sealing fuel tanks, machine guns, and armor was nested on board a ship at each station. Another four similarly armed and armored Sikorsky SH-3A Sea Kings (the primary rescue helicopter) were based in one of the Yankee Station carriers. During major air operations, one or two SH-3As orbited over the destroyers. Each of the other aircraft carriers carried a detachment of three unreconfigured UH-2 helicopters devoted to sea rescues. Air Force Sikorsky HH-3E helicopters, Grumman HU-16 amphibian aircraft, and A-l Skyraider escorts also operated in the gulf. To provide the SAR helicopters with enemy ground fire suppression, communications, and other support during operations, the fleet kept four A-l, A-4, or A-7 attack aircraft airborne and ready for action. Under the overall control of Commander Task Force 77, the SAR Coordinator directed the Navy's effort from a North SAR Station destroyer. This officer guided the actions of the airborne on-scene commander and arranged for additional support when it was needed.

The fleet's search and rescue forces saved many American aviators from death or captivity. From 6 June 1964 to 1 November 1968, 458 of the 912 naval air crewmen downed as a result of combat or noncombat operations in North Vietnam, Laos, or at sea were recovered. While the retrieval of aviators from crash sites on land, when at all possible, took somewhat longer, the rescue at sea usually occurred within 20 to 30 minutes of the aircraft loss. The effort was not without cost, however, for 26 men were killed, wounded, missing, or made prisoner, and 33 aircraft were destroyed during SAR operations. This measure, however, returned valuable air crews to the fleet and improved the morale of naval aviators, who knew the Navy would do its utmost to rescue them from hostile territory or waters.

This psychological support was crucial because the air units of Task Force 77 carried out their missions in one of the world's most difficult operational environments. During the winter Northeast Monsoon from November to March, the weather in the Gulf of Tonkin and over most of North Vietnam is characterized by dense clouds and heavy rainfall. Conditions are especially harsh during a weather phenomenon known as the Crachin. Thick clouds with ceilings as low as 500 feet blanket the area and are accompanied by fog and persistent drizzle. Conversely, during the summer Southwest Monsoon from May to September, the skies are usually clear and dry. These general weather patterns are almost reversed in South Vietnam and Laos. This situation allowed shifting of air resources to more favorable areas. Still, throughout the year high temperatures and humidity, typhoons, tropical storms, and thundershowers increased the difficulty and danger of operating in Southeast Asia. In addition, the enemy also used foul flying weather to his advantage.

Enemy air defenses caused aviators more concern for by 1968 the Communists had developed a defensive system that was well-armed, coordinated, and supported. On the ground throughout North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Laos, the enemy trained skyward thousands of small arms, automatic weapons, and antiaircraft artillery. North Vietnam alone contained 8,000 weapons of many calibers, concentrated around key targets. Beginning in early 1965, surface-to-air missiles (SAM) were added to this defensive arsenal, and by early 1968 over 300 SAM sites dotted the North Vietnamese countryside. The entire defensive system was tied together with a sophisticated network of communications, air alert stations, and early warning, ground control-interceptor, and fire control radars. New and replacement weapons and ammunition were amply supplied by sympathetic Communist countries. The loss in Southeast Asia of 421 fixed-wing aircraft from 1965 to 1968 attested to the strength of these defenses. The aviators killed, missing, or made prisoner totaled 450. The operating environment was especially dangerous in North Vietnam, where 382 Navy planes were shot down, 58 of them by SAMs.

Although only accounting for eight of the Navy's aircraft during this three-year period, the North Vietnamese air units posed a constant threat to U.S. operations, thus requiring a diversion of vital resources for protection. The enemy air force varied from 25 to 100 MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 jet fighters. The country's jet-capable airfields included Gia Lam, Phuc Yen, Cat Bi, Kep, Kien An, Yen Bai, Son Tay, Bai Thuong, Hoa Lac, and Vinh. The U.S. Navy engaged in its first air-to-air encounter of the war on 3 April 1965, when several MiG-15s unsuccessfully attacked a flight of F-8 Crusaders near Thanh Hoa. On 17 June, two Midway F-4 Phantoms registered the first kills in the long conflict when they downed two MiG-17s south of Hanoi. By the end of the Rolling Thunder effort on 1 November 1968, naval aviators had destroyed 23 MiG-17s and 8 MiG-21s.

Rolling Thunder

Already underway in early 1965, the naval air campaign in Southeast Asia gradually grew in scope and intensity. The specific objectives of the Rolling Thunder bombing program against North Vietnam were to (1) interdict the enemy's lines of communication into Laos and South Vietnam, (2) destroy his physical ability to support the war in Southeast Asia, and (3) deprive him of external military assistance without triggering Soviet or Chinese Communist military intervention. Throughout 1965 the air operations of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, as authorized by Washington, progressed northward toward Hanoi and then northwest of the capital. American aircraft were prohibited from entering restricted zones within 30 nautical miles of the Chinese border, 30 nautical miles of the center of Hanoi, and 10 nautical miles of the port of Haiphong. Within authorized zones, U.S. air units mounted two types of attacks: (1) multicarrier "Alpha" and smaller strikes on key military and transportation targets that U.S. planners had identified the previous year; and (2) searches by aircraft along infiltration routes for targets of opportunity such as trucks, trains, ferries, river craft, transportation and supply facilities, small bridges, radar installations, and antiaircraft sites. Other carrier aircraft supported these operations with Blue Tree tactical reconnaissance flights and anti-SAM strikes called Iron Hand.

Until late 1965, the Navy and the Air Force were authorized to carry out operations every three hours on an alternating basis. For the fleet's part, each day one carrier launched strikes in the 12 hours before 1200 and another one in the 12 hours afterward. This complicated system was altered in November when the Navy and Air Force designated six geographical areas, or route packages, in which each service alternated strikes on a weekly basis.

Between 2 March and 24 December 1965, when President Johnson ordered a temporary bombing halt in North Vietnam, the Seventh Fleet's carrier aircraft flew 31,000 combat and combat support sorties, dropped 64,000 bombs, and fired 128,500 rockets in an effort to interdict the enemy's lines of communication to the South.

Although North Vietnam was the main theater of action, South Vietnam had first priority on the call for the fleet's air resources. During 1965 and 1966, owing to the scarcity of the jet-capable airfields ashore for Air Force squadrons, the Navy flew one-third of the sorties in South Vietnam. The missions included strikes on Viet Cong rear areas, close air support of friendly ground troops, reconnaissance, and cover for amphibious operations. The Dixie Station deployment also prepared naval air units under combat conditions for the more dangerous environment in the North. Still, 14 aircraft were lost over South Vietnam when carriers operated from Dixie Station.

Although the enemy in the North used the bombing pause, which lasted until 30 January 1966, to strengthen defenses, reestablish supply facilities, and disperse resources, Task Force 77 also made use of the lull. Naval air units bombed and strafed Communist forces and infiltration routes in Laos. More sorties were conducted in Laos during January 1966 than in the last six months of 1965. On one such operation, Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Dengler, flying a Skyraider, was shot down and imprisoned for five months by the Pathet Lao. Finally escaping, he evaded his pursuers for 23 days before an Air Force helicopter rescued him near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). He and Lieutenant Klusmann, who broke out in 1964, were the only two naval aviators to escape from captivity during the war.

Strikes on fixed targets and armed route reconnaissance were resumed in North Vietnam during the first half of 1966. Operational control was improved on 1 April when the Air Force was assigned responsibility for strikes in Route Packages 5 and 6A, the closest areas to that service's airfields in Thailand, and COMUSMACV for operations in Route Package 1, adjacent to the critical northern provinces of South Vietnam. The Navy assumed control of operations in the heavily populated, militarily vital coastal Route Packages 2, 3, 4, and 6B. This measure enabled American aviators to become thoroughly familiar with the special characteristics of their operating areas and lessened command confusion.

In June, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed concentration on North Vietnam's vital petroleum storage and distribution system. Between 29 June and mid-July, planes from Ranger, Constellation, and Hancock hit the major tank farms of Haiphong, Hanoi, and Bac Giang, destroying more than half of the enemy's oil stocks and forcing dispersion of the remainder throughout the country.

In what seemed a replay of the August 1964 attack on Maddox, on 1 July 1966 an F-4B pilot on combat air patrol spotted three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats making for guided missile frigate Coontz (DLG 8) and destroyer Rogers (DD 876). The American ships then steamed at the North SAR Station 55 miles east of Haiphong. Within 30 minutes of the sighting, around 1600 local time, Phantom IIs from Constellation began a rocket, bomb, and gun attack on the boats. The North Vietnamese ineffectually launched torpedoes against the ships, then 10 miles away, and turned for home. Hancock aircraft soon joined the fray, sinking all three enemy craft. The destroyers rescued 19 North Vietnamese Navy survivors who were interned in Danang and then returned to their homeland in 1967 and 1968 in exchange for U.S. prisoners.

From July to December 1966, the enemy attempted to disperse his petroleum resources. Naval aviators then went after fuel-laden trucks, railroad cars, barges, and smaller storage facilities. At the same time, multicarrier strikes devastated critical North Vietnamese railyards at Thanh Hoa, Phu Ly, Ninh Binh, and Vinh.

On 26 October, during this intense period of battle action, the carrier force suffered a tragic mishap. A seaman on board Oriskany (CVA 34) improperly handled a flare that ignited other munitions, soon setting the forward half of the carrier ablaze. By the time the fire was extinguished, after a three-hour struggle, 25 naval aviators and 19 other officers and men were dead. Knocked out of action, the ship sailed to Subic Bay for personnel replacements and repairs; however, Coral Sea soon replaced her on station.

Bombing halts in North Vietnam for the New Year and Tet holidays, which the enemy exploited to rush supplies south, marked the opening days of 1967. At the same time, American air forces shifted their effort to the Laotian Panhandle. By 1967 the Navy had concentrated its strikes on two operational areas of southern Laos, designated Steel Tiger and Tiger Hound, while the Air Force shared this responsibility and also dealt with the Barrel Roll zone to the north. Task Force 77 focused again on North Vietnam at the end of January when it was authorized to attack the Communist industrial heartland in the northeastern part of the country. Naval air squadrons hit critical iron and steel plants, thermal power plants, cement factories, ship and rail repair shops, ammunition depots, and warehouses. In April, the airfields at Kep and Hoa Lac were struck. During this new phase, the Navy-Air Force team attacked railroad yards, highway and railroad bridges, and rolling stock in an effort to stem the flow of military supplies on the rail lines from China and from the port of Haiphong. The transportation routes radiating from Hanoi also were the focus of considerable attention.

In a new approach to interdiction, in February 1967 carrier aircraft had begun dropping bottom-lay mines in the mouths of key North Vietnamese rivers. Later in the year advanced mines were laid in additional inland waterways and on land approaches to bridges and other crossing points. This measure to diminish the enemy's growing use of coastal and inland waterways for movement south complemented the ongoing armed route reconnaissance operations against road traffic, antiaircraft sites, and other targets of opportunity. Although normally prohibited from operations within 10 miles of the center of either Hanoi or Haiphong and 20 miles from the border with China, naval air units were authorized on several occasions to bomb critical targets within the restricted zones. For instance, in May Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31) aircraft penetrated the enemy's heavy defenses around the capital and knocked out the Hanoi electrical power plant.

Another catastrophic carrier fire, this time in Forrestal, occurred during these successful operations. The ship had only been at Yankee Station for several days in July when a Zuni rocket was accidently touched off on deck. The rocket set off a chain reaction of explosions and fire among 750-pound bombs, fuel, and other inflammable materials. Firefighting parties from the ship and from destroyers Rupertus (DD 851), Samuel N. Moore (DD 747), and George K. Mackenzie (DD 836) extinguished the fire on deck in little over an hour, but the conflagration below decks raged on for 14 hours. Other ships converged on the stricken carrier to rescue men in the water or use their helicopters to ferry casualties to medical facilities afloat. The cost of the fire was high. One hundred thirty-five men were killed or missing and 63 more were injured. The loss of 21 planes, partial destruction of 31 others, and damage to the ship put Forrestal out of action for many months. It never returned to Yankee Station.

Continuing operations against critical targets, Oriskany aircraft shut down the Hanoi thermal power plant in August. That same month naval aviators dropped the center span of the Lang Son rail and highway bridge, only eight miles from the border with China, and for the first time in the war attacked the naval base at Van Hoa, causing extensive damage. In September attack squadrons from Oriskany, Constellation, Coral Sea, and Intrepid (CVS 11) hit previously off-limits areas in the port of Haiphong and in the smaller ports of Hon Gai and Cam Pha.

When the fleet stood down for the New Year's bombing halt at the end of December 1967, it had completed a year of intense combat. The Navy's 77,000 combat and support sorties far surpassed previous periods. While the enemy continued to supply and reinforce his units in South Vietnam and Laos, the effort required a significant diversion of military resources and heavy importation of vital munitions.

The enemy's Tet Offensive, which began on 30 January 1968 in South Vietnam, demanded the immediate attention of Task Force 77. Communist forces threatened most of the country's major population centers and the isolated Marine outpost at Khe Sanh. In Operation Niagara, the Navy joined the other services in massive air strikes against North Vietnamese units besieging Khe Sanh and helped turn the tide on the enemy. The crises in South Vietnam and abysmal flying weather over the North severely limited operations there during the first three months of 1968. Whenever possible, aircraft from Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk, Enterprise, Ticonderoga, Ranger, Bon Homme Richard, and Oriskany dropped mines in river mouths and at vital choke points south of Vinh and attacked targets of opportunity along infiltration routes. In one instance at the end of March, carrier attack aircraft pounced on a large enemy convoy suddenly exposed by a break in the weather. Of the hundred or more trucks in the convoy, 98 were destroyed or damaged. In addition, Task Force 77 attack squadrons hit selected targets, such as the rail and highway bridges along vital Route La at Long Ngoc, Thanh Hoa, and Dong Phong; those at Haiphong and Kien An; and the Vinh, Ke Sat, Cat Bi, and Bai Thuong airfields. Other key targets included power plants, railroad yards, naval facilities, barracks, and heavy industrial plants at Hanoi, Haiphong, Nam Dinh, Hai Duong, Hon Gai, and Cam Pha.

When President Johnson halted bombing in the northern two-thirds of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in early April 1968, the Seventh Fleet mounted a concentrated interdiction effort between the 18th and 19th parallels. Diminishing the flow to the south of North Vietnamese forces and supplies now was the sole objective of the Rolling Thunder program, and naval planners selected the targets. In this new phase, carrier air units mined and bombed traffic control points, which included ferry crossing sites, railway and highway bridges, storage areas, truck parks, fuel dumps, inland waterways, and roads where they were constricted by surrounding geography. Sea Dragon cruisers and destroyers steaming along the coast shelled many of the same types of targets, as well as enemy waterborne logistic craft and coastal defenses south of the 19th parallel.

To focus the effort even further, in May, Vice Admiral William F. Bringle, the Seventh Fleet commander, designated three areas containing the most important choke points in the vicinity of Ha Tinh, Vinh, and south of Phu Dien Chau. Each area received the full attention of separate carrier task groups, which carried out round-the-clock strikes against the resourceful enemy. Then in August, Task Force 77 concentrated the major part of its air and surface strength against the southern traffic control area around Ha Tinh. This was the turning point of the campaign. Unceasing day and night air strikes, armed route reconnaissance, and shore bombardment caused the North Vietnamese truck traffic to back up so that it became prey to further attack. During August, American naval forces destroyed or damaged over 600 trucks, the highest total of the campaign, forcing the enemy to rely more heavily on coastal and inland waterway transport. Monsoons and the resulting muddy conditions on land also played a part in this shift. U.S. air and surface forces destroyed or damaged almost 1,000 waterborne logistic craft in September, the greatest number during the six-month interdiction operation.

When all bombing in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ceased on 1 November 1968, the North Vietnamese logistic flow through the panhandle and along the coast had been reduced to a trickle. That the enemy's post-Tet offensive in South Vietnam during the fall of 1968 was weak and of short duration can be ascribed in part to the success of the interdiction effort mounted by the Seventh Fleet. However, the entire Rolling Thunder antiinfiltration program was only partially successful. Heavy weather, operational restrictions, and Communist determination to win in the South made prosecution of the air campaign difficult. As a result, the enemy was able to receive foreign support, supply his forces in the field, and launch large-scale offensives against U.S. and allied armies. Nonetheless, the three-year campaign by Task Force 77 forced the North Vietnamese to divert tens of thousands of regular and paramilitary troops, critical civilian workers, and untold material resources to keep open their lines of communication. Because of the fleet's air and surface operations in Laos and North Vietnam, the enemy's attacks in the South were long-delayed, under-strength, and short-lived. Rolling Thunder was essential to the success of American arms on the battlefields of South Vietnam.

Amphibious Landings in South Vietnam

The fleet provided even more direct support to the campaign in South Vietnam with its long-established Amphibious Ready Group and Special Landing Force (ARG/SLF). The powerful, versatile, and mobile formation capable of striking along the length of the South Vietnamese littoral and far inland.

During this period, the ARG usually consisted of three or four ships, including an amphibious assault ship (LPH), a dock landing ship (LSD), an attack transport (APA) or an amphibious transport dock (LPD), and a tank landing ship (LST). Other amphibious vessels often augmented this force. The Marine SLF was composed of a medium helicopter squadron equipped with 24 UH-34s and embarked in the LPH. An infantry battalion landing team, reinforced with artillery, armor, engineer, and other support units, comprised the ground combat element. These men and their equipment were divided among the ships, enabling landings on shore by helicopter, by the force's 41 organic tracked landing vehicles (LVT), or by both methods. The fleet provided additional assistance for amphibious operations, including carrier air cover, naval gunfire support, supply by the Logistic Support Force (Task Force 73), and medical support by hospital ships Repose (AH 16) and Sanctuary (AH 17) positioned close offshore. Naval personnel also served in Marine units as medical corpsmen, chaplains, and spotters, the latter in 1st Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company detachments. Furthermore, underwater demolition team, SEAL, beachmaster, and special communications beach jumper units supported operations on shore. At various times during the war, transport submarines Perch (APSS 313), Tunny (APSS 282), and Grayback (LPSS 574) carried Navy underwater demolition teams, SEALs, and South Vietnamese marines to points off prospective landing beaches. Once there, the naval special warfare men silently exited the boats, swam or rowed rubber rafts through the surf, and carried out vital reconnaissance or other special operations ashore.

The Seventh Fleet's Commander Amphibious Task Force (Commander Task Force 76) exercised operational control of the ARG (Task Group 76.5) and the SLF (Task Group 79.5) at sea. With the deployment of another ARG/SLF, assigned the designations 76.4 and 79.4, respectively, to the South China Sea in April 1967, the amphibious flotilla was divided into ARG/SLF Alpha and ARG/SLF Bravo.

Following the landing on 8 March 1965 of Marine forces at Danang, which marked the beginning of a new era in America's Southeast Asian involvement, naval leaders awaited additional amphibious shipping and prepared plans for employing the ARG/SLF against the enemy. In the interim, the task group protected Qui Nhon until Army units arrived, and covered the landing in II Corps of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division.

During this preparation, the U.S. command took advantage of good intelligence to launch Operation Starlite, perhaps the greatest amphibious success of the war. Discovering that the 1st Viet Cong Regiment planned to attack the Marine enclave at Chu Lai from a coastal village 12 miles to the south, General Westmoreland directed the III Marine Amphibious Force, the chief Marine command in South Vietnam, to preempt the assault and destroy the 1,500-man enemy unit. Between 18 and 25 August, a cruiser and two destroyers poured accurate naval gunfire on the enemy concentration as the Seventh Fleet Amphibious Ready Group landed Marine units on the beach. Other elements were helicoptered inland from Iwo Jima (LPH 2) and Chu Lai. By the end of the week-long battle, the 1st Viet Cong Regiment was pushed up to the sea by three Marine and two South Vietnamese battalions and then pounded by air and naval gunfire. At the cost of 45 Marines killed and 203 wounded, the allied force inflicted 623 casualties on the enemy unit, putting it out of action for some time.
Seeking to complete the destruction of the Viet Cong unit that had withdrawn further south to the Batangan Peninsula, in September U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine, and South Vietnamese forces, including Coastal Force elements, conducted Operation Piranha. Learning from the costly Starlite setback, however, the Communists now avoided pitched battles on the coast and evaded the allied search. Although 178 enemy soldiers were reported killed, contact was light throughout the action.

By the end of September 1965, U.S. leaders were prepared to initiate an amphibious campaign against Communist forces along the entire South Vietnamese coast. COMUSMACV and fleet commanders planned a series of ARG/SLF raids, designated Dagger Thrust, in support of the Market Time antiinfiltration effort against Viet Cong bases, supply points, and small units. The first three raids were carried out in rapid succession between 25 September and 1 October as the force struck at target areas near Vung Mu, Ben Goi, and Tam Quan in II Corps, but without finding any significant sign of the enemy. On 30 November the Navy-Marine team first struck at a suspected Viet Cong infiltration base on Cape Ke Ga southwest of Phan Thiet and then at Phu Thu in northern II Corps on 5 and 6 December. Neither strike was successful. The program was hampered by dated intelligence, some enemy foreknowledge of U.S. intentions, and prolonged preparations.

The focus on destroying the enemy's main force units also continued as naval amphibious forces conducted operations Blue Marlin I and II near Tam Ky and Hoi An in November. Again, the results were negligible. Then from 9 to 19 December, III Marine Amphibious Force units and the fleet's ARG/SLF combined with South Vietnamese troops to strike at their old nemesis, the 1st Viet Cong Regiment, again up to strength and located in the hills west of Chu Lai. Although the three Marine and three South Vietnamese battalions killed 407 and captured 33 of the enemy and seized over 100 weapons and 60 tons of ammunition, the cost was very high. Ambushes and other tactics left 181 South Vietnamese troops killed or missing and 141 wounded. The Marines suffered 45 dead and 218 wounded.

In Double Eagle, the largest amphibious operation to date in South Vietnam, the ARG/SLF forces joined Marine and South Vietnamese units in a lengthy sweep for enemy regiments near Quang Ngai City and Tam Ky in I Corps. From 28 January to 1 March 1966, the allied force searched for Viet Cong units, but the enemy's good intelligence network enabled him to avoid significant contact.

Again in March and April the allies mounted a multiunit effort to find and destroy Communist forces. In Operation Jackstay, which lasted from 26 March to 7 April, the Navy-Marine ARG/SLF combined with other U.S. and South Vietnamese units to attack the Viet Cong in the Rung Sat swamp that surrounded the vital shipping channel to Saigon. Although most enemy units evaded the search, the allies, at least temporarily, disrupted operations in the Viet Cong base area.

Following the unproductive Operation Osage in April and May 1966, U.S. leaders concluded that the growing allied strength in coastal areas would keep the enemy from concentrating large units there in the future. Thus, amphibious raids and sweeps along the shore were no longer considered valid tactics. From June through September, in a series of operations labelled Deckhouse, the ARG/SLF joined Army or III Marine Amphibious Force troops in lengthy multibattalion combat actions inland. Still, the results were disappointing for the Navy-Marine team as the enemy, except during Deckhouse IV, declined to stand and fight.

Beginning in October 1966, the growing menace from North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units moving south through the DMZ drew the ARG/SLF to the northernmost reaches of the Republic of Vietnam. Before the end of the year Vice Admiral John J. Hyland, Commander Seventh Fleet, temporarily established an additional amphibious task group positioned just offshore for quick reaction. While Deckhouse V was undertaken during the early part of 1967 in the Mekong Delta, the year's other 24 amphibious operations took place in I Corps. Further, most ARG/SLF combat actions were in support of the Marine stand against the fierce thrusts of the North Vietnamese Army at Dong Ha, Con Thien, and Quang Tri City and in the DMZ itself. The amphibious force, permanently augmented by another ARG/SLF after April 1967, was often used to extend the allied flank at sea, block Communist movements, land troops in the enemy's rear, or reinforce front-line units. Troops deployed by helicopter or amphibious craft, cruisers, and destroyers provided this ready, mobile, and powerful assistance. Noteworthy actions included landings in the southern half of the DMZ in May and operations in August and September to prevent the Communists from disrupting South Vietnam's national elections. While the ARG/SLF accounted for over 3,000 enemy killed during the year, the force's support enabled other allied units to inflict even greater damage on the North Vietnamese Army.

During January 1968, the ARG/SLF Marines carried out four heliborne operations ashore in I Corps. The enemy's massive Tet Offensive, launched on the 30th, soon demanded the suspension of amphibious landings and long-term commitment ashore of the fleet's Marine forces. During the next four months, the ships of both ARGs served as havens for the Navy's riverine combat and logistic craft deployed to the area for the emergency. This sea- based support was crucial to the eventual allied military success in the northern reaches of South Vietnam. From June to the end of the year, the amphibious task forces took part in nine I Corps operations that decimated Communist forces fighting to hold Hue and the surrounding region.

Bombardment from the Sea

In addition to mounting amphibious operations, the fleet aided the allied ground campaign in South Vietnam with naval gunfire support. The 1,200-mile coastline allowed the Navy to take advantage of the mobility and firepower of its surface ships. Because the waters off the northern and central regions of South Vietnam were deep, the guns on many Seventh Fleet cruisers and destroyers could reach targets in one-third of the land area of I Corps. Also covered were large segments of the coastal provinces of II and III Corps. Shallow-draft vessels bombarded many additional areas in the Mekong Delta. Relatively safe from the enemy, the gunfire support ships operated by day or night and often in the foul weather that swept the South China Sea.

Throughout this period, the Seventh Fleet's gunfire support ships off South Vietnam formed the Cruiser-Destroyer Group (Task Group 70.8). The subordinate Naval Gunfire Support Unit (Task Unit 70.8.9), in coordination with MACV, actually directed operations along the coast. Ships were assigned to the group from the fleet's cruiser-destroyer command and from the Royal Australian Navy, but were also temporarily attached from carrier escort units, from the Sea Dragon force steaming off North Vietnam, and from the amphibious force. In addition, U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard combat craft conducting inshore coastal and river patrols often provided gunfire support for allied operations. Typically, one cruiser, four destroyers, one inshore fire support ship (IFS), and two medium rocket landing ships (LSMR) comprised Task Unit 70.8.9. However, the number varied and totaled as many as two cruisers, 18 destroyers, and two rocket ships during the heavy combat in 1968.

The ships and the weapons they carried were diverse. Heavy cruisers like Saint Paul were armed with 8-inch/55-caliber guns, able to fire 26,000 yards, and shorter range 5-inch/38-caliber guns, accurate at 15,000 yards. Guided missile light cruisers Topeka (CLG 8) and Oklahoma City carried 6-inch/47-caliber guns, effective at 22,000 yards. While many of the fleet's destroyers carried the shorter range gun, the more modern ships were armed with 5-inch/54-caliber weapons capable of hitting targets at 22,000 yards. The IFS and the LSMR, which carried both the shorter range guns and rocket launchers able to propel 380 5-inch rockets a minute up to 10,000 yards, were shallow-draft vessels, especially useful off the Mekong Delta shore.

Naval bombardment operations generally took two forms: (1) unspotted fire on preselected areas where the enemy was thought likely to be found and (2) fire requested for and directed on specific troop formations, fortifications, and supply facilities by aerial spotters and fire control parties on land. The airborne observers were usually U.S. Army or U.S. Air Force forward air controllers flying O-Le Bird Dog aircraft, while ground personnel were naval officers serving with detachments of the Fleet Marine Force's 1st Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. These men often saved an allied ground unit from being overrun or helped destroy a Communist force before it could present a real threat.

Beginning in May 1965, individual Seventh Fleet cruisers and destroyers ranged the South Vietnamese coast, initially bombarding Viet Cong supply caches used to support the Communist seaborne infiltration effort. These coastal missions were the norm until August, when guided missile light cruiser Galveston (CLG 3) and destroyers Prichett (DD 561) and Orleck (DD 886) joined in support of amphibious Operation Starlite. At one point during the battle, the ships killed or wounded one hundred Viet Cong soldiers caught on the open beach. On another occasion, in October, Ozbourn (DD 846) steamed into the Rung Sat to pour fire into a Viet Cong attacking force. Throughout the year 72 Seventh Fleet ships fired close to 90,000 large-caliber rounds, which destroyed or damaged 4,000 enemy structures and 66 small craft and killed or wounded 753 Communist troops.

Augmented by Carronade (IFS 1) and St. Francis River (LSMR 525) in April 1966 and Clarion River (LSMR 409) and White River (LSMR 536) the following month, the Naval Gunfire Support Unit increased its bombardment of the enemy. This assistance was especially welcome in I Corps during the latter half of the year, when main force NVA units attacked south through the DMZ. Indeed, from mid-1966 on, the naval command concentrated the majority of the gunfire support ships off I Corps where combat was heaviest and the geography most favorable for inshore bombardment. In one action on 13 September, Stormes (DD 780) guns killed over 200 enemy troops in three hours of firing. By November almost 40,000 rounds were expended each month by the surface group off South Vietnam. Throughout the year the force killed 3,000 of the enemy and damaged or destroyed 35,000 structures.

As they had the previous year, in 1967 the cruiser-destroyer rocket ship group again provided preparatory bombardment for amphibious landings, such as Operation Deckhouse V in January, and direct fire support. Because of the increasing demands of the Sea Dragon effort off North Vietnam, however, in March 1967 the Naval Gunfire Support Unit temporarily lost its one cruiser and two destroyers. The arrival of Australian guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart (D 39) in South Vietnamese waters partially offset this loss. But, accidental explosions in the 5-inch/54-caliber mounts in Manley (DD 940) and Bigelow (DD 942) during the spring again reduced the number of ships on the gun line.

Reflecting the ease with which fleet units moved between operational theaters, in May, Sea Dragon and Task Unit 70.8.9 combined forces off the DMZ in the strongest concentration of American surface gunfire ships since the Korean War. Cruisers Providence and Saint Paul and five destroyers took part in Operation Beau Charger, an amphibious landing and sweep into the southern half of the DMZ.

The fleet's surface ships were essential for dealing with the many Communist artillery batteries that fired into South Vietnam from positions in the northern half of the DMZ and southern North Vietnam. In addition, enemy coastal guns menaced allied ships and craft offshore. On 29 August 1967, DuPont (DD 941) lost one sailor killed and nine wounded when one of the 40 Communist shells that straddled the ship hit home. The following month, on the twenty-fifth, Communist fire struck Mansfield (DD 728) killing one bluejacket and wounding another two men. The naval force, however, returned this fire many fold. With six or seven destroyers continuously deployed offshore in I Corps by November, enemy coastal gun emplacements and field artillery positions often were blanketed with naval gunfire. Indeed, the surface ships fired 500,000 rounds in 1967, approximately twice as many as they had the previous year, with the great majority of them falling on I Corps targets.

The enemy's Tet Offensive in the first half of 1968 engaged the Naval Gunfire Support Unit in its heaviest combat actions of the war. Drawing on resources from all areas and commands, but especially from Operation Sea Dragon, Commander Task Unit 70.8.9 concentrated as many as 22 ships at one time on the gun line. These ships maintained high rates of fire during this crisis period, with the heavy cruisers firing an average of eight hundred rounds each day. In February, guided missile heavy cruiser Canberra (CAG 2), guided missile light cruiser Providence, and seven other surface ships poured fire into enemy targets in Hue, including the fortified Citadel. This naval support was critical to the allied recapture of the old Imperial City. The following month, Newport News (CA 148) reduced the flow of ammunition to desperately fighting enemy units when it destroyed an NVA logistic complex north of the Cua Viet River. In another instance, in May Henry B. Wilson (DDG 7) decimated a North Vietnamese battalion, killing 82 of the unit's troops. In similar actions during the first eight months of 1968, naval bombardments inflicted over two thousand casualties on the reeling Communist forces. Thus, during more than three years of deployment offshore, the Naval Gunfire Support Unit had become a valuable component of the allied forces defending South Vietnam.

Coastal Interdiction

The primary objective of the Market Time coastal patrol was to prevent the enemy from strengthening his forces in South Vietnam through seaborne infiltration of supplies and munitions. The U.S.-South Vietnamese effort was established on 11 March 1965. North Vietnamese Naval Transportation Group 125 used steel-hulled, 100-ton trawlers and seagoing junks, to infiltrate the South. The Viet Cong operated smaller junks, sampans, and other craft within South Vietnamese coastal waters, and limiting this movement also became a responsibility of the Market Time forces.

The coastal surveillance operation was organized around nine (initially eight) patrol sectors covering the 1,200-mile South Vietnamese coast from the 17th parallel to the Cambodian border and extending 40 miles out to sea. Within these areas, ships and craft of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the South Vietnamese Navy searched for contraband. American aircraft operating from ships offshore and from bases in South Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines flew search patterns over the Market Time area. By 1968 the patrol generally was divided into three zones: (1) an air surveillance sector farthest out to sea; (2) an outer surface barrier patroled by large U.S. ships; and (3) an inner, or shallow-water, barrier patroled by U.S. and South Vietnamese boats and craft and Coastal Force junks. Mobile units of Inshore Undersea Warfare Surveillance Group 1, Western Pacific Detachment, deployed to South Vietnam in April 1966 to form an additional screen.

Market Time forces aided the allied cause in other ways. The naval gunfire support offered by these American and Vietnamese ships and craft often was of vital importance to ground units locked in combat with the enemy. The naval units also served as blocking forces in encirclement operations conducted near the coast and on large rivers. The transportation of friendly troops and the evacuation of civilians constituted other important tasks. And, as with most American forces in South Vietnam, the Market Time units worked to win friends for the allied cause by building schools, donating food and clothing, and performing other civic actions.

During the first half of 1965, the Seventh Fleet operationally controlled the Vietnam Patrol Force (Task Force 71), the American component of the Market Time effort. The Naval Advisory Group, headquartered in Saigon, served as the liaison between the fleet, COMUSMACV, and the South Vietnamese Navy. The five U.S.- Vietnamese coastal surveillance centers set up at Danang, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, and An Thoi coordinated actual operations. To improve mutual understanding and communication, U.S. and Vietnamese naval officers sailed in the vessels of the other service.

On 31 July 1965, formal control of the American Market Time force passed from the Seventh Fleet to the Naval Advisory Group, which in turn activated the Coastal Surveillance Force (Task Force 115). The fleet continued to provide logistic and administrative support. The command function was further refined on 1 April 1966 when Naval Forces, Vietnam, was established, relieving the NAG of responsibility for Market Time operations. In addition, the naval support activities at Danang and Saigon took over logistic and administrative duties. The next year, in July, Commander Task Force 115 moved his headquarters from Saigon to Cam Ranh Bay.

The years 1965 to 1968 witnessed a great increase in Market Time resources and the full development of patrol tactics and operating procedures. During the first months of the patrol in 1965 an average of 15 destroyers or minesweepers steamed off South Vietnam, with at least one ship assigned to each of the sectors. Soon, however, radar picket escorts (DER), with better fuel efficiency and electronic equipment, replaced the destroyers. Furthermore, to help the Vietnamese Navy's Coastal Force and Sea Force (American naval leaders were dissatisfied with their operational performance), in June, the U.S. Coast Guard began dispatching 82-foot cutters (WPB), eventually totaling 26, to Southeast Asia. The operational chain of command extended from Commander Task Force 115 through Commander Coast Guard Activities, Vietnam (established on 3 February 1967) to Coast Guard Squadron 1. This latter command controlled Coast Guard Division 11 stationed at An Thoi, Coast Guard Division 12 at Danang, and Coast Guard Division 13 at Cat Lo. To augment the inshore patrol, the Navy bought 84 Swift (PCF) boats designed by the Louisiana-based Stewart Seacraft Company and deployed them to South Vietnam. These 50-foot, 23-knot vessels, armed with .50-caliber machine guns and an 81-millimeter mortar, became the mainstays of the Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force. Under Boat Squadron 1 (later Coastal Squadron 1), Boat Divisions 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105 (redesignated Coastal Divisions 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 on 1 January 1967) operated from bases at An Thoi, Danang, Cat Lo, Cam Ranh Bay, and Qui Nhon, respectively. In June 1967 the Navy activated an additional Swift boat unit, Coastal Division 16, at Chu Lai in I Corps.

The harbor defense and surveillance units in the ports of Vung Tau, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, and Vung Ro, Inshore Undersea Warfare Units (IUWU) 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively, operated a total of 16 large personnel landing craft, 25 Boston Whalers, and 8 picket boats in operation Stable Door. The 45-foot picket boats, which began to reach Vietnam in June 1967, carried a crew of one officer and five men and two .50-caliber machine guns, twin-mounted. In each port the units constructed harbor entrance control posts and equipped them with radios and surface search radars.

During 1967 and 1968, the continuing demand for Market Time vessels resulted in the deployment of 15 Coast Guard high endurance cutters (WHEC) to South Vietnam. Operating under Coast Guard Squadron 3, activated with the first deployments in the spring of 1967, the WHECs added their search radars, one 5- inch/38-caliber gun, six .50-caliber machine guns, and two 81- millimeter mortars to the patrol's firepower.

In addition, beginning in 1967, the newly built Asheville-class patrol gunboat (PG), designed specifically for coastal operations in the Third World, made its first appearance in Southeast Asia. That March, Commander Coastal Squadron 3 began surveillance of South Vietnam's coast with Gallup (PG 85). Coastal Flotilla 1 was then created to direct the operations of this unit and the new Coastal Squadron 1, with Asheville (PG 84) and Crockett (PG 88). The 165-foot Pgs, capable of 37-knot speeds, carried one 3-inch/.50-caliber gun forward, one 40-millimeter gun aft, and four .50-caliber machine guns. At first plagued by mechanical and repair part replacement problems, the shallow-draft and well armed Pgs became a useful Market Time resource. But hydrofoil gunboats Flagstaff (PGH 1) and Tucumcari (PGH 2), assigned to Task Force 115 later in the war, proved not as satisfactory in operation. These revolutionary vessels were unsuited to patrols in the rough seas off Vietnam and were too mechanically complex for the repair facilities in the combat theater.

Various aircraft flew aerial surveillance of South Vietnam's coastal waters. For a brief time in 1965 A-l Skyraiders operating from carriers at Dixie Station covered the central Vietnam coast. This mission was shared and then taken over by a patrol squadron based at Sangley Point in the Philippines and equipped with the advanced P-3 Orion aircraft. Throughout this period, five to seven P-2 Neptunes stationed at Tan Son Nhut near Saigon ranged up and down the South Vietnamese littoral along designated patrol tracks. In addition, from May 1965 to April 1967, Martin P-5 Marlin seaplanes operated from seaplane tenders Currituck (AV 7) and Salisbury Sound (AV 13), periodically anchored at Condore and Cham islands and at Cam Ranh Bay. To compensate for withdrawal of the older seaplanes in early 1967, the Navy stationed a squadron of twelve P-2s ashore at Cam Ranh Bay and a detachment of P-3s at Utapao in Thailand. The P-3s patroled the Gulf of Siam. On an intermittent basis, U.S. Army Bird Dog observation aircraft and South Vietnamese Douglas C-47s watched over several critical coastal sectors.

To improve the effectiveness of the anti-infiltration system, the Navy emplaced surface search radars on Son and Obi islands south of the Mekong Delta and on Re Island east of Chu Lai and upgraded communications between headquarters, coastal surveillance centers, surface ships and craft, and aircraft. Greater use of junk and sampan identification manuals, South Vietnamese identity papers, and passes for fishermen tightened the coastal net. MACV intelligence also focused more attention on the Communist maritime effort.

There was scant evidence in 1965 of Communist seaborne infiltration. After the Vung Ro incident in February, the allies detected not one trawler closing the shore. Relatively few of the junks and smaller craft stopped and searched in shallow water were found to carry enemy personnel or contraband. During this period, however, the patrol was not functioning with maximum effectiveness because the Americans and the South Vietnamese concentrated on refining patrol responsibilities, search sectors, operational tactics, command and communications procedures, and other essential matters. Furthermore, while the number of vessels in the command increased, the total still was insufficient for complete coverage of South Vietnam's coastal waters.

On the evening of 31 December 1965, however, Hissem (DER 400) detected a small trawler heading for shore off the Ca Mau Peninsula. When the trawler's master knew the allies had spotted his ship, he turned it around and headed north, aborting the mission. The first concrete success of the new program occurred in May 1966 when Market Time forces intercepted and destroyed another infiltrating trawler on the coast of An Xuyen Province. The vessel's recovered cargo consisted of mortar and small arms ammunition manufactured in the People's Republic of China during 1965. Again in June, Task Force 115 units tracked a steel-hulled vessel that fired on Coast Guard cutter Point League (WPB 82328) before running aground on the south coast of the Mekong Delta. In addition to the damaged ship, the Vietnamese-American defense force captured over 100 tons of munitions destined for the Viet Cong. In December 1966, the Coastal Surveillance Force detected another trawler headed for Binh Dinh Province and forced it to abandon its mission. On the first day of the new year, Swift boats from Coastal Division 13 and Coast Guard cutter Point Gammon (WPB 82304) gave chase to a Communist vessel, compelling the crew to blow up their ship near the mouth of the Bo De River. Completing the year's tally, in March and then in July, Market Time aircraft, ships, and craft prevented two steel-hulled trawlers from landing their cargo on the beaches near Quang Ngai.

During this lucrative period of the Market Time patrol from January 1966 to July 1967, many enemy junks and sampans were destroyed, captured, or forced to abort their missions. Most American and Vietnamese patrol vessels now were deployed to coastal waters and functioned with relative efficiency. The combined patrol force inspected or boarded over 700,000 vessels in South Vietnamese coastal waters.

From July to the end of 1967, the allies detected no trawlers attempting infiltration. Then, in February 1968, in an apparently desperate attempt to supply Viet Cong forces fighting for survival in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, the enemy dispatched five ships into South Vietnamese waters. Nearing his destination, the master of the first ship gave up the attempt and shaped course for home. Task Force 115 units forced another ship aground near Danang, where the crew scuttled her. Under fire from American vessels off Ca Mau, a third trawler exploded and sank. The allies forced another ship to beach northeast of Nha Trang and then destroyed her with gunfire. The last ship, spotted from the air out to sea, reversed course and returned north. Following this serious setback for the enemy, the Market Time patrol did not discover another infiltrating trawler until August 1969.

Aside from this crisis-related gamble at Tet, by 1968 the North Vietnamese were deterred from the use of this avenue of seaborne infiltration as a major means of supply. The Coastal Surveillance Force was increasingly effective at intercepting larger vessels and even the more numerous but low cargo capacity junks and sampans.

Other factors contributed indirectly to the success of Market Time. From November 1966 on, the Sea Dragon operation off North Vietnam reduced the enemy's coastal traffic. At the same time, the Communists developed less costly and more efficient means for supplying their forces in the South. Beginning in December 1966, and with the tacit agreement of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Cambodian head of state, the enemy began using the port of Sihanoukville in the supposedly neutral country as a secure transshipment point for munitions destined for the Mekong Delta battleground. Not wanting to widen the war, President Johnson refused to authorize any allied operation to close the port to Communist shipping. In addition, the Ho Chi Minh Trail had become a well-established supply complex that sustained Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones. Nonetheless, the Market Time patrol accomplished its primary mission by deterring the enemy's use of the sea to support the political-military offensive against South Vietnam.

The Naval Command in South Vietnam

In contrast to the carrier, amphibious, and naval gunfire support forces and, at least during early 1965, the coastal patrol force, which Commander Seventh Fleet directed, the Navy's forces within South Vietnam were operationally controlled by COMUSMACV. Initially, General William C. Westmoreland exercised this command through the Chief, Naval Advisory Group. However, the increasing demands of the war required a distinct operational rather than an advisory headquarters for naval units. As a result, on 1 April 1966, Naval Forces, Vietnam, was established to control the Navy's units in the II, III, and IV Corps Tactical Zones. This eventually included the major combat formations: Coastal Surveillance Force (Task Force 115), River Patrol Force (Task Force 116), and Riverine Assault Force (Task Force 117). The latter unit formed the naval component of the joint Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force. Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam (COMNAVFORV) also controlled the Naval Support Activity, Saigon, which supplied naval forces in the II, III, and IV Corps areas. Naval Support Activity (NSA), Danang, provided logistic support to all American forces in I Corps, where the predominant Marine presence demanded a naval supply establishment. NSA Danang was under the operational control of Commander III Marine Amphibious Force.

COMNAVFORV also commanded the Naval Advisory Group and the Seabees of the 3d Naval Construction Brigade; the Military Sea Transportation Service Office, Vietnam, which coordinated the gargantuan sealift to Southeast Asia; the Officer in Charge of Construction, Vietnam, who handled in-country construction by civilian contractors; the Naval Research and Development Unit, Vietnam, which tested new equipment in the field; and Commander Coast Guard Activities, Vietnam.

River Patrol

The great strategic and economic importance of South Vietnam's extensive inland waterways made it clear from the beginning of the war that the Navy would be in the front rank of the allied forces. Laced by 3,000 nautical miles of rivers, canals, and smaller streams, the fertile Mekong Delta south of Saigon, where the largest segment of South Vietnam's population lived, constituted the country's rice bowl. Northward along the coast to the DMZ, sizable rivers stretched inland past vital population centers such as the old imperial capital of Hue. Throughout the country the road and rail system was rudimentary while the waterways provided ready access to the most important resources. The side that controlled the rivers and canals controlled the heart of South Vietnam. U.S. naval leaders were determined that allied forces would command these waterways when they established the River Patrol Force (Task Force 116) on 18 December 1965. From then until March 1966, the Navy procured river patrol boats (PBR) in the United States, prepared the crews at the Coronado, California, and Mare Island, California, training centers, and deployed the units to Southeast Asia for Operation Game Warden. On 15 March 1966 the River Patrol Force was also designated River Patrol Squadron 5 for administrative and supply purposes. By 31 August 1968, the force consisted of five river divisions, each controlling two 10-boat sections that operated from combat bases along the major rivers or from ships positioned in the rivers. The Navy reconditioned each of the ships so they could serve as floating base facilities for a PBR section and a helicopter detachment.

River Patrol Force Dispositions
River Division 51 Can Tho/Binh Thuy
River Division 52 Sa Dec (later Vinh Long)
River Division 53 My Tho
River Division 54 Nha Be River
Division 55 Danang

Support Ships -- 1966
Belle Grove (LSD 2)
Comstock (LSD 19)
Floyd County (LST 762)
Jennings County (LST 846)
Tortuga (LSD 26)

1967-1968
Garrett County (LST 786)
Harnett County (LST 821)
Hunterdon County (LST 838)
Jennings County (LST 846)

The PBR, the ubiquitous workhorse of the River Patrol Force, was manned by a crew of four bluejackets, equipped with a Pathfinder surface radar and two radios, and commonly armed with two twin- mounted .50-caliber machine guns forward, M-60 machine guns (or a grenade launcher) port and starboard amidship, and a .50-caliber aft. The initial version of the boat, the Mark I, performed well in river patrol operations but was plagued with continual fouling of its water-jet engines by weeds and other detritus. In addition, when Vietnamese sampans came alongside for inspection they often damaged the fragile fiberglass hull of the PBRs. New Mark Iis, first deployed to the delta in December 1966, brought improved Jacuzzi jet pumps, which reduced fouling and increased speed from 25 to 29 knots, and more durable aluminum gunwales.

Task Force 116 also employed the experimental patrol air cushion vehicle (PACV), three of which operated in the Mekong Delta during 1966 and 1967 as PACV Division 107. During 1968, the PACVs deployed to the Danang area as Coastal Division 17. Although able to move with great speed over shallow, marshy areas, such as in the Plain of Reeds, the PACVs proved to be too noisy and too mechanically sophisticated for riverine war in South Vietnam. After the Tet emergency, the craft were shipped back to the United States for reevaluation.

A key component of the Game Warden operation was its air support element. Initially, the Army deployed detachments of two UH-1B Iroquois helicopters and their crews to PBR bases and river-based LSTs. Beginning in August 1966, however, air crews from the Navy's Helicopter Support Squadron 1 replaced the Army personnel. Then on 1 April 1967, the Navy activated Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron (HAL) 3 at Vung Tau with responsibility for providing Task Force 116 with aerial fire support, observation, and medical evacuation. By September 1968, the 421-man "Seawolf" squadron controlled detachments of two helicopters each at Nha Be, Binh Thuy, Dong Tom, Rach Gia, Vinh Long, and on board three LSTs stationed in the larger rivers of the Mekong Delta. The Bell UH-1B "Hueys," armed variously with 2.75-inch rockets; .50-caliber, 60-millimeter, and 7.62-millimeter machine guns; grenades; and small arms, were a powerful and mobile complement to the Game Warden surface units.

The River Patrol Force commander led other naval forces, including the highly trained and skilled SEALs. By mid-1968, the 211-man SEAL Team 1, based at Coronado, fielded twelve 14-man platoons, each composed of two squads. Generally four or five of the platoons at any given time were deployed to South Vietnam, where one or two of them served with the special operations force in Danang and another three operated from Nha Be as Detachment GOLF in support of the Task Force 116 campaign in the Rung Sat Special Zone. Beginning in early 1967, the Atlantic Fleet's SEAL Team 2 provided another three platoons, two of which were stationed with the Game Warden units at Can Tho. These units launched SEAL operations in the central delta area. Although focused primarily on the areas to the south and west of Saigon, the SEALs also mounted operations in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones.

These elite naval commando units carried out day and night ambushes, hit and run raids, reconnaissance patrols, salvage dives, and special intelligence operations. Normally operating in six-man squads, the SEALs used landing craft, SEAL team assault boats (STAB), 26-foot armored trimarans, PBRs, sampans, and helicopters for transportation to and from their target areas. Mobile, versatile, and extremely effective in their dangerous work, the SEALs were a valuable fighting force in the riverine environment of Vietnam.

Mine clearance forces also were essential to the security of Vietnam's waterways. Nowhere was this more crucial than on the rivers near Saigon, the country's most vital port. Viet Cong mining of the main shipping channel, the Long Tau River, which wound its way through the Rung Sat Special Zone south of the capital, could have had a devastating effect on the war effort. Consequently, on 20 May 1966, the Navy established Mine Squadron 11, Detachment Alpha (Mine Division 112 after May 1968) at Nha Be, under Commander Task Force 116. From 1966 until mid-1968, the minesweeping detachment operated 12 or 13 minesweeping boats (MSB) reactivated in the United States and shipped to Southeast Asia. The 57-foot, fiberglass-hulled vessels were armed with machine guns and grenade launchers and carried surface radars and minesweeping gear for clearing explosives from the key waterways. The Navy also deployed three-boat subordinate units to Danang and Cam Ranh Bay. Detachment Alpha's strength increased in July 1967 when the first of six mechanized landing craft (LCM(M)) that were specially configured to sweep mines arrived at Nha Be.

Game Warden operations got underway in early 1966. Naval leaders set out to secure the vital water passages through the Rung Sat and to establish patrols on the large Mekong Delta rivers. On these latter waterways, the Viet Cong transported arms and supplies brought in from Cambodia, shifted guerrilla units, and taxed the population. The Navy created two separate task groups to direct operations in the respective areas.

On 26 March 1966, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine, and South Vietnamese forces kicked off Operation Jackstay, the war's first major action in the Rung Sat. PBR units (including one section from Tortuga), minesweeping boats from Nha Be, SEALs, and helicopters operated together to sweep the area. At the end of the 12-day effort, the allies had killed or captured 69 of the enemy; destroyed Viet Cong supply bases, training sites, and other logistical facilities; and, at least for a time, restricted enemy movement in the zone.

The enemy, however, remained a potent threat. In one month, August 1966, Viet Cong mines in the Long Tau heavily damaged SS Baton Rouge Victory, a Vietnamese Navy motor launch minesweeper, and MSB 54. In November, a Viet Cong mine sank MSB 54. And on the last day of the year, American forces discovered a Soviet-made contact mine in the shipping channel. The Americans and the South Vietnamese intensified minesweeping operations and the enemy continued to fight back. In February 1967 Communist recoilless rifle fire and mines destroyed MSB 45 and heavily damaged MSB 49.
By the spring of 1967 the rapid buildup of allied forces in the Rung Sat area, the refinement of tactics, and improvement of weapon systems began to reduce enemy effectiveness. During the year Vietnamese Regional Force and U.S. Army 9th Division troops conducted aggressive sweeps ashore in coordination with the helicopter, PBR, and MSB units; the better equipped LCM(M)s augmented the minesweeping force at Nha Be. SEALs began sowing mines throughout enemy-held areas, and both PBRs and MSBs added rapid-fire, 40-millimeter grenade launchers to their armament. From mid-1967 to mid-1968, the Viet Cong continued to ambush shipping on the Long Tau with mines, 122-millimeter rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, recoilless rifles, machine guns, and small arms. Quick action by allied reaction forces, however, often cut short these assaults. Thus, ship damage and personnel casualties were relatively light. Other attacks never occurred because PBR and SEAL patrols upset enemy plans or the MSBs and LCM(M)s swept up mines. Consequently, the Communists were unable to sever the vital lifeline to Saigon, even when their forces were fighting for survival during the Tet and post-Tet battles of 1968.

Game Warden operations in the central reaches of the Mekong Delta began on 8 May 1966 when PBR River Section 511 of River Division 51 at Can Tho patroled a stretch of the Bassac River. Soon afterward, other units initiated surveillance of the upper Mekong and the My Tho, Ham Luong, and Co Chien arms of the mighty river that emptied into the South China Sea.

In two-boat random patrols Task Force 116 sailors checked the cargo and identity papers of junks and sampans plying the waterways, set up night ambushes at suspected enemy crossing points, supported the SEALs with gunfire and transportation, and enforced curfew restrictions in their sector, usually no more than 35 nautical miles from the base.

Game Warden operations in the central delta registered only modest success from 1966 to 1968. Only 140 PBRs were on station to patrol many miles of river and canal. As a result, they could canvass only the larger waterways. Still, the Task Force 116 patrol forced the Viet Cong to divert troops and other resources to defense and to resort to less efficient transportation on smaller rivers and canals. During 1966 the task force refined its tactics, evaluated the performance of its boats and weapons in combat, and regularized its operational procedures. At the same time naval leaders repositioned the LSD and LST support ships inland because heavy seas at the river mouths made operations from there difficult. The year 1967 opened with the accidental loss of a PBR during launching operations from Jennings County and the first combat loss of a river patrol boat. These events foreshadowed a busy and dangerous year for the Game Warden sailors who boarded over 400,000 vessels and inspected them for enemy personnel and contraband. In the process, the River Patrol Force destroyed, damaged, or captured over 2,000 Viet Cong craft and killed, wounded, or captured over 1,400 of the enemy. However, the U.S. Navy suffered the loss of 39 officers and men killed, 366 wounded, and 9 missing in battle.

The Tet Offensive of 1968 fully engaged Task Force 116. Because of their firepower and mobility, the PBRs stiffened the defenses of numerous delta cities and towns that were under siege by the enemy. The river patrol boat units were key elements in the successful allied stands at My Tho, Ben Tre, Chau Doc, Tra Vinh, and Can Tho. The enemy prevailed only at Vinh Long, where the Viet Cong overran the PBR base forcing the defenders to withdraw to Garrett County. Despite this and a few other temporary setbacks, Task Force 116 reestablished firm control of the major delta rivers by mid-year and helped cut short the Viet Cong attacks on Saigon.

The river sailors also gave critical support to allied forces fighting to contain the enemy surge in I Corps. From September to October 1967, River Section 521 and Hunterdon County deployed to the river areas south of Danang and to Cau Hai Bay near Hue. PBR units operated permanently in the northern reaches of South Vietnam after 24 February 1968, when COMNAVFORV established Task Force Clearwater, under the operational control of the Commanding General III Marine Amphibious Force. The mission of the task force was to secure the Perfume River (which gave access to Hue from the sea) and the Cua Viet River. The Task Force eased supply efforts to American forces arrayed along the DMZ and holding the besieged outpost at Khe Sanh. Home for the task force headquarters was Mobile Base II, a floating barge complex stationed first at Tan My and later at Cua Viet. Because heavily armed North Vietnamese Army units were presented in this region, COMNAVFORV strengthened the 20-boat PBR task force with monitors, armored river craft, PACVs, and landing craft minesweepers. Task Force Clearwater could also call on helicopter, attack aircraft, artillery, naval gunfire, and ground troop support from other units in the I Corps region. Convoys bristling with weaponry were required to maintain the line of communication with forward combat units. The naval forces carried out equally vital minesweeping and patroling operations. During 1968, Task Force Clearwater's support was crucial to the successful defense of Khe Sanh, the recapture of Hue, and the defeat of the enemy offensive in I Corps.

Riverine Assault Force

While the object of the Game Warden force was to reduce the enemy's logistic support, that of the joint Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) was to locate, encircle, and destroy Communist units in battle. American military leaders patterned the MRF after the French naval assault divisions, or dinassauts, which performed well in the Indochina War from 1946 to 1954. The Americans designed a formation especially suited to the Mekong Delta, where the absence of dry land and abundance of navigable waterways made it desirable to station ground troops on board a mobile afloat base. In addition to transporting infantry and artillery, the naval component was intended to provide gunfire support for land sweeps from heavily armed and armored river craft. As finally organized, the Mobile Riverine Force consisted of an Army element, the 2d Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division, augmented in mid-1968 by the 3d Brigade, and a Navy element. The MRF was under COMUSMACV's overall direction.

The Commanding General II Field Force, Vietnam, exercised operational control of the Army contingent while COMNAVFORV commanded the naval component, designated the Riverine Assault Force (Task Force 117). Commander Task Force 117, also titled Commander River Assault Flotilla One for purposes of supply and administration, directed the operations of River Assault Squadrons 9 and 11 (also assigned task group numerical designations). After June 1968 squadrons 13 and 15 joined the force. That same month, the task force was reorganized into Mobile Riverine Group Alpha with squadrons 9 and 11, and Mobile Riverine Group Bravo, with squadrons 13 and 15.

Each 400-man squadron, divided further into two river assault divisions, marshalled a powerful fleet of five monitors. Each monitor was protected with armor and equipped with .50 caliber, 40-millimeter, and 20-millimeter gun mounts, two 40- millimeter grenade launchers, and an 81-millimeter mortar. Another two or three similarly armed and armored craft served as command and control boats. A total of 26 armored troop carriers that mounted .50-caliber machine guns, rapid-fire grenade launchers, and 20-millimeter cannon transported the Army troops. Also installed on the former amphibious landing craft were helicopter landing platforms. A number of craft mounted flame throwers or water cannon to destroy enemy bunkers. A modified armored troop carrier functioned as a refueler for the river force. Beginning in September 1967, to augment the firepower of these converted landing craft, each squadron was provided with 8 to 16 newly designed assault support patrol boats for minesweeping and escort duties.

In addition to leading the naval combat flotilla, Commander Task Force 117 also functioned as Commander River Support Squadron 7. He was responsible for the Mobile Riverine Base from which normally one or two infantry battalions and one river assault squadron operated.

Mobile Riverine Base Composition
2 self-propelled barracks ships (APB)
1 LST (another LST operated between the MRF and Vung Tau)
1 specially configured landing craft repair ship (ARL)
1 non-self-propelled barracks craft (APL)
1 repair, berthing, and messing barge (YRBM)
2 large harbor tugs (YTB)
1 net-laying ship (AN)

Mobile Riverine Base Ships
1967-1968
APL 26
Askari (ARL 30)
Benewah (APB 35)
Caroline County (LST 525)
Cohoes (AN 78)
Colleton (APB 36)
Indra (ARL 37)
Kemper County (LST 854)
Mercer (APB 39)
Nueces (APB 40)
Vernon County (LST 1161)
Washtenaw County (LST 1166)
Whitfield County (LST 1169)
Windham County (LST 1170)
Satyr (ARL 23)
Sedgwick County (LST 1123)
YRBM 17
YTB 84
YTB 85

Mobile Riverine Force units rotated between the afloat base and Dong Tam, a logistic complex three miles west of My Tho that Army engineers and Navy Seabees built especially for the joint operation. The base contained barracks, mess halls, repair shops, floating crane YD 220, a C-130 airstrip, small drydocks, and waterfront facilities for the river craft. Further, the Army based the headquarters of the 2d Brigade, 9th Infantry Division at Dong Tam.

The Navy's first Mobile Riverine Force contingent arrived in South Vietnam on 7 January 1967, when Whitfield County disembarked River Assault Squadron 9 at Vung Tau. This and following units underwent extensive preparation in river warfare at the Naval Inshore Operations Training Center, Mare Island, California, before deployment to Southeast Asia. On 28 February, COMNAVFORV activated Task Force 117 under Captain Wade C. Wells. In March River Assault Squadron 11 joined River Assault Squadron 9 at Vung Tau. By June 1967, support ship Kemper County, barracks ships Benewah and Colleton, and other vessels had arrived in-country to round out the Navy's MRF contingent.

MRF units had already fought minor actions against the Viet Cong in the Rung Sat and in the vicinity of Dong Tam. On 1 June, with the MRF up to strength and most units acclimated to the combat area, the force began intensive operations to find and destroy enemy guerrilla units around Dong Tam. The first major battle occurred between 19 and 21 June when the Army-Navy team trapped three Viet Cong companies about 15 miles south of Saigon and killed 255 enemy soldiers. Another 59 Communists died in the area during July. Reacting to intelligence that two Viet Cong battalions were preparing to attack Dong Tam, the Mobile Riverine Base ships weighed anchor and steamed 61 miles upriver to a new site. There they joined with Vietnamese Marine, Vietnamese Army, and U.S. Army battalions in decimating and scattering the prospective enemy assault force. The MRF recorded success of another sort in September when a landing and sweep maneuver in the eastern Rung Sat uncovered a cache of 105 rifles and machine guns, 165 grenades, 60 howitzer and mortar shells, and 56,000 rounds of small arms ammunition. A small enemy hospital and 850 pounds of medicine were found soon afterward.

The Viet Cong, however, eventually adjusted to MRF tactics and struck back. During Operation Coronado V in September 1967 the enemy sprang an ambush along a two-mile stretch of the Ba Rai River southwest of Saigon. By the end of the four-hour engagement, half of the vessels in the convoy had been hit by enemy fire, three sailors were dead and 77 were wounded. Another six men were killed or wounded in an ambush later that same month. Still, the MRF, acting in conjunction with the Vietnamese Army 7th Division, trapped elements of the Viet Cong 263d and 514th Main Force Battalions in October and inflicted 173 casualties on these units.

From October to the end of November, the Mobile Riverine Force searched for enemy troops reportedly concentrated north of the Mekong between Sa Dec and Dong Tam, but the enemy avoided significant contact. Then, on 4 December, the Viet Cong triggered an ambush against River Assault Division 112 on the Ruong Canal northeast of Sa Dec. The river sailors turned the tables when they fought through the ambush and landed troops on the enemy's flank. Soon other American and Vietnamese combat units surrounded and killed 266 Viet Cong and captured 321 small arms and 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

MRF actions during the 1968 Tet Offensive were the key to allied military success in the delta and earned the force the Presidential Unit Citation. Exploiting the inherent mobility and firepower of the riverine command, COMUSMACV used it as his primary reaction force in the vast delta. During the first week of February 1968, the MRF battled through the streets of My Tho to help recapture the overrun city, and then shifted to Vinh Long for several days of intense combat with three Viet Cong battalions. For the rest of the month the Army-Navy team fought around the delta's chief city, Can Tho. The force killed 544 of the enemy in this period of almost constant crisis.

During the first three months of 1968, the Mobile Riverine Base traveled almost 1,000 kilometers while conducting operations in Dinh Tuong Province and entering new areas in Vinh Long and Phong Dinh Provinces. In March, ten armored troop carriers, three monitors, and one command and control boat of River Assault Division 112 deployed to I Corps and supported allied ground troops with gunfire on the vital Cua Viet and Perfume Rivers.

During the second quarter of the year when the Communists mounted serious post-Tet attacks, the riverine force decimated the Viet Cong 514th Main Force Battalion near Cai Lay in the delta and another formation south of Saigon. Fighting to relieve pressure on the capital, the MRF inflicted 687 casualties on besieging enemy forces.

In July and August, the Mobile Riverine Force ranged throughout the delta with its full complement of river craft, support ships and 9th Division troops. In the latter month, the MRF joined with other Army and Navy units and with Vietnamese forces in a large- scale penetration of the U Minh Forest, a longtime Viet Cong stronghold. Although the enemy fiercely resisted this intrusion, causing heavy allied casualties, this military presence was maintained. The operation heralded a subsequent campaign to deny the Communists security in any area of the delta. Having demonstrated their worth during two years of combat, Mobile Riverine Force units would be in the vanguard of this new strategic approach to the war.

The Naval Advisory Effort

The U.S. Navy continued its program of training and equipping its sister service that had begun in 1950. From 1965 to 1968, however, the American naval effort in Vietnam overshadowed the Vietnamese Navy's contribution to the struggle. Further diminishing that contribution was political in-fighting among Vietnamese naval officers that resulted in the removal of three successive chiefs of naval operations during 1965 and 1966. Relative stability returned in 1967 and 1968, but the command disruption retarded the development of leadership in the Vietnamese Navy and this in turn hindered overall progress.

The Naval Advisory Group redoubled its efforts to strengthen the shaky organizational, personnel, and material base of the Vietnamese Navy. To accomplish this task, the group assigned advisors to each large South Vietnamese naval vessel, each Coastal Force and River Force group, and to the headquarters, ship and boat repair facilities, supply installations, and training facilities. The Naval Advisory Group contingent increased from 235 officers and men in early 1965 to 540 in mid- 1968. Approximately half of the men were officers and the other half enlisted.

Because the Chief, Naval Advisory Group directed the Market Time coastal patrols and helped plan the activation of the U.S. river patrol and riverine forces in 1965, he could not devote enough attention to his training responsibility. Hence, in February 1966 the American naval command appointed a Senior Advisor, Vietnamese Navy Headquarters, and assigned him responsibility for improving coordination between the two naval services. In October 1967 he was retitled Senior Naval Advisor, assigned a larger staff, and placed in charge of all U.S. naval advisors in the field. He served directly under the Chief, Naval Advisory Group.

The average American naval advisor was dedicated to preparing the Vietnamese Navy to some day stand alone against the Communist foe. Often assigned to vessels or bases lacking even basic amenities, the advisor also shared the risks of combat with his hosts. His task was a heavy one. Not empowered to give orders, he could only hope to persuade his Vietnamese counterpart that a particular course of action was warranted. That advice often was ignored. Aside from the natural difficulty of getting others to accept counsel, the naval advisor was often hampered by the language barrier and differences in cultures, educational levels, and personalities that separated him from his counterpart. Furthermore, the one-year tour completed by most advisors did not allow them enough time to learn the job and bring about meaningful change. Despite all this, the Naval Advisory Group helped improve the Vietnamese naval service in important respects.

The Vietnamese Navy, which grew from a force of 8,242 men, 44 ships, and 200 other vessels in early 1965 to one of 17,574 personnel, 65 ships, 300 junks, and 290 other craft in mid-1968, underwent several organizational changes as well. In April 1965 the Joint General Staff (JGS) decided to enhance their control of the Vietnamese Marine Corps by making it a separate service within the armed forces. In addition, the JGS redesignated the I, II, III and IV Naval Zones as Coastal Zones and, along with the newly created III and IV Riverine Areas, placed them under the operational control of the army commanders of the I, II, III, and IV Corps Tactical Zones. Because of its special riverine characteristics, the Rung Sat remained in the navy's charge. Thus, with the exception of ships steaming outside of territorial waters, most of the navy's combat forces came under army direction. Administrative responsibility for the navy, however, remained with the Chief of Naval Operations. Another significant reorganization occurred in July 1965 when the JGS formally integrated the 3,500-man, paramilitary Coastal Force into the navy. Thereafter, the command's divisions and the old coastal district designations were dropped and the coastal zones became the operational sectors. In a similar move, in October the following year, the Vietnamese Navy was assigned administrative responsibility for the headquarters and training center of the 24 paramilitary Regional Force Boat Companies and maintenance responsibility for their 192 vehicle and personnel landing craft (LCVP).

On 1 January 1966, the Sea Force was renamed the Fleet Command and reorganized along functional lines. Flotilla I, comprised the submarine chasers (PC) and escorts in Squadron 11, the motor gunboats in Squadron 13, and the large support landing ships (LSSL) in Squadron 15. The minesweepers in Squadron 17 were responsible for sea patrol, inshore patrol, river patrol, and minesweeping duties, respectively. Flotilla II controlled Squadrons 22 and 24, which consisted of the Vietnamese Navy's landing ships and craft, coastal oilers, and other vessels providing logistic support.

Throughout this period, the Vietnamese Navy continued to suffer from serious deficiencies. Perhaps the greatest was the careerism and interservice political activity of many naval officers, which hamstrung coordination and cooperation in operations and lowered the morale and motivation of naval personnel. The emphasis on politics disrupted the training of sailors, many already educationally unprepared in the technical skills essential for the operation of complex vessels, weapons, and equipment. Aside from the political factor, training in gunnery, seamanship, and communications skills was hurt by the Vietnamese stress on instruction at shore-based schools, rather than on board ships. Unfortunately, few Vietnamese sailors were released from operational duty to receive training ashore. At the same time, the Recruit Training Center at Cam Ranh Bay, the Advanced Training Center in Saigon, and the Naval Training Center at Nha Trang, which included the Naval Academy, were hard-pressed to handle the great number of men entering the service during this period. Some relief was afforded by the training of Vietnamese officers and men on board U.S. naval vessels and in the United States. The quality of training improved somewhat as a result of these measures and the hard work of many Vietnamese sailors and American advisors.

The material condition of the navy raised even more serious concerns. Officers and men in the operational units often showed little regard for the maintenance of their ships and craft. Compounding the problem was the inability of the ship and boat repair facilities to cope with the growing backlog of work orders generated by the increased tempo of the war and the doubling in size of the navy. The lack of skilled workmen severely hampered operations at the Eastern Repair Facility at Cuu Long near Saigon and the Western Repair Facility at Can Tho, which handled River Force and Coastal Force work. The same condition existed at the smaller establishments at Danang, Cat Lo, Qui Nhon, An Thoi, and Rach Gia, which supported the Coastal Force exclusively. A number of these repair operations barely functioned. The situation was not much different at the larger Saigon Naval Shipyard, the country's main industrial facility and ship repair yard. Between 1965 and 1968, the 1,500-man skilled labor force lost 640 workers to other higher paying wartime enterprises and to the draft. As a result, ship overhauls fell from 23 in 1965 to 6 in 1967. Tasked to build Yabuta junks for the Coastal Force, the yard completed 90 in 1965, 39 in 1966, and only 15 in 1967. The repair crisis was partially eased by the dispatch to the yard of American naval technicians, improved management procedures by U.S. naval advisors, and the use of the Ship Repair Facility on Guam for major overhauls.

Of the three major combat commands in the Vietnamese Navy, the Coastal Force was most beset by problems. By mid-1968, hull and equipment deterioration and the disposal of inefficient sailing junks had reduced the number of vessels in the 600-craft force by half. Of the remainder, almost one-third were not operational for lack of repairs, spare parts, supplies, or fuel. The addition to the force of the newly constructed Yabuta junks only partially offset this loss of operational vessels. The Yabuta, fiberglass- hulled to retard damage from marine borers, was crewed by five men and armed with .30-caliber and .50-caliber machine guns and other automatic weapons. The craft, powered by 110-horsepower Graymarine diesel engines, could reach speeds of 10 to 12 knots.

Personnel problems proved equally vexing. Although authorized almost 4,000 men, the Coastal Force often fell short by 700 to 800 men. Lacking the prestige of the other combat branches and with its men underpaid and isolated in austere bases, the junk force had great difficulty recruiting personnel, especially those with technical knowledge. Further, only a few of the coastal group bases created formal training programs to increase the skills of those men enlisted. Encouraged by U.S. naval advisors, the Vietnamese Navy took limited steps in late 1967 and 1968 to improve the training effort and to better the living conditions of the junkmen, but much remained to be done.

Although the primary mission of the Coastal Force was to curtail Communist seaborne infiltration by patroling waters close inshore, it registered little success in this regard. American operations in the outer Market Time sectors received greater attention and this discouraged Vietnamese initiative. While the junk force stopped and searched hundreds of thousands of coastal craft, fewer than 50 percent of the patrol units were on station at any one time, and rarely at night. Still, the coastal groups did seize or destroy a number of junks, sampans, and other craft carrying enemy munitions and personnel and contributed to the general deterrence role of the Market Time force.

The Coastal Force devoted most of its attention to amphibious raids, patrols of shallow inlets and river mouths, troop lifts, and blocking support for allied ground sweeps. For instance, during Operation Irving in October 1966, ground forces and junk units in II Coastal Zone killed 681 Viet Cong troops. In addition, the junkmen established a government presence among the fishermen and provided them with medical services and other assistance. Sometimes the Coastal Force sailors convinced Communist soldiers to desert their units.

The enemy, who often attacked the 27 vulnerable Coastal Force bases, overran the triangular-shaped fortifications of Coastal Group 15 at Cua An Hoa in July 1965 and of Coastal Group 16 at Co Luy in August 1967. Other bases, however, withstood repeated assaults. In doing so, these facilities played a part in the allied effort that denied the enemy easy access to the coastal regions.

From 1965 to 1968, progress was uneven for the Fleet Command, another major component of the Vietnamese Navy. The Fleet Command grew, with an increase of 300 personnel and the acquisition of 3 more LSSLs, 8 PGMs, 6 LCM(M)s, 1 patrol rescue escort (PCER), and 1 YOG. But maintenance and repair of vessels, crew training, and the quality of leadership remained marginal. In contrast to the Coastal Force, the Fleet Command vessels were overmanned, hurting shipboard efficiency and habitability. Many of these factors detracted from the command's operational readiness and performance at sea and on the rivers. Normally, only 50 percent of the escorts and motor gunboats were available for ocean patrol, and this effort constituted a minor part of the total Market Time campaign. The river patrol and escort mission aided the allied cause, especially with the protection of shipping transiting the Mekong River to Cambodia. But because of inattention to defensive precautions, these operations could be costly, as demonstrated by the loss to mines in 1966 of an LSSL and damaging of a large infantry landing ship (LSIL) and a utility landing craft (LCU). Viet Cong mines also took their toll of the command's MLMS fleet, which worked to keep open the shipping channel to Saigon. In August 1966 and again in January 1967, enemy mines sank an MLMS in the Rung Sat. The logistic flotilla, charged with supplying Vietnamese Navy bases throughout the country, transported 4,000 tons of cargo and 5,000 passengers in 1966, but only 3,000 tons of cargo and 3,000 passengers the following year. Little improvement occurred in 1968.

Despite operational deficiencies, the Vietnamese Navy's blue-water sailors had worked with their American naval advisors to rectify problems and increase efficiency. By the end of 1968 the rivers and inshore coastal waters were more secure than they had been at the beginning. Further, on 15 May 1967, Fleet Command units began to take over sectors of the Market Time outer barrier from U.S. ships; by the end of the year vessels were stationed in each of the coastal zones.

As the Vietnamese Navy's primary combat arm, the River Force was charged with operating with the army to defeat the enemy in the vital Mekong Delta. Recognizing the importance of this mission, the Naval Advisory Group worked to procure new and replacement craft. The River Force received hundreds of craft from 1965 to mid-1968, including specially configured LCM 6 and LCM 8 landing craft that served as monitors, command boats, troop transports, minesweeping boats, patrol vessels, and fuel barges. The United States also provided the river sailors with 27 American-built river patrol craft (RPC). Unfortunately, these vessels proved to be too noisy, underarmed, and easily slowed by river vegetation.
The acquisition of all the new craft enabled the Vietnamese Navy to create another seven river assault groups. However, six of the newer groups (28-33) operated with eight fewer craft than the normal complement of 19 river craft. The 27th RAG, a special formation, deployed 22 boats. Formed by the Vietnamese Navy in June 1968, River Patrol Group 51, contained the first eight PBRs turned over by the U.S. Navy and assigned duty on the Long Tau and Dong Nai rivers. The following month, the 32d RAG redeployed to Thua Thien north of Hue where it incorporated a six-boat detachment based there since May 1967. The other components of the River Force, the River Transport Group, until dissolved in March 1966, and the 28-boat River Transport Escort Group, added to the mobility and firepower of the command.

River Assault Group Dispositions
Unit Location
21st RAG My Tho
22d RAG Saigon
23d RAG Vinh Long
24th RAG Tan An
25th RAG Can Tho
26th RAG Long Xuyen
27th RAG Saigon
28th RAG Saigon
29th RAG Can Tho
30th RAG Saigon
31st RAG Vinh Long
32d RAG Long Xuyen
33d RAG My Tho

The River Force did not fully employ its strength. The political troubles of 1965 and 1966 in the Republic of Vietnam, in which high-ranking River Force officers figured prominently, damaged morale and distracted personnel from their military mission. The navy and the army rarely launched joint amphibious assaults against the Viet Cong. Operations reflected the River Force's lack of technically skilled crewmen, the poor maintenance and repair of river craft, and the absence of inspired leadership. Usually, only half of the command's units were ready for combat action, and many of these boats were committed by the army to static guard, resupply, troop lift, or other nonoffensive duties. The reliance on defense over offense reflected the historic Vietnamese strategy of husbanding resources until there was clear advantage over an enemy. The Vietnamese Navy's River Force sailors often fought hard and bravely, killing many of the enemy and suffering heavy losses of their own, but their valor and sacrifice was not rewarded with strategic success.

Civic Action

The Naval Advisory Group and all other U.S. Navy units in-country employed civic action to win the support of the Vietnamese people for the government of the Republic of Vietnam and the allied cause. Wherever American forces operated, they instituted programs to provide the local inhabitants with medical assistance, hygiene and sanitation instruction, and English language training. Units distributed clothes, toys, medicines, and soap provided through the Navy's Project Handclasp and kits supplied by Care for instruction in such subjects as midwifing, agriculture, carpentry, and masonry. Chaplain Corps personnel often ministered to Vietnamese civilians. Seabee Technical Assistance Teams, renamed simply Seabee Teams, devoted their complete attention to the nation-building task. Assisted by local workers, the team constructed bridges, small dams, roads, houses for refugees, schools, dispensaries, market places, and municipal offices, usually in localities hotly contested by the government and the Communists. CM3 Marvin Shields, the first sailor awarded the Medal of Honor in the Southeast Asian conflict, was a member of Seabee Team 1104. His self-sacrifice in the line of duty during a Viet Cong attack on the work site at Dong Xoai in June 1965 reflected the average Seabee's dedication to the allied cause. So well thought of by American and Vietnamese officials was the work of the Seabees that the number of teams in the II, III, and IV Corps Tactical Zones was increased to 15 by 1968.

Many sailors took action, often out of pure humanitarian concern, to ease the plight of the Vietnamese villagers caught in the upheaval of war. The men freely donated their food rations, made financial contributions to orphanages, and solicited further help from friends and relatives back home. While the long-term value of the Navy's civic action programs in South Vietnam cannot be determined, they clearly improved relations between naval units and the population among which this war without front lines was fought.

The Navy's Logistic Support of the War

Much of the material assistance provided the Vietnamese people came by sea, as did 99 percent of the ammunition and fuel and 95 percent of the supplies, vehicles, and construction resources consumed by the massive allied war effort. With primary responsibility for the sea line of communication to Southeast Asia, the Navy oversaw the development of a 7,000-mile, transoceanic lifeline to American forces fighting ashore, steaming in the South China Sea, and to bases throughout the Pacific.

By mid-1967, the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service operated a fleet of 527 reactivated World War II Reserve Fleet ships and chartered vessels under U.S. and foreign registry. Throughout this period, MSTS shipping carried over 40,000 U.S. and allied combat and support troops to South Vietnam. The allied requirements for transportation were passed from MSTS representatives in the ports of Danang, Chu Lai, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Cam Ranh, Vung Tau, Phan Rang, and Vung Ro through the MSTS office in Saigon to the MSTS Far East, headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, and finally to Commander MSTS in the United States. Many types of vessels sailed in the MSTS fleet, including converted escort carriers Core, Card, Point Cruz (T-AKV 19), and Kula Gulf (T-AKV 8), which served as aircraft ferries. Corpus Christi Bay (T-ARVH 1), formerly seaplane tender Albermarle (AV 5), operated as a helicopter repair ship for the Army. In addition to the great number of standard cargo hulls, the service operated ships that carried cargo stowed in easily handled containers and new roll-on/roll-off ships that could quickly load and unload vehicles through rear or side ports. Arriving at Danang on 1 August 1967, Bienville was the first such container vessel to reach South Vietnam. Fuel tankers included the 190,000-barrel capacity Maumee (T-AO 149), the 140,000-barrel Cache (T-AO 67), and the 30,000-barrel Chattahoochee (T-AOG 82), the latter of which was used for storage and shuttle services in-country.

MSTS also controlled as many as 16 troop transports in the Pacific during the buildup of forces in South Vietnam. A fleet of LSTs, the number of which increased from 17 to 42 by mid-1968, handled cargo shuttling along the coast. In-port lighterage and terminal duties were accomplished by the MSTS-contracted Alaska Barge and Transport Company, which operated 19 tugs and 33 barges. The total MSTS effort ensured that the 550,000-man U.S. contingent in South Vietnam was well supplied, armed, and prepared to stay in the battle against the determined enemy.

The Service Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (SERVPAC), which controlled or coordinated the actions of the logistic ships and shore support facilities throughout the Pacific area, supplied the Navy in Southeast Asia. SERVPAC's primary subordinate commands for the forces afloat were Service Group 1 based in San Diego for the Eastern Pacific, Service Squadron 5 in Hawaii, and Service Group 3, based in Sasebo, Japan, for the Western Pacific. The latter group's Service Squadron 3 was also the Seventh Fleet's logistic Support Force (Task Force 73). The task force, designed for flexibility and versatility, could concentrate a great number of ships in Southeast Asia to provide the 100 units of the deployed fleet with ammunition, petroleum products, supplies, and repairs. The task force provided the fleet with repair parts, communications, and towing, salvage, port service, postal, and medical support as well as the universally desired movies that passed from ship to ship. The replenishment of fleet combatants at sea, a process constantly improved by new equipment and techniques such as vertical replenishment by shipboard helicopters, enabled the ships to operate for long periods at Yankee and Dixie Stations on the Market Time patrol, and on the naval gunfire support line. In a typical year, from 70 to 97 percent of the deployed fleet's requirements for fuel, ammunition, and provisions were satisfied by sea transfer. This task was eased considerably by modern, multifunction logistic ships such as the combat stores ship Mars (AFS 1) and fast combat support ship Sacramento (AOE 1). Other vital specialized ships included hydrographic survey ships Maury (AGS 16), Towhee (AGS 28), and Tanner (AGS 15), and hospital ships Repose and Sanctuary. These last vessels carried the most modern equipment and a skilled naval medical staff of 24 doctors, 29 nurses, and 250 corpsmen in addition to dental surgeons and chaplains. Medical evacuation helicopters generally took no more than 30 minutes to fly wounded troops from their units to the ships, positioned close offshore. This deployment saved thousands of lives and eased untold suffering. Salvage vessels such as Reclaimer (ARS 42) and fleet tug Lipan (ATF 85) freed many grounded vessels, including destroyer Frank Knox, Terrell County (LST 1157), and infiltrating Communist trawlers. Task Force 73's medium and light lift craft, comprising Harbor Clearance Unit 1, recovered vessels sunk in the inland waterways of South Vietnam.

The Service Force commander also directed the activities of the Navy's Pacific-wide shore establishment. This included the Naval Ship Repair Facilities and Naval Supply Depots in Yokosuka, Japan; Subic Bay, Philippines; and Guam; the Naval Magazines at Guam and Subic; the Naval Ordnance Facilities at Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan; the Fleet Post Office at San Francisco; and the Headquarters Support Activity in Taiwan. The headquarters for area coordination, including the separate Commanders Naval Forces, Marianas, Japan, and Philippines also reported to Commander Service Force.

In July 1967, the Navy strengthened SERVPAC's ability to support the naval effort in Southeast Asia when it placed under his command the Fleet Activities at Yokosuka, Sasebo, and the Ryukyu Islands; the Naval Base at Subic; the Naval Stations at Subic, Guam, and Pearl Harbor; and the California Naval Stations at San Francisco, Treasure Island, Terminal Island, Long Beach, and San Diego. The air, submarine, cruiser-destroyer, and other type commands in the Pacific Fleet, however, continued to ensure the readiness of their units through interaction with U.S.-based parent commands and the Naval Ship, Air, Ordnance, and other systems commands.

SERVPAC took care of the administrative needs of another three commands: the Naval Construction Battalions, U.S. Pacific Fleet; the Naval Support Activity, Danang; and the Naval Support Activity, Saigon. COMUSMACV, however, directed the operations of the Seabee units and the support activities.

In contrast to the Seabee teams, which had been in South Vietnam since 1963 to assist the counterinsurgency and nation-building programs, the naval construction battalions were deployed to support Navy and Marine Corps combat forces. On 19 May 1965 at Danang, the Navy activated the 30th Naval Construction Regiment and placed it under COMUSMACV's III Marine Amphibious Force. This arrangement lasted until 1 April 1966, when the newly established Naval Forces, Vietnam, took over the command responsibility. In Saigon exactly two months later, the Navy activated the 3d Naval Construction Brigade, which by the end of 1966 ran the operations of all Seabee units in-country under COMNAVFORV guidance. A final command alignment occurred on 1 August 1967, when the brigade headquarters was shifted from Saigon to Danang for improved control of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment and the newly activated 32d Naval Construction Regiment. The former command directed the Seabee battalions in the Danang area while the latter controlled the construction effort around Hue from its headquarters at Phu Bai.

The Seabee presence in South Vietnam increased dramatically during the period, especially in the predominantly Marine I Corps Tactical Zone. Between 7 May 1965, when the 600-man Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 10 landed at Chu Lai, and mid-1968, the construction force grew to over 10,000 men formed into 4 major headquarters staffs, 15 thirteen-man counterinsurgency teams stationed country-wide, 12 battalions, and 2 maintenance units. Besides NMCB 10, Commander Naval Construction Battalions, U.S. Pacific Fleet deployed NMCBs 3, 5, 9, and 11, and the Atlantic Fleet's NMCBs 4 and 8 for eight-month tours of duty at Chu Lai and Danang during 1965 and 1966. The increase in combat activity in northern I Corps necessitated the deployment of additional units to Vietnam, including the Atlantic Fleet NMCBs 1, 6, and 7, and the newly commissioned NMCBs 40, 53, 58, 62, 71, 74, 121, 128, and 133. By July of 1968, five construction battalions operated from Danang, two from Chu Lai, two from Phu Bai, two from Quang Tri, and one from Dong Ha. In addition, Construction Battalion Maintenance Units 301 and 302 maintained and repaired naval base facilities at Dong Ha and Cam Ranh Bay. Further, smaller detachments built facilities at Dong Tam, Cu Chi, Pleiku, Long Binh, Nha Trang, and other locations in the southern areas of South Vietnam. Although remaining under the operational control of the Seventh Fleet's Commander Amphibious Task Force, Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 operated for short periods in South Vietnam, installing pontoon piers and offshore fuel lines to support combat forces ashore, and assembling special pontoon barges for use by the Navy's river forces.

Often working under fire as they had during World War II and the Korean War, the Seabees in Vietnam provided invaluable support to the allied ground campaign. The naval units completed helicopter pads, airfield runways, taxi strips, and hangars at Chu Lai, Danang, and Phu Bai. They also built port facilities and boat ramps at Danang and Cua Viet; surfaced, resurfaced, and kept open Route 1 and other vital roads and erected thousands of bridges, including the 2,000-foot-long Liberty Bridge over the Thu Bon River southwest of Danang. The Seabees also constructed fortifications, observation towers, fuel storage tanks, barracks, mess halls, storage buildings, ammunition storage areas, and medical facilities such as the Navy's 400-bed station hospital at Danang. The Seabees operated stone quarries, drilled wells, and repaired damage from Viet Cong rocket, artillery, and mortar fire. The Navy's construction units were especially valued during the Tet Offensive, when they prepared facilities and defenses for Army divisions dispatched to I Corps, repaired a crucial bridge across the Perfume River to Hue, and helped reopen land communications to the besieged Marine base at Khe Sanh. These accomplishments were not without cost. From 1965 to 1968, 57 Seabees were killed and hundreds were wounded in the line of duty.

Naval Support Activities

Over the span of several years, the Naval Support Activity Danang, became the Navy's largest overseas logistic command. But in March of 1965 when Marine combat troops moved ashore into I Corps, the support establishment was rudimentary. The port of Danang contained only three small piers, three LST ramps, and a stone quay that were inaccessible to oceangoing vessels; even smaller craft had trouble approaching. The scarcity of lighterage and the heavy weather that often buffeted the harbor made ship- to-craft cargo transfers hazardous and inefficient. Warehouses, open storage areas, cargo handling equipment, and good exit routes from the port were limited.

From March to July 1965, III Marine Amphibious Force troops delivered supplies to the units in the field while the Seventh Fleet ran port operations. Soon, the fleet dispatched Naval Beach Group 1, Cargo Handling Battalions 1 and 2, nucleus port crew, Mine Force, Service Force, underwater demolition team, and explosive ordnance disposal units to Danang. In addition, the Navy took charge of the offloading, storage, and delivery of supplies common to all the allied forces in I Corps. Additional responsibilities included harbor defense and the transshipment of cargo to the smaller ports in the region. The fleet also managed logistic operations at these locations.

The Navy took formal control of the I Corps logistic establishment on 15 October 1965, when it established Naval Support Activity, Danang. During the next several years, the command created subordinate naval support activity detachments at Chu Lai, Hue, Tan My, Dong Ha, Cua Viet, Phu Bai, and Sa Huynh. These detachments decentralized the support function and improved the logistic flow.

The naval commander of NSA Danang had great resources at his disposal to accomplish his mission. Logistic vessels included LCM 3, LCM 6, and LCU landing craft; harbor utility craft (YFU); small harbor tugs (YTL); open lighters (YC); refrigerated barges (YFRN); Army craft; and a refrigerator ship. While base facilities were under construction, the fleet deployed to Danang LSTs, an LSD, and an attack transport (APA), the latter for quartering and messing NSA personnel. The harbor defense unit used landing craft, picket boats, and 16-foot Boston Whalers to monitor and protect the maritime traffic. A small craft repair facility and a floating drydock (AFDL) helped keep NSA vessels in working order. Over 130 rough terrain and warehouse forklifts and 20 cranes eased cargo handling.

The logistic establishment at Danang functioned with growing efficiency by mid-1968 as it built new port and shore facilities. Seabees, initially using materials pre-stocked long before the war in Advanced Base Functional Component packages, constructed three deep-draft piers for oceangoing ships, two 300-foot wooden piers, an LST causeway, and the Bridge Cargo Complex that consisted of a 1,600-foot-long wharf, 300,000 cubic feet of refrigerated storage space, and 500,000 square feet of covered storage space. Amphibious fuel lines were laid along the sea floor to storage tanks ashore at Red Beach, north of the city, and the Marine air facility at Marble Mountain to the south.

During 1965 the logistic operation at Danang suffered from lack of suitable or sufficient harbor craft, cargo handling equipment, and port personnel. Management and planning of the logistic flow needed refinement, as ships arrived en masse with cargo improperly stowed and packaged. Storage areas ashore were limited by space and access. Finally, the harsh Northeast Monsoon made cargo operations at Danang and throughout I Corps hazardous and difficult during the winter months.

From 1966 to 1968, however, new resources and management procedures dramatically improved the situation. By July 1968 the Naval Support Activity handled 350,000 tons of cargo each month for the 200,000 allied troops in I Corps. Danang had become the largest fuel complex in South Vietnam capable of holding over 500,000 barrels. The station hospital begun in 1965 had treated over 21,000 casualties, 44,000 nonbattle patients, and one million outpatients flowing in from the hostile and disease-ridden I Corps environment.

The outlying NSA detachments proved godsends during the Tet Offensive, when they assumed the logistic support of the sometimes isolated allied forces. The units at Dong Ha and Cua Viet on the Cua Viet River pushed supplies and ammunition through to the 3d Marine Division holding the line at the DMZ while the Tan My detachment assisted the troops locked in combat at Hue. The support establishment at Chu Lai supplied the 1st Marine Division while the one at Sa Huynh supplied Army troops near Duc Pho. Naval Support Activity, Danang, thus helped the American and other combat contingents withstand, and eventually roll back the enemy's 1968 onslaught. In contrast to Danang, a logistic establishment already existed at Saigon when major U.S. forces came ashore in South Vietnam in 1965. The Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon, gradually turned over most of its responsibilities for common support of the other services to the Army, but the command continued to provide valuable assistance. During a single month in 1965 the activity's Saigon port operation offloaded over 330,000 tons of cargo from 96 ships and transshipped 40,000 tons to other coastal centers. Throughout the year HSAS divisions acquired 2.7 million feet of storage space, managed 54 bachelor officer and enlisted quarters, oversaw 318 construction contracts, and distributed 60,000 books and magazines from the activity library to outlying bases. The Saigon Station Hospital's 109 medical personnel continued to treat thousands of patients.

Naval Support Activity, Saigon, which the Navy activated on 17 May 1966, two days after HSAS ceased operations, was charged with providing logistic support to naval units in the II, III, and IV Corps Tactical Zones. The newly created NAVFORV directed the operations of NSA Saigon. The support activity supplied the Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force, River Patrol Force, Riverine Assault Force, and the various specialized headquarters, offices, and detachments operating in the three southern corps areas. NSA Saigon provided the commands with ammunition, weapons, and communications equipment; transported cargo and personnel; repaired and maintained ships and craft; stocked spare parts; and built bases and facilities. Finally, NSA saw to the quartering, messing, payroll, and recreational needs of the naval officers and enlisted personnel in Vietnam.

The Saigon activity developed subordinate support bases for the combat forces similar to those of NSA Danang's. NSA Saigon detachments at Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Cam Ranh Bay, An Thoi, Cat Lo, and Vung Tau primarily served the Market Time operation, although the last two bases were home to other naval combat units as well. The concentration of the Task Force 115 headquarters, naval air units, and other large contingents at Cam Ranh Bay required greater command authority and logistic resources. As a result, in September 1967, NSA Saigon upgraded the detachment to the Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay. Detachments were also established at Can Tho (and later moved to nearby Binh Thuy), Nha Be, Vinh Long, Sa Dec, My Tho, Tan Chau, and Long Xuyen. These units saw to the special needs of the Task Force 116 PBR commands. The Naval Support Activity, Saigon, Detachment Dong Tam, supplied only the Mobile Riverine Force naval units.

To perform its work, NSA Saigon operated many logistic support vessels, including repair and maintenance ships Tutuila (ARG 4), Markab (AR 23), and Krishna (ARL 38); LSTs; and barges used for berthing and messing personnel and for providing fuel, water, supplies, and repairs. The support activity also ran an air transportation service, nicknamed "Air Cofat" (the unit operated from a building once owned by the French Cofat cigarette company). The naval unit flew C-47, C-117, TC-45J, HU-16, and H-46 aircraft from Tan Son Nhut Airfield near Saigon. By mid-1968 NSA Saigon had developed its logistic support system to such a degree that naval combat operations were rarely constrained by the lack of supply. By August, the 2,500-man activity transported 6,000 to 8,000 tons of cargo each month by water to forces in the field. Air Cofat delivered another 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of supplies and 3,500 passengers. The repair and maintenance vessels kept the 487 in-country combat and support craft ready for operations throughout the southern corps areas and on the coast. NSA Saigon's skill in maintaining the flow of logistics to the naval combat forces helped them take the steam out of the enemy's attacks in the capital region during 1968.

Chapter 4

2009-11-08T17:58:00.001-08:00

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 4: Winding Down the War, 1968 - 1973

Dramatic changes in the course of the war characterized 1968. The enemy's bloody country-wide Tet Offensive of February and March and the follow-up attacks during the spring influenced American decision-making in several important ways. The Johnson administration, convinced that the allied military struggle was faring badly and buffeted by growing domestic opposition to the American role in the war, ordered the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Southeast Asia. At the same time, the administration began diplomatic talks in Paris with the Vietnamese Communist in hopes of achieving a negotiated settlement of the long conflict. U.S. leaders decided that their ability to deal from a position of strength depended on an enlargement and improvement of the South Vietnamese Armed Forces as U.S. forces departed the theater. This "Vietnamization" of the war became the cornerstone of American policy.

The SEALORDS Campaign

As U.S. forces prepared the South Vietnamese military to assume complete responsibility for the war, they also worked to keep pressure on the enemy. In fact, from 1968 to 1971, the allies exploited the Communists' staggering battlefield losses during the Tet attacks by pushing the enemy's large main force units out to the border areas, extending the government's presence into Viet Cong strongholds, and consolidating control over population centers.

The Navy in particular spearheaded a drive in the Mekong Delta to isolate and destroy the weakened Communist forces. The SEALORDS (Southeast Asia Lake, Ocean, River, and Delta Strategy) program was a determined effort by U.S. Navy, South Vietnamese Navy, and allied ground forces to cut enemy supply lines from Cambodia and disrupt operations at his base areas deep in the delta. It was developed by Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., appointed COMNAVFORV in September 1968.

When Admiral Zumwalt launched SEALORDS in October 1968 with the blessing of the new COMUSMACV, General Creighton Abrams, allied naval forces in South Vietnam were at peak strength. The U.S. Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force operated 81 Swift boats, 24 Coast Guard WPBs, and 39 other vessels. The River Patrol Force deployed 258 patrol and minesweeping boats; the 3,700-man Riverine Assault Force counted 184 monitors, transports, and other armored craft; and Helicopter Attack Squadron Light (HAL) 3 flew 25 armed helicopters. This air component was soon augmented by the 15 fixed-wing OV-10 Bronco aircraft of Attack Squadron Light (VAL) 4, activated in April 1969. The lethal Bronco flown by the "Black Ponies" of VAL-4 carried 8 to 16 5- inch Zuni rockets, 19 2.75-inch rockets, 4 M-60 machine guns, and a 20-millimeter cannon. In addition, five SEAL platoons supported operations in the delta.

Complementing the American naval contingent were the Vietnamese Navy's 655 ships, assault craft, patrol boats, and other vessels. To focus the allied effort on the SEALORDS campaign, COMNAVFORV appointed his deputy the operational commander, or "First SEALORD," of the newly activated Task Force 194. Although continuing to function, the Game Warden, Market Time, and Riverine Assault Force operations were scaled down and their personnel and material resources increasingly devoted to SEALORDS. Task Force 115 PCFs mounted lightning raids into enemy- held coastal waterways and took over patrol responsibility for the delta's larger rivers. This freed the PBRs for operations along the previously uncontested smaller rivers and canals. These intrusions into former Viet Cong bastions were possible only with the on-call support of naval aircraft and the heavily armed riverine assault craft.

In the first phase of the SEALORDS campaign allied forces established patrol "barriers," often using electronic sensor devices, along the waterways paralleling the Cambodian border. In early November 1968, PBRs and riverine assault craft opened two canals between the Gulf of Siam at Rach Gia and the Bassac River at Long Xuyen. South Vietnamese paramilitary ground troops helped naval patrol units secure the transportation routes in this operational area, soon named Search Turn. Later in the month, Swift boats, PBRs, riverine assault craft, and Vietnamese naval vessels penetrated the Giang Thanh-Vinh Te canal system and established patrols along the waterway from Ha Tien on the gulf to Chau Doc on the upper Bassac. As a symbol of the Vietnamese contribution to the combined effort, the allied command changed the name of this operation from Foul Deck to Tran Hung Dao I. Then in December U.S. naval forces pushed up the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers west of Saigon, against heavy enemy opposition, to cut infiltration routes from the "Parrot's Beak" area of Cambodia. The Giant Slingshot operation, so named for the configuration of the two rivers, severely hampered Communist resupply in the region near the capital and in the Plain of Reeds. Completing the first phase of the SEALORDS program, in January 1969 PBRs, assault support patrol boats (ASPB), and other river craft established patrol sectors along canals westward from the Vam Co Tay to the Mekong River in Operation Barrier Reef. Thus, by early 1969 a patrolled waterway interdiction barrier extended almost uninterrupted from Tay Ninh northwest of Saigon to the Gulf of Siam.

Allied Navies on the Offensive

The new year witnessed the strengthening of the border patrol barriers and the expansion of SEALORDS into three regions: I Corps, the area north of Saigon, and the remotest reaches of the Mekong Delta. In April, Task Force Clearwater's I Corps efforts were enhanced by Operation Sea Tiger in which Task Force 115 Swift boats, River Division 543 PBRs, Vietnamese Coastal Group 14 junks, and River Assault Group 32 units battled to secure the Cua Dai and Hoi An Rivers in Quang Nam Province. Soon afterward, in June, naval river forces began patrolling the vital Saigon River from Phu Cuong to Dau Tieng, the latter in the hotly contested Michelin Rubber Plantation. This operation, designated Ready Deck, tied in with the Giant Slingshot interdiction effort to the west.

In the Mekong Delta proper, Swift boat, PBR, riverine assault craft, SEAL, and Vietnamese ground units struck at the Viet Cong in their former strongholds, which included the Ca Mau Peninsula, the U Minh Forest, and the islands of the broad Mekong River system. From 7 to 18 April, ground, air, and naval units from each of the American services, the Vietnamese Navy, and the Vietnamese Marine Corps conducted Silver Mace II, a strike operation in the Nam Can Forest on Ca Mau Peninsula. The enemy avoided heavy contact with the allied force, but his logistical system was disrupted. After raiding and harassing operations like Silver Mace II, the combined navies often deployed forces to secure a more permanent Vietnamese government presence in vital areas. In June 1969, for example, the U.S. Navy anchored a mobile pontoon base in the middle of the Ca Mau region's Cua Lon River. This operation, labelled Sea Float, was made difficult by heavy Viet Cong opposition, strong river currents, and the distance to logistic support facilities. Still, Sea Float denied the enemy a safe haven even in this isolated corner of the delta. The allies further threatened the Communist "rear" area in September when they set up patrols on the Ong Doc, a river bordering the dense and isolated U Minh area. Staging from an advance tactical support base at the river's mouth, U.S. and Vietnamese PBRs of Operation Breezy Cove repeatedly intercepted and destroyed enemy supply parties crossing the waterway.

By October 1969, one year after the start of the SEALORDS campaign, Communist military forces in the Mekong Delta were under heavy pressure. The successive border interdiction barriers delayed and disrupted the enemy's resupply and troop replacement from Cambodia. The raiding operations hit vulnerable base areas and the Sea Float deployment put allied forces deep into what had been a Viet Cong sanctuary. In addition, American and Vietnamese forces captured or destroyed over 500 tons of enemy weapons, ammunition, food, medicines, and other supplies. Furthermore, 3,000 Communist soldiers were killed and 300 were captured at a cost of 186 allied men killed and 1,451 wounded.

Vietnamization of Naval Operations

The overall composition of the SEALORDS task force in South Vietnam reflected the growing role of the Vietnamese Navy in the war. The newly elected administration of President Richard M. Nixon formally adopted as U.S. policy the Vietnamization program early in 1969. The naval part of that process, termed ACTOV (Accelerated Turnover to the Vietnamese), embodied the incremental transfer to Vietnam of NAVFORV's river and coastal combatant fleet and the logistic support establishment. ACTOV was more than the provision of material, however, for the Vietnamese Navy needed training in the operation, maintenance, and repair of the U.S. equipment and in the efficient functioning of the supply system. Leadership skills at all command levels required improvement as did the general morale of naval personnel before the Vietnamese Navy would be able to fight on alone. Spearheaded by the 564 officers and men of the Naval Advisory Group early in 1969, the U.S. Navy integrated Vietnamese sailors into the crews of American ships and craft. When sufficiently trained, the Vietnamese bluejackets and officers relieved their American counterparts, who then rotated back to the United States. As entire units came under Vietnamese Navy command, control of the various SEALORDS operations passed to that naval service as well.

The allied push into Cambodia during the spring of 1970 brought the SEALORDS forces into a unique operational environment. At 0730 local time on 9 May, 10 days after ground troops crossed the border, a combined Vietnamese-American naval task force steamed up the Mekong River to wrest control of that key waterway from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces. The flotilla, led by a Vietnamese naval officer, was composed of American PCFs, ASPBs, PBRs, HAL-3 and VAL-4 aircraft, Benewah, Askari, Hunterdon County, YRBM 16, YRBM 21 and 10 strike assault boats (STAB) of Strike Assault Boat Squadron 20, a fast-reaction unit created by Admiral Zumwalt in 1969. The Vietnamese contingent included riverine assault craft of many types, PCFs, PBRs, and marine battalions. Naval Advisory Group personnel sailed with each Vietnamese vessel. By the end of the first day, Vietnamese naval units reached the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, while to the south the combined force stormed enemy-held Neak Luong, a strategic ferry crossing point on the river. For political reasons, no U.S. personnel were allowed past Neak Luong, midway to Phnom Penh. Although the American component pulled out of Cambodia by 29 June, the Vietnamese continued to guard the Mekong and evacuate to South Vietnam over 82,000 ethnic Vietnamese jeopardized by the conflict.

The generally good performance of the Vietnamese Navy during the allied sweep into Cambodia motivated the transfer of significant operational responsibilities to the Vietnamese. The barrier along the Cambodian border was turned over to the Vietnamese Navy in March 1970, which renamed the operation Tran Hung Dao I. In May, Giant Slingshot and Sea Tiger became Tran Hung Dao II and Tran Hung Dao VII. The allied navies also launched Operation Blue Shark, a seven-month effort designed to strike at the Viet Cong command, communication, and logistics network (or infrastructure) in the mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Mekong River system, on the river islands, and along the river banks all the way to the Cambodian border. Coastal Surveillance Force PCFs landed SEALs and LDNN for swift, deadly attacks on the usually surprised enemy. The units often followed up on intelligence gathered by Naval Intelligence Liaison Officers (NILO) assigned to many of South Vietnam's provinces and operational areas.

In July the Vietnamese Navy assumed sole responsibility f or the Ready Deck operation, which was given a Tran Hung Dao designator like the other former SEALORDS areas. Also in July, the U.S. Navy ceased its combat activity on I Corp's Cua Viet and Hue Rivers. The Americans then transferred the last combatant vessels of Task Force Clearwater to the Vietnamese. A final turnover of river craft at the end of 1970 enabled the Vietnamese Navy to take charge of the Search Turn, Barrier Reef, and Breezy Cove efforts deep in the Mekong Delta. Except for continued support by HAL-3 and VAL-4 aircraft and SEAL detachments, the U.S. Navy's role in the SEALORDS campaign ended in April 1971 when Solid Anchor (previously Sea Float and now based ashore at Nam Can) became a Vietnamese responsibility.

The Vietnamese Navy, which grew from 18,000 men in the fall of 1968 to 32,000 men at the end of 1970, instituted organizational changes to accommodate the new personnel, material, and operational responsibilities. The Vietnamese grouped their riverine assault craft in riverine assault interdiction divisions (RAID) and their PBRs into river interdiction divisions (RID) and river patrol groups (RPG). They also augmented the existing RAGs and coastal groups, the latter now consolidated into 20 units for lack of sufficient patrol junks.

This dramatic change in the nature of the allied war effort reflected the rapid but measured withdrawal from South Vietnam of U.S. naval forces. NAVFORV strength dropped from a peak of 38,083 personnel in September 1968 to 16,757 at the end of 1970. As Admiral Zumwalt transferred resources to the Vietnamese Navy, he disestablished U.S. naval commands and airlifted personnel home. With the redeployment of the Army's 9th Infantry Division and the turnover of 64 riverine assault craft in June 1969, the joint Mobile Riverine Force halted operations. When the Riverine Assault Force (Task Force 117) stood down on 25 August 1969, it became the first major naval command deactivated in Vietnam. By December 1970, COMNAVFORV had transferred to Vietnam the remaining river combatant craft in his command, which included 293 PBRs and 224 riverine assault craft. That month, the River Patrol Force was disestablished and the Task Force 116 designator reassigned to Commander Delta Naval Forces, a new headquarters controlling SEAL and naval aircraft units still in-country.

Vietnamese Navy Operational Commands, July 1970
Task Fleet 21 SEALORDS Operations

Units Operations
Task Force 210 Special
Task Force 211 Amphibious
Task Force 212 Tran Hung Dao I
Task Force 213 Coastal
Task Force 214 Giant Slingshot
Task Force 215 Fleet Command
Task Force 216 Ready Deck
Task Force 217 4th Riverine Area

Task Fleet 22 Non-SEALORDS Operations
Units Operations

Task Force 221 1st Coastal Zone
Task Force 222 2d Coastal Zone
Task Force 223 3d Coastal Zone
Task Force 224 4th Coastal Zone
Task Force 225 3d Riverine Area
Task Force 226 4th Riverine Area
Task Force 227 Rung Sat Special Zone
Task Force 228 Capital Military District

Task Force 77 Operations

Seventh Fleet operations during the post-Tet years also reflected the diminishing American role in the war. The prohibition against bombing North Vietnam, which went into force on 1 November 1968, limited the number of lucrative targets available to Task Force 77 to those in Laos, South Vietnam, and eventually Cambodia. Aerial operations in those countries also were limited by the seasonal Southwest Monsoon, which lasted from May to September. And beginning in 1970, the Navy mandated stringent measures to conserve fuel, ammunition, and aircraft to cut operating costs. As a result, the monthly average during 1968 of three attack carriers deployed at Yankee Station decreased to two ships from 1969 to 1971. Similarly, the 1968 monthly average of between 5,000 and 6,000 attack sorties in Southeast Asia dropped to between 3,000 and 4,000 sorties from November 1968 to mid-1970. From then until the end of 1971, naval air units averaged 1,000 to 2,500 strike sorties in Laos and South Vietnam. In this three- year period, the Navy dropped over 700,000 tons of ordnance on the enemy, while losing 130 aircraft and many of their crews.

While the air campaign in Southeast Asia tapered off, the fleet continued to concentrate forces against the Communist in critical areas. The great weight of effort was directed toward interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, the primary logistical artery of the Communist armies fighting in South Vietnam. Throughout the Laotian Panhandle (the Steel Tiger operating theater) naval attack squadrons bombed and mined North Vietnamese truck convoys, vehicle parks, fuel supply, and ammunition storage areas, bridges, roads, antiaircraft positions, and surface-to-air missile sites. To increase the effectiveness of the interdiction campaign, in November 1969 the joint Navy-Air Force team initiated Commando Bolt. This operation directed newly deployed EA-6B electronic countermeasures aircraft, precision- guided bombs, and sensitive ground and air sensor detection systems against the routes leading south from the Ban Karai and Mu Gia passes of Laos. The American air forces also inaugurated a series of Commando Hunt operations in the panhandle and continued the Barrel Roll campaign in northern Laos.

Although minor in comparison with the actions in Laos, the Navy's close air support operations in South Vietnam's I Corps served the allied cause well. Often constituting one-fourth to one-third of the naval attack sorties in Southeast Asia during 1969, the monthly missions in South Vietnam usually did not total over 500 in 1970 and 1971 when the American ground presence in the region was greatly reduced. Nonetheless, often hard-pressed units of the 3d Marine Division and the Army's 101st Airborne Division benefited from the air support provided by the carrier task force.

The fleet swiftly marshalled forces for several key operations. For instance, three attack carriers deployed to Yankee Station in May 1970 when the Navy freed the Air Force from some bombing responsibilities in Laos, allowing the latter service to focus on Cambodia. Again, in March 1971, Task Force 77 deployed Ranger, Kitty Hawk, and Hancock to the Gulf of Tonkin to back up the South Vietnamese advance into Laos, known as Operation Lam Son 719. Bucking heavy antiaircraft and surface-to-air missile fire, naval aviators flew 5,000 strike sorties that month, often dropping their ordnance within a few yards of South Vietnamese ground troops fighting for survival in Laos.

In addition to strike operations, the fleet continued to carry out the Yankee Team aerial reconnaissance program in Laos and the Blue Tree effort in North Vietnam. Although bombing operations had ceased in the North, the naval aircraft covering the photo- graphic planes were authorized to defend them with force. In a number of instances, escorting F-4 Phantoms destroyed surface-to- air missile sites that launched weapons against the reconnaissance group. The number of combat support sorties, the great majority of which were aerial reconnaissance missions, equalled or surpassed the attack sorties, reflecting the importance of intelligence gathering to the allied war effort in Southeast Asia. These naval aviation units produced valuable information on Communist troop movements into South Vietnam, the extensive infiltration system in Laos and North Vietnam, and the Communist bloc maritime resupply effort.

Allied Surface Warfare

The Seventh Fleet also made less use of its amphibious arm, although early in this period the naval ARG/SLF team carried out amphibious landings in the pattern of previous years. ARG/SLF Alpha and ARG/SLF Bravo, naval gunfire support ships, Market Time craft, and troops of the South Vietnamese Army's 23d Infantry Division carried out Bold Mariner, the largest amphibious operation of the Vietnam War. Between 13 January and 9 February 1969, the combined force sealed off the Batangan Peninsula by air, land, and sea and methodically screened over 12,000 Vietnamese. The process identified 256 Viet Cong troops, including the entire C-95th Sapper Company. The allies killed another 239 Viet Cong. In May, following unproductive operations in February and March, the Seventh Fleet's amphibious units landed on Barrier Island south of Hoi An and killed or captured 178 enemy soldiers. Four other actions mounted between May and August on the I Corps coast produced almost as many Marine as Communist casualties, primarily because of the numerous enemy mines and booby traps in the operational areas. On 7 September, the ARG/SLF team launched the final operation of the year, Defiant Stand, when it once again struck at the enemy on Barrier Island. This time, the one U.S. Marine and two South Korean Marine battalions committed to the battle killed 293 Viet Cong troops and captured 121 weapons at a cost of 59 allied casualties.

During the remaining months of 1969, the Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force was fully employed with the withdrawal of the 3d Marine Division from South Vietnam. American vessels transported over 18,400 troops and 24,000 tons of equipment to Okinawa and the United States. In keeping with the Vietnamization of the conflict, Washington withdrew both ARG/SLFs from South Vietnamese waters, placing them in an alert status. Thereafter, CINCPAC Admiral John S. McCain III and COMUSMACV General Abrams needed Joint Chiefs of Staff authorization to initiate combat landings in South Vietnam. Although throughout 1970 and 1971 the fleet's amphibious forces were prepared for the evacuation of Americans from the mainland and other contingencies, that need did not arise.

The changing U.S. role in the war and the relatively low level of enemy combat activity in the coastal regions also influenced the naval gunfire support mission in the post-Tet years. The combat action was heaviest in Cambodia during 1970 and in Laos during 1971. Consequently, the naval command limited the number of ships it made available to the fleet's Naval Gunfire Support Unit. The Navy also withdrew many ships with large-caliber guns. Battleship New Jersey (BB 62), which added her devastating 16-inch guns to the firepower on the gun line during late 1968 and early 1969, returned to the United States. Generally, one battleship, one cruiser, four to ten destroyers, and two rocket ships provided support early in 1969. By 1971, an average of three ships steamed offshore, one assigned duty in I corps and the others aided Vietnamese operations in the Ca Mau and U Minh areas. The 454,000 rounds fired by the task unit in 1969 was half the total expended in 1968. The figure dropped further to 234,000 rounds in 1970 and 114,000 rounds In 1971. Although Seventh Fleet commanders assigned fewer ships to the Naval Gunfire Support Unit during these years, they were prepared to deploy powerful surface combatants into South Vietnamese waters on short notice.

The lessened need for naval gunfire support partly reflected the success, after years of effort, of the Market Time antiinfiltration campaign. The combined effect of allied air, sea, and inshore patrols, amphibious operations in the coastal regions, ground force strength in the populated lowlands, and the availability of Laos and Cambodia as resupply bases apparently limited Communist attempts at seaborne infiltration during most of 1968 and 1969. No trawlers were discovered penetrating the territorial waters of the Republic of Vietnam until August 1969, when the Communist lost uninhibited access to the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville. The ouster of the Sihanouk government and the allied push into Cambodia in the spring of 1970 totally closed this point of entry to the Communist. Between 24 August 1969 and the end of 1970, the allies detected 15 trawlers, about one each month, heading for the South Vietnamese littoral, normally in the Mekong Delta region. Task Force 115 destroyed one of these resupply ships, whose 60 tons of munitions were recovered by U.S. Navy and Vietnamese Navy divers. Thirteen other ships aborted their missions upon discovery. Only one trawler penetrated the screen to complete a resupply operation.

Vietnamization Completed

Confident of the coastal patrol's effectiveness, Commander Coastal Surveillance Force began early the Vietnamization of the Market Time effort. The ACTOV program of the Navy and the SCATTOR (Small Craft Assets, Training, and Turnover of Resources) plan of the Coast Guard entailed the phased transition of the Vietnamese Navy into complete control of the inshore barrier, then the high seas surface patrol, and finally a coastal radar network intended to replace the American air surveillance effort. In September 1970, as Task Force 115 turned over the last of the PCFs and WPBs, the Vietnamese Navy took charge of the inner barrier. Throughout 1971, the American naval command transferred seagoing ships, harbor control and mine craft, and logistic support craft of many types, including Coast Guard cutters Yakutat (WHEC 380), Bering Strait (WHEC 382), Castle Rock (WHEC 383), and Cook Inlet (WHEC 384), each equipped with 5-inch guns; radar escort picket Camp (DER 251); Garrett County, reconfigured as a small craft tender; and refrigerated storage craft YFR 889.

Despite the natural complications of a turnover process, the combined coastal patrol continued to perform successfully in 1971. Of the 11 Communist ships detected attempting infiltration during the year, only one delivered its cargo to the Viet Cong in An Xuyen Province, the usual destination of the trawlers. Another nine ships fled after being sighted by the allied patrol. The remaining vessel was tracked and sunk in coastal waters on 8 April through the coordinated effort of Coast Guard cutters Morgenthau (WHEC 722) and Rush (WHEC 723), the U.S. Navy's gunboat Antelope (PG 86) and air patrol units, and the Vietnamese Navy's motor gunboat Kien Vang (PGM 603).

An efficient logistic establishment was as important as a ready combat force to the future performance of the Vietnamese Navy. Soon after the turnover of combatant craft got underway, the U.S. Navy prepared its support establishment for eventual transfer to the allied naval service. Under ACTOVLOG (Accelerated Turnover to the Vietnamese, Logistics), Admiral Zumwalt oversaw not only the turnover of U.S. installations, but also the expansion of the Vietnamese base, transportation, maintenance and repair, supply, and personnel housing infrastructures to accommodate the planned doubling in size of the navy. The Americans modernized existing facilities and constructed new bases, coastal radar sites, and housing for Vietnamese sailors and their families.

Coinciding with the turnover of river and coastal fighting vessels in 1969 and 1970, the Navy transferred many of the bases from which they operated. The first change of command occurred at My Tho in November 1969. Then, in the last three months of 1970, COMNAVFORV placed the Phu Cuong, Long Binh, Kien An, Chau Doc, Tan Chau, and Ha Tien Operating Bases under Vietnamese control. The transfer of Sa Dec and Chu Lai the following spring completed the process. During this same period, the Vietnamese Navy took over the six Advanced Tactical Support Bases established on the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers for the Giant Slingshot operation and two more on the Cua Viet River in I Corps. In addition, the allied naval service assumed control of the harbor defense posts of the Stable Door effort, the three existing coastal radar sites, and Market Time's coastal surveillance centers.

Meanwhile, the Navy deployed Seabee detachments throughout South Vietnam to construct logistic facilities at new and existing bases. Once the Seabees completed this work and U.S. leaders felt the Vietnamese could totally support their combat units, the Americans transferred the bases to their allies. In this manner, beginning in the spring of 1971, Rear Admiral Robert S. Salzer, the new COMNAVFORV, relinquished control of Cat Lo and An Thoi, two of seven primary Logistic Support Bases that provided allied naval forces with major vessel overhauls and other supply assistance. In the same period, the Vietnamese took charge of Ben Luc and Rach Soi, two secondary or Intermediate Support Bases. These installations handled minor craft overhauls and provided units with maintenance, administrative, financial, and supply support. The next incremental transfer occurred in September when the Dong Tam Logistic Support Base and eight Intermediate Support Bases were Vietnamized. The allies completed the last major phase of the ACTOVLOG program in April 1972 when the Vietnamese Navy took over the former centers of American naval power in South Vietnam, the Logistic Support Bases at Nha Be, Binh Thuy, Cam Ranh Bay, and Danang. The Navy's other Vietnamization projects lasted until the total withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam in March 1973. Construction and turnover of the last of 16 coastal radar sites (one on board a station ship) was completed in August 1972. Further, COMNAVFORV erected over 4,500 shelters for Vietnamese Navy personnel and their families. American planners hoped these better living conditions would strengthen the morale of Vietnamese sailors. U.S. personnel completely restructured and streamlined the allied navy's supply system, with special attention devoted to the Naval Supply Center at Saigon. After an intensive $8 million effort with the help of American civilians, the Naval Advisory Group improved management procedures, developed a skilled work force, and modernized the industrial plant at the Saigon Naval Shipyard. By early 1973, the Vietnamese facility had finished building 58 ferrocement junks, reconditioned hundreds of newly acquired river craft, and achieved the ability to overhaul all of the Vietnamese Navy's seagoing ships in-country, a major goal of the advisory program.

By 1973, both the logistic establishment and the combat arm of the Vietnamese Navy possessed the material resources to carry on the fight alone. The 42,000-man naval service marshalled a force of 1,500 ships and craft for warfare on the rivers and canals, in coastal waters, and far out to sea. The supply, training, and repair facilities were structured to man and support the operational navy for a long-term struggle.

Despite these advantages, the Vietnamese Navy still was burdened with the old problems of poor leadership, low morale, and lack of dedication on the part of many personnel. The departing Americans in the Naval Advisory Group concluded that the relatively young, recently expanded, and still developing Vietnamese Navy had the potential to add great strength to the defense of South Vietnam, but only if given the time to mature.

Countering the Easter Offensive

The U.S. Navy gave its sister service some of this additional time when the fleet sortied into Southeast Asian waters to help stem the Communist Easter Offensive that began on 30 March 1972. This massive, three-pronged enemy attack, which broke across the DMZ, through the Central Highlands, and toward Saigon from the north, sparked an immediate American response. Seventh Fleet cruisers and destroyers steamed into the coastal waters off I Corps and added their 8-inch and 5-inch guns to the South Vietnamese defense of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Provinces. Each day, between 15 and 20 U.S. ships poured fire into the ranks of the North Vietnamese divisions striking for Hue. Navy and Marine Corps spotters ashore or in the air called in heavy bombardment. On occasion gunfire support ships fired directly at enemy troops and tanks on the beach. Expending thousands of rounds each month, 117,000 in June alone, the fleet surface force was a prime factor in the successful South Vietnamese defense of Hue and subsequent counterattack to retake overrun areas.

The Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force also came to the assistance of the South Vietnamese by threatening the enemy's rear along the coast. On 13 May, in order to frustrate Communist attack plans, Marine helicopters from the amphibious ready group's Okinawa (LPH 3) landed South Vietnamese marines miles behind Communist lines in I Corps. On 24 May and again on 29 June, the amphibious task group deployed South Vietnamese troops on the enemy's exposed coastal flank and rear. These actions and strikes by naval air and gunfire support units eventually helped force the North Vietnamese in retreat.

The successful South Vietnamese drive to retake lost ground in Quang Tri Province was also aided by a logistic lifeline set up across the beach. With Route 1 vulnerable to attack, the fleet installed a five-section causeway on the coast east of Quang Tri City. South Vietnamese LCUs and LCMs used the causeway, emplaced by Alamo (LSD 33) in mid-July, to land critical supplies. Aided by a Navy-Marine amphibious group advisory team, the Vietnamese delivered over 200 tons of ammunition and material to the front line forces before seasonal heavy weather in September curtailed the operation.

The U.S. naval forces still operating in support of the Market Time coastal surveillance patrol contributed to the allied defense as well. In April 1972, P-3 Orion aircraft based in the Philippines helped South Vietnamese units detect and turn back three of four Communist trawlers sent south. A combined surface patrol force intercepted and sank the fourth ship.

Of even greater importance to the nationwide South Vietnamese defensive effort was the Navy's campaign against North Vietnam, where the enemy launched and supplied the Easter Offensive. On 2 April 1972, soon after it became apparent that a major Communist effort was underway, President Nixon ordered his Pacific forces to strike that region of North Vietnam nearest to the DMZ by air and sea. By 9 May, the entire country, excluding a buffer zone 30 miles deep along the Chinese border and a number of sensitive targets, had been opened to Navy and Air Force attack. During April, the first month of operations, the Seventh Fleet resumed the interdiction campaign that ended in November 1968. Task Force 77 swelled to include five carriers, Constellation, Kitty Hawk, Hancock, Coral Sea, and Saratoga (CVA 60). The addition of Midway to the task force in May would make this the largest concentration of carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin during the war. The air squadrons, massed for multiaircraft strikes in Operation Freedom Train, hit key military and logistic facilities at Dong Hoi, Vinh, Thanh Hoa, Haiphong, and Hanoi. Smaller flights attacked enemy troop units, supply convoys, and headquarters in the areas around the DMZ. Also taking part in Freedom Train were the fleet's gun cruisers and destroyers, which ranged the southern North Vietnamese coastline, shelling transportation routes, troop concentrations, shore defenses, and Communist logistic installations. Joseph Strauss (DDG 16) and Richard B. Anderson (DD 786) opened this renewed operation on 5 April when they fired on the Ben Hai Bridge in the northern half of the DMZ. Then on the 16th for the first time, cruiser Oklahoma City and three destroyers obliterated targets on the Do Son Peninsula, which guarded the approaches to Haiphong.

Linebacker

The nature of the campaign changed in May when President Nixon ordered the virtual isolation of North Vietnam from external Communist support. Aside from the obvious military rationale, the President sought by this action to end North Vietnamese intransigence at the stalled Paris negotiations. For the first time in the long Southeast Asian conflict, all of the Navy's conventional resources were brought to bear on the enemy. On 9 May, in Operation Pocket Money, Coral Sea's A-6 Intruders and A-7 Corsairs dropped magnetic-acoustic sea mines in the river approaches to Haiphong, North Vietnam's chief port. Shortly thereafter, the other major ports were mined as well. Over 85 percent of the country's military imports passed through these ports. Washington gave foreign ships three days to depart the country, after which the mines armed themselves. Despite this advance notice, 32 foreign, mostly Communist ships elected to remain trapped in North Vietnamese waters.

The fleet's surface combatants also helped deny the enemy unhindered use of the inland coastal areas. On 10 May the 8-inch guns of heavy cruiser Newport News bombarded targets near Hanoi from a position off Do Son while guided missile cruisers Oklahoma City and Providence and three destroyers suppressed the enemy's counterbattery fire from the peninsula. Normally three or four U.S. ships made up the surface action group that cruised along the coast ready to provide air-spotted or direct fire. From April through September, the cruiser destroyer group fired over 111,000 rounds at the enemy, destroying or damaging thousands of bunkers and buildings; knocking out tanks, trucks, and artillery sites; killing 2,000 troops; and sinking almost 200 coastal logistic craft and 4 motor torpedo boats. In August, Newport News, destroyer Rowan (DD 782), and naval air units sank two of the PT boats that attacked the American ships off Haiphong.

The North Vietnamese fought back hard. Earlier in the year Higbee (DD 806) became the first U.S. naval vessel attacked by enemy MiGs, one of which dropped a bomb on the destroyer's stern, wounding four sailors. In addition, while Communist coastal batteries hit 16 ships offshore in 1972, no ship was sunk then or at any time in the Southeast Asian conflict. In July, Warrington (DD 843) struck what was determined to be a wayward U.S. mine that caused extensive damage to the ship. Naval leaders later decided to scrap the already obsolete destroyer rather than spend money on her repair. These few human and material casualties suffered by the Seventh Fleet contrasted with the great punishment absorbed by the North Vietnamese.
From May through December 1972, no large merchant vessels entered or left North Vietnamese harbors. An attempt by the Communist to lighter cargo to shore from ships in international waters was foiled when fleet ships and aircraft, including Marine helicopter gunships, intercepted and destroyed the shuttling craft. The deployed American fleet even curtailed the enemy's intracoastal movement.

Complementing this effort at sea was the massive aerial offensive by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force named Linebacker. In contrast to the earlier Rolling Thunder campaign, in Linebacker Washington gave operational commanders authority to choose when, how, and in what order to strike and restrike targets. Commanders could adjust to changing weather and the enemy's defenses and concentrate their aerial firepower to best effect. As a result, American air squadrons interdicted the road and rail lines from China and devastated North Vietnamese warmaking resources, including munition stockpiles, fuel storage facilities, power plants, rail yards, and bridges.

Using Boeing B-52 bombers and new, more accurate ordnance, such as laser guided bombs and advanced Walleye bombs, the Air Force and the Navy hit targets with great precision and destructiveness. For instance, the U.S. air forces destroyed the Thanh Hoa and Paul Doumer bridges, long impervious to American bombing, and the Hanoi power plant deep in the heart of the populated capital city. They also knocked out targets as close as 10 miles to the center of Hanoi and 5 miles from Haiphong harbor. Between 9 May and the end of September, the Navy flew an average of 4,000 day-and-night attack sorties each month, reaching a peak of 4,746 in August. This represented over 60 percent of the American combat support sorties during the same five-month period.

The North Vietnamese attempted to counter the American onslaught. Employing thousands of antiaircraft weapons and firing almost 2,000 surface-to-air missiles in this period, the enemy shot down 28 American aircraft. In one day alone, the Communist air force challenged U.S. aerial supremacy by sending up 41 interceptor aircraft. On that day, 10 May, Navy pilot Lieutenant Randy Cunningham and his radar intercept officer Lieutenant (jg) William Driscoll became the war's only Navy "aces," adding three kills to the two already credited to them. American air units destroyed a total of 11 North Vietnamese aircraft that day, but lost 6 of their own. The Navy's ratio of kills to losses had improved by the end of air operations on 15 January 1973, when the total stood at 25 MiGs destroyed in air-to-air combat for the loss of 5 naval aircraft. During the Linebacker campaigns, the fleet's SAR units rescued 30 naval air crewmen downed for various reasons in the North Vietnamese theater of operations.

By the end of September 1972, the North Vietnamese diplomats in Paris were much more amenable to serious negotiation than they were at the end of March. Allied air, naval, and ground forces had repulsed the Communist offensive in South Vietnam and in I Corps even regained much lost ground. After drastically reducing the enemy's reinforcements and munitions infiltrated into the South, the U.S. air and naval campaign in the North gradually destroyed Hanoi's ability to prosecute the war.

Believing that a negotiated settlement of the Southeast Asian conflict was within reach in Paris, on 11 October the Nixon administration ordered U.S. Pacific forces to cease bombing in the vicinity of Hanoi. Then on the twenty-third, Washington restricted allied strikes to targets below the 20th parallel. Nevertheless, negotiations with the North Vietnamese again bogged down in Paris while the enemy strengthened the air defenses of the capital and Haiphong and restored the rail lines to China. The Communist once more stockpiled war reserves.

In response to these developments, President Nixon ordered a massive air assault by Air Force B-52 bombers, tactical aircraft, and the Navy's carrier attack units against military targets deep within Hanoi and Haiphong. On 18 December the joint attack, designated Linebacker II, fell on the enemy capital. That night and on succeeding nights of the operation, wave after wave of B-52 bombers and supporting aircraft struck Hanoi, hitting command and communication facilities, power plants, rail yards, bridges, storage buildings, open stockpiles, truck parks, and ship repair complexes. Because of the precision of the air crews and their weapons, there was minimal damage to nonmilitary property. The North Vietnamese met the Linebacker II attack with 1,250 surface-to-air missiles, which brought down 15 of the big American bombers and 3 supporting aircraft; antiaircraft defenses and MiG interceptors destroyed another 4 carrier planes.

The loss of six B-52s on 20 December alone, however, called for a change in tactics and more reliance on technologically superior equipment. Thereafter, the American air forces employed the most advanced precision-guided weapons and electronic countermeasure, target finding, and other equipment. They also concentrated on the destruction of the enemy's missile defense network, including command and control facilities, missile assembly and transportation points, and the missile batteries themselves. To spread thin Communist defenses, the American command broadened the operational arena to include not only Hanoi, but Haiphong, Thai Nguyen, Long Dun Kep, and Lang Dang. This redirection of effort succeeded. By 29 December, the last day of Linebacker II, U.S. forces had neutralized the enemy's surface-to-air missile system while reducing friendly losses to a minimum. Not surprisingly, at year's end the North Vietnamese resumed serious discussions in Paris. On 15 January 1973, both sides ceased combat operations in the North.

Withdrawal from the War

On 27 January 1973, U.S., South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, and Viet Cong representatives finally signed the long-sought cease- fire agreement at Paris. Under its provisions, the Communist agreed to release all American prisoners of war within a space of two months in exchange for U.S. military withdrawal from South Vietnam and the U.S. Navy's clearance of mines from North Vietnamese waters.

During February and March, U.S. aircraft touched down at Gia Lam Airfield in Hanoi to repatriate 138 naval aviators, some of whom had been prisoners in North Vietnam since 1964. The men were flown to reception centers in the Pacific and the United States, where they received a joyous welcome from families and friends. The repatriation program, appropriately named Operation Homecoming, ensured that the men received extensive medical, psychological, and emotional support for the transition from captivity to freedom. Another five men captured in the war were released earlier by the North Vietnamese while two escaped. Thirty-six naval aviators died while in the hands of the Communist, whose treatment of American prisoners was always harsh and often bestial. The Navy listed over 600 naval flight crew personnel missing and presumed dead at the end of the conflict.

In these same two months, the Navy closed down all remaining base facilities, offices, and commands in South Vietnam. Advisors, the first naval personnel to deploy to Vietnam in 1950, were also the last to leave. The men gathered in Saigon for flights home. On 11 February, the Coast Guard disestablished the office of the Senior Coast Guard Officer, Vietnam, and airlifted out all of its personnel. Soon afterward, the fleet air reconnaissance and communications detachments at Danang relocated to Cubi Point in the Philippines. Finally, on 29 March 1973, the Naval Advisory Group and Naval Forces, Vietnam, were formally disestablished. Thereafter, only 9 Navy and Marine Corps officers assigned to the U.S. Embassy's Defense Attache Office and 156 Marine embassy guards remained in South Vietnam.

The last provision of the cease-fire agreement that directly related to the Navy entailed removal of the U.S. sea mines laid along the North Vietnamese coast and the Mark 36 Destructors dropped into inland waterways. On 28 January, following months of extensive preparation and training, the Seventh Fleet's Mine Countermeasures Force (Task Force 78), led by Rear Admiral Brian McCauley, sailed from Subic Bay and shaped course for a staging area off Haiphong. On 6 February, one day after Commander Task Force 78 met in the city to coordinate actions with his North Vietnamese opposite, Colonel Hoang Huu Thai, Operation End Sweep got underway. Ocean minesweepers Engage (MSO 433), Force (MSO) 445), Fortify (MSO 446), and Impervious (MSO 449) swept areas off the coast near Haiphong while being escorted by guided missile frigate Worden (DLG 18) and destroyer Epperson (DD 719). By the end of the month, amphibious ships New Orleans (LPH 11), Dubuque (LPD 8), Ogdon (LPD 5), Cleveland (LPD 7), and Inchon (LPH 12) had joined the force off North Vietnam. These ships carried 31 CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters from the Navy's Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 and from Marine helicopter squadrons HMM-165 and HMH-463. These aircraft towed minesweeping sleds and other devices to carry out aerial mine countermeasures along the inland waterways and the shallow port areas. A total of 10 ocean minesweepers, 9 amphibious ships, 6 fleet tugs, 3 salvage ships, and 19 destroyer types served with Task Force 78 during the six months of Operation End Sweep.

The Americans began airborne minesweeping in the primary shipping channel to Haiphong on 27 February and in the ports of Hon Gai and Cam Pha on 17 March. During the early part of April, MSS 2, an old, decommissioned LST, filled with foam and other buffers and crewed by a few daring volunteers, made eight check runs up the Haiphong channel to ensure that no mines threatened the vital waterway. Meanwhile, U.S. naval instructors trained 50 North Vietnamese personnel to conduct minesweeping operations on rivers and inland waterways. Further, U.S. C-130 transport aircraft flew into Cat Bi Airfield to transfer minesweeping gear to the North Vietnamese. Airborne and ocean sweeping operations continued in the Haiphong and northern areas until 17 April, when U.S. leaders temporarily withdrew the task force to persuade the North Vietnamese to adhere to the terms of the Paris agreement. Convinced that Hanoi had received the intended message, on 18 June Washington restarted Operation End Sweep. The task force returned to the anchorage off Haiphong. In little more than a week, Admiral McCauley declared the water approaches to Haiphong and the harbors of Hon Gai and Cam Pha free of danger from mines. Afterward, the American flotilla worked the coastal areas off Vinh in southern North Vietnam. Finally, on 18 July 1973, with Operation End Sweep completed, the Seventh Fleet departed North Vietnamese territorial waters. Thus ended the U.S. Navy's long, arduous, and costly deployment off the Communist mainland.

The Final Chapter

2009-11-08T17:41:00.001-08:00

Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 - 1975

During the period from 29 March 1973 to 30 April 1975, the Defense Attaché Office (DAO), Saigon, administered the American military assistance to the Republic of Vietnam. Limited by the Paris Agreement to 50 or fewer military personnel, the activity was staffed predominantly by civilians and contractors. The DAO was responsible for providing supplies and material to the 42,000-man Vietnamese Navy, which operated 672 amphibious ships and craft, 20 mine warfare vessels, 450 patrol craft, 56 service craft, and 242 junks. The quality of personnel in the naval service remained adequate over the two-year period. A drastic cut in U.S. financial support, however, hurt the navy's overall readiness. The U.S. Congress appropriated only $700 million for fiscal year 1975, forcing the Vietnamese Navy to reduce its overall operations by 50 percent and its river combat and patrol activities by 70 percent. To conserve scarce ammunition and fuel, Saigon laid up over 600 river and harbor craft and 22 ships. The enemy did not target the waterways during 1973 and 1974, but such would not be the case in 1975 when the coastal areas of South Vietnam became the war's main operational theater.

Naval Evacuation of I and II Corps

The final test of strength between the Republic of Vietnam and its Communist antagonists that many observers had long predicted occurred in the early months of 1975. Seeking to erode the government's military position in the vulnerable II Corps area, on 10 March Communist forces attacked Ban Me Thuot, the capital of isolated Darlac Province, and routed the South Vietnamese troops there. The debacle convinced President Nguyen Van Thieu that even the strategic Pleiku and Kontum Provinces to the north could not be held and must be evacuated. Accordingly, on the fifteenth, government forces and thousands of civilian refugees began an exodus toward Tuy Hoa on the coast but that degenerated into a panicked flight when the enemy interdicted the main road. The enemy dispersed or destroyed many of the South Vietnamese II Corps units in this catastrophe.

These events set off a chain reaction as the demoralized South Vietnamese troops abandoned port after port along the South Vietnamese coast to swiftly advancing North Vietnamese forces. Learning of the disaster in II Corps and confused by contradictory deployment orders from Saigon, the defenders of I Corps also began to crack. Giving up Hue on 25 March, Vietnamese troops retreated in disorder toward Danang. The Vietnamese Navy rescued thousands of men cut off on the coast southeast of Hue, but heavy weather and the general confusion limited the sealift's effectiveness. On the previous day (24 March) government units evacuated Tam Ky and Quang Ngai in southern I Corps and also streamed toward Danang. Simultaneously, the navy transported elements of the 2d Division from Chu Lai to Re Island 20 miles offshore. With five North Vietnamese divisions pressing the remnants of the South Vietnamese armed forces and hundreds of thousands of refugees into Danang, order in the city disintegrated. Looting, arson, and riot ruled the city as over two million people sought a way out of the ever-closing trap.

During this period of growing chaos in South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy readied for evacuation operations. On 24 March, the Military Sealift Command (MSC), formerly the Military Sea Transportation Service, dispatched the following tugs, pulling a total of six barges, from Vung Tau toward Danang:

Asiatic Stamina
Chitose Maru
Osceola
Pawnee
Shibaura Maru

On 25 March, the following ships were alerted for imminent evacuation operations in South Vietnam:

SS American Racer
SS Green Forest
SS Green Port
SS Green Wave
SS Pioneer Commander
SS Pioneer Contender
SS Transcolorado
USNS Greenville Victory
USNS Sgt Andrew Miller
USNS Sgt. Truman Kimbro

Noncombatants were chosen for the mission because the Paris Agreement prohibited the entry of U.S. Navy or other military forces into the country.

With the arrival at Danang of Pioneer Contender on 27 March, the massive U.S. sea evacuation of I and II Corps began. During the next several days four of the five barge-pulling tugs and Sgt. Andrew Miller, Pioneer Commander, and American Challenger put in at the port. The vessels embarked U.S. Consulate, MSC, and other American personnel and thousands of desperate Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. When the larger ships were filled to capacity with 5,000 to 8,000 passengers, they individually sailed for Cam Ranh Bay further down the coast. By 30 March order in the city of Danang and in the harbor had completely broken down. Armed South Vietnamese deserters fired on civilians and each other, the enemy fired on the American vessels and sent sappers ahead to destroy port facilities, and refugees sought to board any boat or craft afloat. The hundreds of vessels traversing the harbor endangered the safety of all. Weighing these factors, the remaining U.S. and Vietnamese Navy ships loaded all the people they could and steamed for the south. MSC ships carried over 30,000 refugees from Danang in the four-day operation. American Challenger stayed offshore to pick up stragglers until day's end on 30 March, when the North Vietnamese overran Danang.

In quick succession, the major ports in II Corps fell to the lightly resisted Communist advance. Hampered by South Vietnamese shelling of Qui Nhon, Pioneer Commander, Greenville Victory, Korean-flag LST Boo Heung Pioneer, and three tugs were unable to load evacuees at this city, which fell on 31 March. The speed of the South Vietnamese collapse and the enemy's quick exploitation of it limited the number of refugees rescued from Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang. Before the latter port fell on 2 April, however, Boo Heung Pioneer and Pioneer Commander brought 11,500 passengers on board and put out to sea.

Initially, Cam Ranh Bay was chosen as the safe haven for these South Vietnamese troops and civilians transported by MSC. But, even Cam Ranh Bay was soon in peril. Between 1 and 4 April, many of the refugees just landed were reembarked for further passage south and west to Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam. Greenville Victory, Sgt. Andrew Miller, American Challenger, and Green Port each embarked between 7,000 and 8,000 evacuees for the journey. Pioneer Contender sailed with 16,700 people filling every conceivable space from stem to stern. Crowding and the lack of sufficient food and water among the 8,000 passengers on board Transcolorado led a number of armed Vietnamese marines to demand they be discharged at the closer port of Vung Tau. The ship's master complied to avoid bloodshed, but this crisis highlighted the need for the Navy to provide better security.

As the magnitude of the calamity in I and II Corps became apparent, the Seventh Fleet deployed elements of the Amphibious Task Force (Task Force 76) to a position off Nha Trang. Because of the political restrictions on the use of American military forces in South Vietnam and the availability of MSC resources, however, Washington limited the naval contingent, then designated the Refugee Assistance Task Group (Task Group 76.8), to a supporting role. For the most part, this entailed command coordination, surface escort duties, and the dispatch of 50-man Marine security details to the MSC flotilla at sea. By 2 April, the task group--Dubuque, Durham (LKA 114), Frederick (LST 1184), and the Task Force 76 flagship Blue Ridge (LCC 19)--was monitoring operations at Cam Ranh Bay and Phan Rang. That same night the first Marine security force to do so boarded Pioneer Contender. A second contingent was airlifted to Transcolorado on the fourth. Dissatisfied with the condition of reception facilities on Phu Quoc and ill-tempered after the arduous passage south, armed passengers in Greenville Victory forced the master to sail to Vung Tau. Guided missile cruiser Long Beach (CGN 9) and escort Reasoner (DE 1063) intercepted the ship and stood by to aid the crew, but the voyage and debarkation of passengers proceeded uneventfully. In addition, Commander Task Group 76.8 immediately concentrated Dubuque, guided missile destroyer Cochrane (DDG 21), storeship Vega (AF 59), and the three ships of Amphibious Ready Group Alpha at Phu Quoc to position security detachments on each of the MSC vessels and to resupply the refugees with food, water, and medicines. Naval personnel also served as translators to ease the registration process. By 10 April, all ships at Phu Quoc were empty, thus bringing to a close the intracoastal sealift of 130,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens. With stabilization of the fighting front at Xuan Loc east of Saigon and the Communists preparation for the final offensive, the need to evacuate by sea diminished. By the fourteenth all naval vessels had departed the waters off South Vietnam and returned to other duties.

Eagle Pull

Meanwhile, the Seventh Fleet focused its attention on Cambodia, in imminent danger of falling to the Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Since 1970, the United States had aided the government of President Lon Nol in its struggle with the indigenous enemy and with North Vietnamese forces arrayed along the border with South Vietnam. The American support included a bombing campaign launched from Navy carriers and Air Force bases as far away as Guam and the delivery to Phnom Penh of arms, ammunition, and essential commodities through airlift and Mekong River convoy. Material assistance to the 6,000-man Cambodian Navy included the transfer of coastal patrol craft, PBRs, converted amphibious craft for river patrol and mine warfare, and auxiliary vessels. Despite this aid, by early 1975 the Communists in Cambodia controlled every population center but Phnom Penh, the capital. As the enemy tightened his ring around the city, the resistance of Cambodian government forces began to crumble.

Concluding that it was only a matter of time before all was lost in Cambodia, American leaders prepared to evacuate American and allied personnel from Phnom Penh. Fleet commanders revised and updated long-standing plans and alerted their forces for this special mission, designated Operation Eagle Pull. On 3 March 1975, Amphibious Ready Group Alpha (Task Group 76.4), and the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit (Task Group 79.4) embarked and arrived at a designated station off Kompong Som (previously Sihanoukville) in the Gulf of Siam. By 11 April, the force consisted of amphibious ships Okinawa, Vancouver, and Thomaston (LSD 28), escorted by Edson (DD 946), Henry B. Wilson (DDG 7), Knox (DE 1052), and Kirk (DE 1087). In addition, Hancock disembarked her normal complement of fixed-wing aircraft and took on Marine Heavy Lift Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463 for the operation. Anticipating the need to rescue as many as 800 evacuees, naval leaders decided that they needed all of the squadron's 25 CH-53, CH-46, AH-1J, and UH-1E helicopters and Okinawa's 22 CH-53, AH-1J, and UH-1Es of HMH-462. The amphibious group also carried the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, which would defend the evacuation landing zone near the U.S. Embassy, and reinforced naval medical-surgical teams to care for any casualties. Land-based U.S. Air Force helicopters and tactical aircraft were also on hand to back up the naval effort. Commander U.S. Support Activities Group/7th Air Force (COMUSSAG) was in overall command of the evacuation operation.

On 7 April 1975, the American command put Amphibious Ready Group Alpha on three-hour alert and positioned the force off the Cambodian coast. In the early morning hours of 12 April Washington ordered execution of the daring mission. At 0745 local time, Okinawa began launching helicopters in three waves to carry the 360-man Marine ground security force to the landing zone. One hour later, after traversing 100 miles of hostile territory, the initial wave set down near the embassy and the Marines quickly established a defensive perimeter.

Within the next two hours, U.S. officials assembled the evacuees and quickly loaded them on Okinawa and Hancock helicopters. Because many already had left Cambodia by other means prior to the twelfth, the evacuees numbered only 276. The group included U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean, other American diplomatic personnel, the acting president of Cambodia, senior Cambodian government leaders and their families, and members of the news media. In all, 82 U.S., 159 Cambodian, and 35 other nationals were rescued.

By 1041 all the evacuees had been lifted out, and little more than one-half hour later the ground security force also was airborne and heading out to sea. At 1224 all aircraft and personnel were safely on board Amphibious Ready Group Alpha ships. Although one Khmer Rouge 75-millimeter shell landed near the embassy landing zone, no casualties were suffered during the entire operation. The following day, task group helicopters flew the evacuated personnel to Thailand and the naval force set sail for Subic Bay. Thus through detailed planning, preparation, and precise execution, the joint evacuation force successfully accomplished the military mission in Cambodia.

The Fall of South Vietnam

The experience gained in Operation Eagle Pull and in the refugee evacuations from South Vietnam's I and II Corps served the fleet well when the Republic of Vietnam, after 20 years of struggle, collapsed under the Communist onslaught. During the latter half of April, U.S. naval leaders prepared ships and men for the final evacuation of American and allied personnel from South Vietnam. The ships of the MSC flotilla were cleaned, restocked with food, water, and medicine; and deployed off Vung Tau in readiness. In addition, Marine security detachments embarked in each of the vessels and prepared to disarm boarding refugees and ensure order. Rincon (T-AOG-77) stood by to provide fuel to Vietnamese and American ships making the exodus from South Vietnam's waters.

The Seventh Fleet also marshalled its forces in the Western Pacific. Between 18 and 24 April 1975, with the loss of Saigon imminent, the Navy concentrated off Vung Tau a vast assemblage of ships under Commander Task Force 76.

Task Force 76

Blue Ridge (command ship)

Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha)

Okinawa

Vancouver

Thomaston

Peoria (LST 1183)

Task Group 76.5 (Movement Transport Group Bravo)

Dubuque

Durham

Frederick

Task Group 76.9 (Movement Transport Group Charlie)

Anchorage (LSD 36)

Denver (LPD 9)

Duluth (LPD 6)

Mobile (LKA 115)

The task force was joined by Hancock and Midway, carrying Navy, Marine, and Air Force helicopters; Seventh Fleet flagship Oklahoma City; amphibious ships Mount Vernon (LSD 39), Barbour County (LST 1195), and Tuscaloosa (LST 1187); and eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense. The Enterprise and Coral Sea carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support. The Marine evacuation contingent, the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade (Task Group 79.1), consisted of three battalion landing teams, four helicopter squadrons, support units, and the deployed security detachments.

After a dogged defense at Xuan Loc, the South Vietnamese forces defending the approaches to Saigon finally gave way on 21 April. With the outcome of the conflict clear, President Thieu resigned the same day. On the 29th, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces closed on the capital, easily pushing through the disintegrating Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. Although U.S. and South Vietnamese leaders had delayed ordering an evacuation, for fear of sparking a premature collapse, the time for decision was now at hand.

At 1108 local time on 29 April 1975, Commander Task Force 76 received the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the allied effort. At 1244, from a position 17 nautical miles from the Vung Tau Peninsula, Hancock launched the first helicopter wave. Over two hours later, these aircraft landed at the primary landing zone in the U.S. Defense Attache Office compound in Saigon. Once the ground security force (2d Battalion, 4th Marines) established a defensive cordon, Task Force 76 helicopters began lifting out the thousands of American, Vietnamese, and third-country nationals. The process was fairly orderly. By 2100 that night, the entire group of 5,000 evacuees had been cleared from the site. The Marines holding the perimeter soon followed.

The situation was much less stable at the U.S. Embassy. There, several hundred prospective evacuees were joined by thousands more who climbed fences and pressed the Marine guard in their desperate attempt to flee the city. Marine and Air Force helicopters, flying at night through ground fire over Saigon and the surrounding area, had to pick up evacuees from dangerously constricted landing zones at the embassy, one atop the building itself. Despite the problems, by 0500 on the morning of 30 April, U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin and 2,100 evacuees had been rescued from the Communist forces closing in. Only two hours after the last Marine security force element was extracted from the embassy, Communist tanks crashed through the gates of the nearby Presidential Palace. At the cost of two Marines killed in an earlier shelling of the Defense Attaché Office compound and two helicopter crews lost at sea, Task Force 76 rescued over 7,000 Americans and Vietnamese.

Meanwhile, out at sea, the initial trickle of refugees from Saigon had become a torrent. Vietnamese Air Force aircraft loaded with air crews and their families made for the naval task force. These incoming helicopters (most fuel-starved) and one T-41 trainer complicated the landing and takeoff of the Marine and Air Force helicopters shuttling evacuees. Ships of the task force recovered 41 Vietnamese aircraft, but another 54 were pushed over the side to make room on deck or ditched alongside by their frantic crews. Naval small craft rescued many Vietnamese from sinking helicopters, but some did not survive the ordeal.

This aerial exodus was paralleled by an outgoing tide of junks, sampans, and small craft of all types bearing a large number of the fleeing population. MSC tugs Harumi, Chitose Maru, Osceola, Shibaura Maru, and Asiatic Stamina pulled barges filled with people from Saigon port out to the MSC flotilla. There, the refugees were embarked, registered, inspected for weapons, and given a medical exam. Having learned well from the earlier operations, the MSC crews and Marine security personnel processed the new arrivals with relative efficiency. The Navy eventually transferred all Vietnamese refugees taken on board naval vessels to the MSC ships.

Another large contingent of Vietnamese was carried to safety by a flotilla of 26 Vietnamese Navy and other vessels. These ships concentrated off Son Island southwest of Vung Tau with 30,000 sailors, their families, and other civilians on board.

On the afternoon of 30 April, Task Force 76 and the MSC group moved away from the coast, all the while picking up more seaborne refugees. This effort continued the following day. Finally, when this human tide ceased on the evening of 2 May, Task Force 76, carrying 6,000 passengers; the MSC flotilla of Sgt Truman Kimbro, Sgt Andrew Miller, Greenville Victory, Pioneer Contender, Pioneer Commander, Green Forest, Green Port, American Challenger, and Boo Heung Pioneer, with 44,000 refugees; and the Vietnamese Navy group set sail for reception centers in the Philippines and Guam. Thus ended the U.S. Navy's role in the 25-year American effort to aid the Republic of Vietnam in its desperate fight for survival.

The Gulf Raiders

2009-11-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

Classified Information Disclosed for the First Time
The Navy of the Republic of Vietnam
Was Active in the Gulf of Tonkin
"THE GULF RAIDERS"

The Navy of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) expanded as the war intensified. To keep pace with the developing situation on the battlefield, large warships such as destroyers and cruisers, etc., were added to the fleet and units with special responsibilities were established. These included the Sea Patrol Force as well as the Coastal Security Service with its amphibious forces that were similar to U.S. Navy SEALS. Hundreds of modern PT Boats were turned over by the U.S. Navy so that the RVN Navy could defend the coast from the 17th Parallel to the Gulf of Thailand and also patrol the labyrinth of rivers and canals that crisscross the 3rd and 4th Tactical Corps Areas, which includes all of the land area in the Mekong Delta. Additionally, the RVN Navy undertook special projects in the territorial waters north of the 17th Parallel. The unit that implemented these special activities was the Coastal Security Service. The Sea Patrol Force with the assistance of the frogmen had operational responsibility and it was equipped with the fast and modern PT Boats. Every member of these two units had secret or top secret security clearances. The headquarters of the Coastal Security Service and the bases of the Sea Patrol Force were located at Da Nang, a large city in Central Vietnam.

At no time did the RVN Navy ever disclose any data concerning its operations against North Vietnam. Many intrepid members of the RVN Navy, such as Naval Captains Luu Chuyen and Lien Phong, sacrificed their lives while doing their duty in the Gulf of Tonkin. A number of others were captured and imprisoned by the enemy.

In an effort to record the historic facts surrounding the activities of the RVN Navy so that future researchers will have accurate data on which to base their chronicles, the Federation of Associations of the RVN Navy and Merchant Marine has set up a Commission of Naval History and appointed a former Naval Captain as its first Chairman.

Now as we enter the third millennium, the Vietnamese Newspaper of Florida is very happy to publish an article on this subject by Mr. Tran Do Cam, himself a former PT Boat Commander with the RVN Sea Patrol Force, with historical details concerning the activities of both units that have never before been disclosed.

On the occasion of welcoming in the Lunar New Year, we wish to take a moment to honor the brave warriors who paid the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect the territorial integrity of the Fatherland and preserve both freedom and democracy for their countrymen. We pray that the homeland will be peaceful and prosperous and that our fellow citizens will escape from the yoke of domination that is the Communist Party and make vigorous progress in the new millennium.

Mr. Chu Ba Yen, Editor
Annual Yearbook - Directory
Florida Vietnamese Newspaper
P.O. Box 277625, Mirama, FL 33027-7625
Excerpted in its entirety from page 80 and translated from the Vietnamese by Donald C. Brewster, May, 2000.

A SPECIAL NAVAL UNIT OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
The Coastal Security Service
Tran Do Cam
Dedicated to the Comrades in Arms of the Coastal Security Service
The author reserves all publication rights. Please contact him
on the Internet at: docam11@yahoo.com. Thank you.

1. Introduction

The war in Vietnam between the Nationalists and the Communists took different forms as both sides tried many different ways to gain an advantage and eliminate the enemy from the battlefield. The print media and numerous films have meticulously analyzed and clearly reiterated the famous clashes such as the Tet Offensive and the incursions into Laos as well as the battles at Quang Tri, Kontum and An Loc, etc., in which the combatants of both sides invariably totaled many army divisions. Of course, just below the surface of the conventional war which everyone knew all too well, there was a hidden aspect of which few were aware.

When we speak of what were known then as covert operations we must remember that even those who were engaged in them knew only their duties or the part they played. Beyond being aware of the designation, Special Forces, those who were not directly involved did not have a clear view of what was happening. In general, Special Forces included many of the various military services that made up the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), which sometimes even included civilian personnel. Their duties included raids into enemy territory or behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and attack enemy targets. They also carried out many missions to detain individuals for questioning and engaged in psychological warfare operations among the enemy population. Because these activities were very dangerous and carried out under cover of darkness, the great majority of the Special Forces rank and file were volunteers. We all have heard of the famous flying teams known to the Vietnamese as the Thunder Tigers or Black Dragons and Squadron 219 of the Air Force. Equally well known are the Delta Force and Rangers, etc., who were part of the infantry. In regards to the Navy however, except for the SEALS, all other units remain shrouded in secrecy to this very day.

In every special operation conducted behind enemy lines, especially those that included cross-border missions into North Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia, the participants were usually divided into two groups: the operations team which was usually nicknamed the ӴeamԠhad the duty of actually going ashore to carry out the mission they had been given and the support team, which had the responsibility for providing the transport that would drop off and retrieve the operations team as well as provide fire support when required. Infantry teams did not have an inherent transport or fire support capability by either air or sea and therefore could only undertake duties that fell into the category of the former. By contrast, the Air Force, which did not have its own operations team, could only participate by providing transport and support. As for the Navy, it was unique in that it could undertake both special and support operations because in its makeup was an inherent capability to perform both tasks mentioned above.

The special operations that were carried out by the various teams such as the Thunder Tigers/Black Dragons, Squadron 219 and the Delta Force took place within the territory of the RVN, Laos or Cambodia while the later incursions into North Vietnam were undertaken almost exclusively by the existing units of the RVN Navy. The operational elements of the Navy were the SEALS and a transportation/support unit which was known as the Sea Patrol Force (SPF). In an operational sense SPF was considered a unique unit of the Special Forces that could undertake special missions inside North Vietnam. Those missions included shelling targets on shore, capturing and detaining fishermen to develop intelligence and distributing pamphlets, etc., all without the assistance of any other force. Both the SEALS and the SPF operated under the authority of the Coastal Security Service (CSS).
Before learning more about the organization and activities of the CSS, it will be necessary to clarify a few things in an effort to avoid any misunderstanding. This article is based in large part upon those things that I know and remember from the five continuous years during which I served as an Executive Officer and then a Commanding Officer of a PT Boat in the SPF of the RVN. I participated in more than two hundred missions of every type in the territorial waters of North Vietnam from 1965 to 1970. I learned of a number of major incidents which occurred around this period from the reports of others and gathered some information through recent interviews with those who took part in the missions. Therefore, while every attempt is being made to be objective, time always affects memory to some degree so that errors are not always avoidable. However, it is hoped that well-informed sources, especially the original participants, would happily contribute their thoughts and fill in the blanks so that the veracity of the naval history of the SPF would be ensured. We also wish to clarify that our desire is to present the truth without censure or criticism of anyone, especially those Vietnamese and American authors whom we esteem and admire. They have worked hard to research and collect material on the subject of the SPF and CSS of the RVN. To them we give our heartfelt thanks.

In that the CSS was always an integral part of the Special Forces, we should scrutinize its personnel and organization so that the task of understanding this service will become clearer and easier.

II. The Background of the Various Organizations that Invaded North Vietnam

Right after the Geneva Peace Agreement that divided Vietnam into North and South was signed in 1954, Mr. Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA, assigned Air Force Colonel Edward Lansdale to South Vietnam to assist Premier Ngo Dinh Diem in consolidating his position in the South and organizing paramilitary units that had been left in place in North Vietnam before the Communists came to power. Colonel Lansdale assumed the post of Deputy Director of the Office of Special Operations that was directed at that time by Brigadier General Graves Erskine. His mandate was to take charge of secret counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam as he had done for Philippine President Magasasay who was successful in exterminating the rebel forces of the Huk Communists during the 1950's. Colonel Lansdaleҳ organization in Vietnam was called the Saigon Military Mission and it included Infantry Major Lucien Conein, a professional spy who would play a very important role in the political upheavals that characterized the First Republic in South Vietnam.
Just before the North was handed over to the Communists many Vietnamese civilians were recruited by Colonel Lansdale. Most of them came from the Vietnamese ethnic minority known as the Nung and some were native to Mong Cai, which is situated near Hai Phong. Others came from areas near the Chinese border, however, they were all sent to Saipan for training in the basics of counterinsurgency. By the time Vietnam had been officially divided in two, the Nung had been well trained and assigned to small teams. Subsequently, the warships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet put troops ashore near the areas that the Nung recruits called home and ordered them to infiltrate and remain inactive in place until they received further orders. Weapons, radios and gold were prepositioned in secret locations to be retrieved when needed. One of the undercover spies at this time was a man named Pham Xuan An but Colonel Lansdale was not aware that he was an agent of the Vietnamese Communists who had infiltrated our organization.

After the situation in South Vietnam had become relatively stable, President Ngo Dinh Diem organized a special intelligence unit to operate exclusively under his control at the Palace. It was directed by Dr. Tran Kim Tuyen, a native of Hue in Central Vietnam. One of the units under the authority of Dr. Tuyen that included guerrilla activity was the Liaison Office which was run by Colonel Le Quang Tung and his Deputy, Colonel Tran Khac Kinh. Captain Le Quang Trieu, the younger brother of Colonel Le Quang Tung, was responsible for recruitment at the Liaison Office and was also the Company Commander for the intra-service company known informally as the Palace Guard. In addition, Presidential Adviser Ngo Dinh Can also had his own intelligence organizations in Central Vietnam.

The liaison office was divided into three parts known as the Northern Operations Service, the Southern Operations Service and the First Observation Group.

1. Northern Operations Service

This service was also called Office 45 under the command of Infantry Captain Ngo The Linh. Although called the Northern Operations Service, this group also undertook covert operations in Laos and Cambodia. Generally speaking the Northern Operations Service shouldered the responsibility for guerrilla activities that took place outside the territory of the RVN.

2. Southern Operations Service

The southern service was also known as Office 55 and was under the command of Infantry Captain Tran Van Minh. It was responsible for guerilla operations within the territory of the RVN.

3. The First Observation Group

In addition to the Southern and Northern Operations Service, the Liaison Office also had a special structure of which only a few people were aware. It was called the First Observation Group and was established in 1956 with the assistance of the U.S. Pentagon and the CIA.
Outwardly, the group was only a regular outfit with a number of administrative personnel but in reality all of its activities were under the disposition of the Liaison Office. The Personnel of this group received special training to infiltrate and lay low in the South in the event the RVN fell into Communist hands after the general elections that were called for in the Geneva Accords. These operational teams of the group remained in place until 1958 and even though the elections were canceled, the teams still buried weapons and explosives as well as radios and gold, etc., in preparation for underground operations when and if they became necessary.

III. The Infiltration Routes

In 1958 when the situation in the South had become relatively stable, President Ngo Dinh Diem officially requested that the U.S. provide assistance in carrying out guerrilla operations in North Vietnam. Therefore, when Mr. William Colby of the CIA was assigned to Saigon on January 1, 1959 to make whatever arrangements were required, the coordination of guerrilla activities between the U.S. and the RVN officially started. In general, operations to infiltrate North Vietnam were carried out by air and by sea.

1. Infiltration by Air

As for the use of air, in the beginning the CIA hired a number of pilots from the China Air Lines Company in Taipei in order to train Vietnamese pilots. Later, the Transport Squadron of the RVN Air Force led by Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Cao Ky, undertook flights that dropped special force paratroopers in the North.

The first flight occurred on May27,1961 when Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Cao Ky himself flew as the lead pilot in a C-47 aircraft. Four members of the team known as Caster were dropped into a mountainous jungle area of Son La, a province not too far from the Chinese border. They were all Nung ethnic minorities who had originated in Son La and were now serving with the 22nd Infantry Division, a unit that consisted mostly of ethnic minorities from the North who had come South. The Caster team was led by Ha Van Chap and had been placed under the authority of the Topography Exploitation Service of Office 45 also known as the Northern Operations Service. After completing the mission the aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Ky returned safely through the airspace over Laos.

2. Infiltration by Sea

The infiltration of North Vietnam by sea began very early, only a few years after the country was divided in two. Various incursions began in1956 when the Liaison Office needed a number of wooden junks in order to step up the placement of personnel and resupply by sea those teams that were already in place in North Vietnam.

In the beginning there were only six civilians, all of whom were natives of Quang Binh Province and had earlier evacuated to the South. They were recruited in the city of Nha Trang to enter the new ocean going force that had just been established. This early operation into the territorial waters of North Vietnam consisted of a number of short incursions, each of which lasted for only a few days and was accomplished in small junks that looked like all the other fishing junks in the area and thus easily used them as cover. Later as the need for operations increased more personnel were recruited and a number of larger junks were outfitted to accomplish the task at hand. The force that included all of these civilian personnel was a part of the Northern Operations Service which remained under the command of Infantry Captain Ngo The Linh. Captain Ngo The Linh was known affectionately to all of us as Mr. Binh and was generally viewed by all those who came after as the founding father of the Coastal Security Service and the Sea Patrol Force of the RVN.
While support and liaison missions by sea continued, it was not until February, 1961 that the secret service of Dr. Tran Quang Tuyen, with the help of the American CIA, actually put two spies ashore in Quang Yen. Both of these individuals, one who hailed from the RVN and the other, a northerner named Pham Chuyen, landed safely. Pham Chuyen had been a mid-level Communist cadre who rallied to the RVN through its Returnee Program by coming south across the 17th Parallel in 1959. His alias was Ares and proof later surfaced indicating that he was a double agent.

3. Nautilus Fishing Junks

Following the placement ashore of the two agents mentioned above, the junks used in the infiltration of the territorial waters of North Vietnam were given the nickname of Nautilus after the name of Captain Nemoҳ mysterious submarine found in Jules Verneҳ science fiction classic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The missions were also known as Nautilus and during this period infiltration of North Vietnam by sea proceeded relatively easily.
Up until this time the Nautilus operations were all conducted by the CIA. The Nautilus crews were civilians that had been recruited by the CIA but there were also a number of RVN Navy frogmen that had received special training to carry out sapper attacks using explosives. Most of these frogmen were sailors in team 18 that had received special training in Taiwan in August, 1960.

IV Changing Command

In the beginning a number of Nautilus missions to infiltrate by sea produced good results because the enemy had not yet been able to mount a defense or otherwise react to them. But as time went on, the missions were less effective because the enemy increased his shore patrol forces and many of the missions by junk were disclosed in advance by improved enemy intelligence.

The use of junks had only one advantage and that was that they could hide among the local fishing vessels. However, as intelligence was developed by the enemy from the crews of the fishing junks whom we had detained, it appeared that the enemy knew very well the routes that were used for infiltration and it became difficult to avoid contact during the missions. Moreover, the Nautilus junks all had very slow speeds and weak firepower that kept them from protecting themselves when discovered and pursued.

For these reasons, Admiral Harry G. Felt, U.S. Commander in Chief, Pacific, decided that the secret organizations of the CIA did not have sufficient capability to complete their infiltration missions. He proposed that assets of the U.S. Navy be used and suggested replacing the Nautilus junks with U.S. submarines. To find a solution to this problem Defense Secretary McNamara convened a meeting in or around July, 1962 that included the Defense Department, Department of State and the CIA. Everyone in attendance agreed to transfer responsibility for the commando attacks on North Vietnam from the CIA to the Department of Defense. The transfer itself was dubbed Operation Switchback and was to be completed within one year. In December, 1962, the National Security Councilҳ Special Working Group agreed with Admiral Feltҳ earlier recommendation to use PT Boats and frogmen to carry out the infiltration missions into North Vietnam. Of course at that time neither the vessels nor the personnel had yet arrived on site.

Operation Switchback formally began on January 1, 1963. From then on, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) assumed the responsibility for operations along the border that were being directed at that time by CIA Officer Gilbert Layton. Layton remained as Colonel George Mortonҳ deputy when he replaced Layton and set up Team C of the Special Forces with its headquarters in the city of Nha Trang. As for the activities in North Vietnam, even though they were under the authority of MACV, CIA Officer W. T. Cheney remained in charge. By April, 1963, a Special Forces Training Center had been set up in Long Thanh to train the teams that would be dropped in North Vietnam. Meanwhile, the CIA made preparations to turn over the infiltration missions into North Vietnam to the military authorities.

V. Operations Plan 34-A

In May, 1963, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered Admiral Harry G. Felt to prepare a plan to support the RVNҳ effort to carry out special operations in North Vietnam. In June, 1963, Admiral Felt and the Joint Chiefs outlined a preliminary operational plan, the strategy of which was to use hit and run attacks against the North Vietnamese in order to compel them to reduce their military efforts against the RVN. According to this plan, ARVN would provide the personnel and the U.S. would supply the transportation and training. The plan was known as OPLAN 34-63 and was accepted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 14th with the request that a few small details be changed. Adjustments were made to the plan and it was approved once again on September 9, 1963.

In the Conference on Vietnam that was held in Honolulu on October 20th, William Colby, who had been reassigned from his post in Vietnam to CIA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to serve as CIA Director for all of the Far East, indicated to the Secretary of Defense that based on the experience of the CIA, dropping small teams into North Vietnam would be unsuccessful. However, high placed U.S. officials disagreed arguing that the CIA had failed because it lacked the means and the capability. Therefore, the CIA was ordered to turn over the plan to infiltrate North Vietnam to the Army.

While preparation for the plan was proceeding nicely, an unexpected development occurred that had major consequences for the project. That was the Coup d҅tat against President Ngo Dinh Diem that took place on November 3, 1963. It caused considerable confusion for the Government of Vietnam and affected the implementation of its operational plans. The two people who led President Diemҳ secret service, Dr. Tran Kim Tuyen and Colonel Le Quang Tung no longer existed. Brigadier General Le Van Nghiem was assigned to the post of Special Forces Commander and was replaced only a few months later by Colonel Pham Dinh Thu. However, Office 45 or the Northern Operations Service and Office 55 or the Southern Operations Service still remained under the direction of Ngo The Linh and Tran Van Minh.
Even though there were obstacles the guerilla attacks by sea continued. Within the parameters of OPLAN 34-63 and during November, 1963, a number of frogmen who made up the operational teams left Da Nang for training at the Cua Viet Naval Base where they would prepare for a sapper mission to destroy ships in the harbors of North Vietnam just north of the 17th Parallel. One mission which was planned for December, 1963, was aimed at North Vietnamese patrol craft at the Quang Khe Naval Base which was situated at the mouth of the Giang River in Quang Binh Province and was also the location of the Southern Sector Headquarters of North Vietnamҳ Navy. Before the mission began the American advisers provided aerial reconnaissance photos of the base at Quang Khe. While underway the mission was scrubbed due in part to inclement weather. One of the frogmen who participated in the raid was Vu Van Guong.

While progress was achieved in training, guerrilla operations did not produce the desired results by the end of 1963. The reason was that the organization lacked structure and most of the civilian personnel did not have the technical training or the discipline of the military. Therefore, the direct participation of ARVN was needed. Both the CIA and MACV ordered adjustments to OPLAN 34-63 and after a time a new plan known as OPLAN 34 A became the centerpiece for infiltrating North Vietnam by sea. The new plan, dubbed Operation Tiger by the CIA was presented to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on December 15, 1963. A few days before on December 12th, Defense Secretary McNamara advised Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge that President Johnson wanted to emphasize the special operations aimed at North Vietnam and also wanted ARVN with U.S. support, to assume responsibility for them. These operations were designed to subtly inform North Vietnam that the U.S. would not accept the Communist invasion of the RVN and if North Vietnam stubbornly persisted in the use of force, it would be defeated. To summarize, the principal objective of OPLAN 34A was to combine the attacks against North Vietnam with military and diplomatic pressure to serve as a warning to North Vietnam to not increase its activities in Laos and in the RVN. Thus, from a plan that was implemented by the CIA with the objective of gathering intelligence and wreaking havoc on the North, OPLAN 34A had now become an operation that was heavily weighted on the political aspects of the confrontation.

Also on December 15, 1963, in response to high level directives, the U.S. Navy set up a Mobile Support Team in Da Nang. This team consisted of a number of U.S. Navy frogmen known as SEALS, U.S. Marine Intelligence Officers and many American specialists experienced in guerrilla operations. Additionally, two PT Boat crews had recently arrived in Da Nang. The purpose of the Mobile Support Teams was to train Vietnamese crews in how to operate the PT Boats and use them in commando raids by sea. The U.S. would provide maintenance and support services.

On December 19th, the U.S. Army Command in the Pacific asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff for permission to implement OPLAN 34A on an experimental basis for a period of 12 months.

VI. MACSOG and the Technical Service is Established

It is worth noting that OPLAN 34A called for the participation of ARVN but since the RVN was not involved in planning for the project, it was not able to make timely preparations. It was on January 21, 1964 that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed to implement the first phase of OPLAN 34A. It was not until that time that Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge advised the RVN Chief of State Duong Van Minh about the plan and requested that the RVN cooperate by supplying ARVN manpower. On January 24th, the Special Operations Group was formed with Colonel Clyde Russell as its commander and since it operated under the authority of MACV, this special group became known as MACVSOG or MACSOG. Later in 1964 the Special Operations Group was renamed the Studies and Observation Group to give it a more civilian sounding title but it was still called by the acronym MACSOG. Speaking generally, OPLAN 34A had four main responsibilities: to insert teams by airdrop, provide logistic support by air, conduct operations on the sea routes and engage in psychological warfare. Of all these projects, the ӡirԠteams had the most personnel as the CIA left behind 169 Vietnamese who were still in training at Long Thanh, the majority of them civilians.

On January 28, 1964, General Nguyen Khanhҳ takeover of the GVN or as he called it, ӲeformԠslowed down the progress of MACSOG as the U.S. needed the acceptance and cooperation of the new government. General Khanh was a proponent of striking against the North so the Strategic Technical Service was set up on February 12th under the direction of Colonel Tran Van Ho at the RVN Ministry of Defense. Its mandate was to work along with MACSOG. This service was actually the reincarnation of the Topographic Exploitation Service which had formerly been directed by Colonel Le Quang Tung during the time of the First Republic. Its name was later changed to the Strategic Technical Directorate (STD).

VII. The Coastal Security Service

As for the command function, Washington maintained total control and was responsible for all operational planning. MACSOG and the Technical Service in Vietnam shouldered the responsibility for carrying out the operations. MACSOG and the Technical Service had almost no voice or any influence when it came to proposing, approving or arranging the schedule for the operations.

As for organization, the American side maintained a group under MACSOG which was known variously as the Naval Advisory Detachment (NAD) or the Maritime Operation Group (MAROPS) that specialized in running the coastal commando operations that had the responsibility for putting guerrillas ashore and carrying out sapper attacks against enemy vessels. In addition to these military operations they also implemented exploratory/survey operations along the coast of North Vietnam. On the Vietnamese side, the Technical Service and the CSS both worked right alongside the Naval Advisory Detachment. These two organizations were often called NAD/CSS and they were headquartered together to facilitate coordination at a place in Da Nang known as the White Elephant. Those in command at CSS coordinated closely with the Naval Advisory Detachment concerning the disposition of personnel and the briefings and after action reports for each mission, etc. CSS also worked very closely with the Mobile Support Teams.

When the coastal infiltration teams operated under the direct authority of the CIA in the past there were a number of RVN Navy frogmen involved but the majority of Nautilus personnel were civilians. But, when Operation Switchback turned the command and control of the special operations from the CIA to the U.S. military, the Nautilus junks were slowly replaced by more modern PT Boats. The Sea Patrol Force was also established to include officers and crew members from the RVN Navy who were especially chosen for this duty. The Sea Patrol Force was placed under the operational authority of the CSS which was under the jurisdiction of the Technical Service.

Most of the CSS personnel were military and the majority were from the RVN Navy. On occasion a very small number were recruited from the Army Infantry. The CSS worked alongside the U.S. Naval Advisory Detachment in assigning the missions to various teams, training and PT Boat maintenance. Administratively, the CSS personnel were detailed to their jobs by the Navy. The CSS commanders were all experienced Navy personnel with long service records and as many as four of them were subsequently promoted to the rank of commodore.

In addition to a number of administrative units, CSS had two principal subordinate parts which were the Sea Patrol Force and the SEAL force, often referred to simply as the SEALS.

1. Sea Patrol Force

The Sea Patrol Force had the most personnel and could be viewed as the nucleus of the CSS yet some of the of its staff, including regular Navy personnel, had seldom heard of the CSS. In reality, the Sea Patrol Force was simply one unit of the CSS as were the SEALS. In order to understand this more clearly it will be necessary for the reader to become familiar with the duties, billets, personnel and equipment as well as the various activities of the Sea Patrol Force.

A. Duties

The principal duty of the Sea Patrol Force was to carry out special seaborne military operations against North Vietnam in its territorial waters north of the 17th Parallel. In this regard, we can look at the Sea Patrol Force as similar to Squadron 219 of the RVN Air Force which undertook infiltration of the North by helicopter. However, in addition to dropping off and retrieving the various SEAL teams in the coastal areas of North Vietnam, the PT Boats of the Sea Patrol Force also achieved many specialized missions. Some of these, which will be mentioned later, included shelling the enemy, confiscating ships in the area and engaging in psychological warfare, etc.

B. Base Locations

The base location of the Sea Patrol Force was right next to the Deep Water Pier and the military harbor complex at the foot of Monkey Mountain on Da Nangҳ Son Cha Peninsula. This was also the location where large U.S. freighters offloaded their cargo and U.S. Navy troop transports were docked. This spot was not far from the 1st Naval Coastal Zone Headquarters. To get there from the City of Da Nang it was necessary to go through a control point at Cau Trang, pass the Deep Water Pier on the left and arrive at the Sea Patrol Force base on the right. Somewhat further along was the Headquarters of the 1st Naval Coastal Zone mentioned above.

The base consisted of two long single-storied structures that were parallel to each other and had fibro-cement sheathing on the roofs. The billet which was situated on higher ground at the base of the mountain was reserved for officers and the building on the other side near the road housed the boat crews. The officer quarters were divided into many small rooms to which two men were assigned and every four occupants shared one of the bathrooms. The crew quarters consisted of long barracks in which the crew of each PT Boat slept together.

In addition to the barracks there were also other facilities such as recreation areas and warehouses, etc...

Across a small road directly opposite the base and near the Deep Water Pier was the docking area for the PT Boats as well as the repair and maintenance facilities of the Mobile Support Teams.

C. Equipment

From the time that the Infiltration by Sea Teams were first set up in 1956 until the CSS was officially founded at the beginning of 1964, the means of transport changed with the times and according to the requirements of the mission. In the beginning the infiltration teams used regular fishing junks. Later however, more modern PT Boats were used and in the end high speed or fast PT Boats were employed.

- Nautilus Junks

In the beginning, as we well know, the Seaborne Infiltration Force was set up under the direction of the CIA and consisted of Nautilus junks. These were fairly large wooden boats that were enclosed and measured thirty meters in length. They looked like all the other fishing boats that operated in the Gulf of Tonkin. The junks, powered by sails and engines had a top speed of less than ten nautical miles per hour. Armament consisted of a heavy machine gun and the individual weapons that were manned by the crew.

Until the middle of 1963 there were seven Nautilus junks in Da Nang, numbered from one to seven, that were used to infiltrate coastal areas of North Vietnam. They operated under the command of Captain Ngo The Linh who himself belonged to the Special Forces that were led by Colonel Le Quang Tung. Most of the crews of the Nautilus junks were civilians who had evacuated South from the northern provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh or Nung ethnic minorities who were born in North Vietnam. A number of American and Vietnamese officers trained the crews and the infiltration teams. The crews of the various junks changed or were augmented according to the requirements of each mission.

During 1962-1963 many infiltration missions in North Vietnam to resupply, land SEAL teams or carry out raids were successful because the junks could easily blend in with the local fishing vessels in the area. However, the junks were very slow and routinely took 24 hours to travel the distance from the base in Da Nang to the Quang Khe target area situated just south of the 18th Parallel. And, as time wore on improved intelligence sources allowed the enemy to map the routes taken by the Nautilus junks with some precision. For these reasons, the Nautilus program was then being viewed as ineffective. A case in point was the mission to attack the communist naval base at Quang Khe on June 28, 1962. Due to a combination of weak firepower and slow speed a Nautilus II junk was pursued and sunk by an enemy patrol craft. From that moment on, the CIA replaced the Nautilus junks with fast patrol craft (PCF) which were known as ӓwiftsԮ They were much faster than the junks and had more firepower.

- The Swift Boats

Due to the fact that the Nautilus junks had outlived their usefulness in the effort to infiltrate North Vietnam, they were replaced in mid 1963 by three fast PCFs which were known affectionately as Swifts. These Swift Boats were relatively small with a range that extended to the Northern seaport of Dong Hoi. Later, during the Vietnamization program, the RVN Navy outfitted many of these Swifts to become units of the RVN Coast Guard.
The Swift was a snub-nosed aluminum PT Boat about 50 feet in length which was manufactured by Seward Seacraft in Burwick, Lousiana. It was a 19 ton vessel with a draft of 3.5 feet and was powered by two diesel engines that provided enough thrust to achieve a top speed of about 28 nautical miles per hour. It was armed with a twin .50 caliber machine gun and an 81 millimeter mortar that was "piggybacked" with another .50 caliber machine gun. The craft was fully operable with a crew of five.

Compared with the Nautilus junks, the Swifts were fast and had a heavy firepower capability but they had a relatively short operating range that allowed them to go only as far North as Dong Hoi which is located about 60 nautical miles north of the 17th Parallel. They were not able to compete against the faster P-4 or the Swatow boats of the North Vietnamese which were equipped with a 37 millimeter cannon. For that reason as well as the tactical requirements of the missions, the CSS was equipped in early 1964 with what were known as Fast Torpedo Patrol Boats (PTF) which were larger, faster and had a greater range as well as heavier firepower. The use of these fast torpedo boats and Vietnamese frogmen was officially proposed by the U.S. Special Operations Unit in a document dated September 27, 1962.

- The Fast Torpedo Patrol Boats (PTF)

There was a total of three types of these fast boats that were used in Vietnam: first, the WW II vintage fast torpedo boats, then the ӎastyԠboat that was made in Norway and finally the U.S. built ӏspreyԮ A special point was made of dismantling the torpedo tubes on all of these boats because the targets in North Vietnam consisted of only small ships that did not require the use of such a weapon. Other armament on board was also modified to meet the specific needs of the assigned missions.

The fast PT Boats were put under the authority of the Mobile Support Team (MST), which at that time in March, 1964 was commanded by Lieutenant Burton Knight and operated under the direction of MACSOG in Saigon. As for the upper level chain of command, MACSOG was responsible to the Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities who reported to the Pentagon and Committee 303 at the National Security Council with input from the National Security Administration. Of course, the U.S. personnel in Da Nang who comprised the Naval Operation Support Group placed the base in Coronado, California under the direction of Colonel Phil H. Bucklew. This group had the responsibility for the special activities of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific as well as for the management of the teams that provided the Special Operations Group with the logistics support for its operations in Vietnam.

- Early Fast PT Boats

The first two fast PT Boats that were equipped for the Sea Patrol Force were the type used in WW II and were similar to former President John F. Kennedyҳ PT 109. Nicknamed the gas boats they had a Packard engine that ran on airplane fuel. From the beginning, those officials familiar with the missions of the SEALS in Da Nang and Saigon did not approve of the use of these old PT Boats but were under orders from Washington to try them out. For that reason the U.S. Navy, in January, 1963, outfitted two PT Boats, the PT-810 and the PT-811, that had been kept in reserve in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. These were WW II type torpedo boats but were built in 1950. The original equipment included torpedo tubes, 40 millimeter cannons fore and aft, two 20 millimeter cannons and a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on each side.

In contrast to the Nasty boats, these two ships retained their forward 40 millimeter guns and added two .50 caliber machine guns. Both PT Boats were renamed PTF-1 and PTF-2. After test runs both PT Boats ran into quite a few technical problems and were returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. About this time, the U.S. Navy received two new PT Boats that had been procured in Norway. Known by their Norwegian name "Nasty" both boats were renamed after they arrived in Vietnam as PTF-3 and PTF-4.

On January 19, 1964, both PT Boats, PTF-1 and PTF-2, were carried by the U.S. warship Pioneer Myth from Norfolk, Virginia and arrived at Subic Bay, the Philippines in February. Some time in March, 1964, they arrived in Vietnam. At this time the Nasty PTF-3 and PTF-4 were already in Vietnam having arrived at the end of February. When PTF-1 and PTF-2 were given dry runs in Da Nang, it was noticed that they were not safe and reliable for many reasons. First, a gasoline powered boat could explode very easily if hit by a round during one of its missions. Second,the engine backfired very noisily and was loud when it was running and, thirdly, it was very difficult to restart after it was stopped as the engine components seemed to hang up when it was hot. The third reason created a very dangerous situation because it was necessary to shut down the engine to avoid excessive noise when the crew was delivering or retrieving a team but it was also necessary to be able to quickly restart the engine in an emergency. Finally, the engine usually died when the boat was shifted into reverse. However, with all its faults the gasoline powered boats had lots of firepower and a relatively high speed that made them very effective in attack or fire support missions.

In addition to the safety concerns mentioned above, when these older model PT Boats broke down, which they did in short order, it was difficult to procure spare parts for them. Moreover, there was another obstacle to using the PT Boats that had been built in the U.S. and that involved U.S. law according to which the means of transportation and armament that could be used in commando operations could not be sent beyond U.S. borders. To do otherwise would create diplomatic problems.

The older model PT Boats participated in quite a few operations but they ran into mechanical difficulties during their activities on July 30th and August 8, 1964. Shortly after, both the PTF-1 and the PTF-2 were replaced with more modern boats that were built in Norway.

There was a total of two older PT Boats that were used in the Sea Patrol Forces. One of the two commanders commented on these gasoline powered boats as follows:
The engine did not run smoothly when idling and made a strange roaring sound. Starting the engine was very difficult. When it first kicked over it belched a large backfire and blew out a large fireball for a distance of a meter and a half. The large propeller churned up the water forcefully so that when the boat was docked or in port it created large waves. The engine only ran well at top speed and easily cut off when it was going slow. It created problems for the mechanics who had to stand over the engine to make sure it didn't shut down. Once off, the engine was very difficult to start and sometimes drained all the air from the pressure tank which supplemented the battery power. The top speed was very fast at 35 to 40 nautical miles per hour with a full load of fuel and 40 to 45 when it was returning with its fuel tanks near empty. There was not a ship around that would pull alongside or go head to head with us and the commanders of the other boats often referred to us as the pair of sea monsters.

The PT Boats were equipped with two 40 and two 20 millimeter cannons, as well as two .50 caliber machine guns. Our missions were only attack raids and did not involve dropping or retrieving any personnel so they were leisurely and always successful. The missions of the other boats included drops and pickups that sometimes were delayed due to bad timing or other obstacles. Many times the trips were uneventful but there were occasions when long waits were necessary.

- Norwegian Fast Patrol Boats (Nasty)

Due to the insurmountable weaknesses inherent in the above mentioned gassers the Sea Patrol Force was equipped with the Nasty at the end of 1965. The Nasty was the most modern PT Boat in the world at that time and built jointly by the Norwegian Navy and West Germany.

The architect of the Nasty PT Boat was Jan H. Lingen of Norway who drew up the plans after conferring with officers of the Royal Norwegian Navy and incorporating the best characteristics of both the American built PT Boats and the British Fairmile D. This type of coastal patrol boat could carry a crew of nineteen. The first Nasty PT Boat built for the Norwegian Navy was known by the acronym KNM TJELT (P-343). Norway built a total of 42 Nasty PT Boats which included 20 for itself, six for Greece, two for Turkey and 14 for the U.S. to use in Vietnam.

The first two Nasty PT Boats were turned over to the U.S. Navy in 1963 at Little Creek, Virginia and after testing were named PTF-3 and PTF-4. On May 3, 1963, both ships proceeded to San Diego, California for training. On September 17th, both PT Boats were carried by the warship Point Defiance (Landing Ship Dock - LSD-31) to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and on to Subic Bay in the Philippines one month later. At Subic Bay both ships were fitted with extra fuel tanks in order to extend their operating range. The 40 millimeter gun on the foredeck was replaced by an 81 millimeter mortar with a .50 caliber machine gun which was ӰiggybackedԮ On February 22, 1964, both boats were taken to the USS Carter Hall for transport to Vietnam. However, while being loaded, PTF-3 suffered major damage to its hull as a result of a freak swell and had to return to Subic Bay for repairs. PTF-3 finally arrived in Da Nang at the end of February, 1964.

On February 1, 1964, Norway turned over an additional four Nasty PT Boats at its harbor at Bergen. They were called PTF-5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively. They were loaded on the USS Point Barrow (AKD-1) for transport to Subic Bay on March 3rd. Following their refitting and upgrading, these Nasty PT Boats arrived in Vietnam a few months later.

The Nasty PT Boat had a special laminated wooden hull and weighed 75 tons. It was 24.7 feet wide with a displacement of 3.7 feet in the front and 6.1 feet in the rear. It could carry 18 tons or 6,100 gallons of fuel which at moderate speed would give it a range of 1,000 nautical miles. The British built Napier and Deltic had an 18 cylinder engine that could deliver a speed of 35 nautical miles per hour when it was fully loaded and maintain a maximum tactical speed that could approach 50 when it was not carrying a lot of fuel.

As for weaponry, the Nasty was equipped with an 81 millimeter anti-aircraft mortar with a .50 caliber machine gun piggybacked on the foredeck. A 40 millimeter cannon was mounted on the rear deck and each side was protected by a 20 millimeter cannon. Navigation equipment included electronic positioning devices, sonic depth finder and Decca radar that was effective within a range of 50 nautical miles. The main screen was situated in the Combat Information Center (CIC) and repeater units were located on the bridge. The radar was usually used for operations or navigation but the antenna could be tilted to 15 degrees when necessary to use as an air defense mechanism. Although the radar was up to date at that time the electronic circuitry used light emitting diodes that easily became loose or burned out in rough seas. The radio system also included voice as well as a conventional signal system.

A special feature of the Nasty was the ease of handling which allowed the ship captain to control the engines from the bridge without having to pass along an order during a tactical operation or in an emergency. The bridge was uncovered without a place to sit and relatively low so as to offer less wind resistance. When navigating at high speed the front half of the ship often came up out of the water and when it hit a wave going in the opposite direction it rose and then slammed down as if it were galloping. Anyone on the bridge had to assume a defensive position and be prepared to roll with the ship in order to prevent himself from being soaked by the splashing waves. The laminated hull of the Nasty was tough and able to withstand the rough seas without breaking or cracking. With these special characteristics, the Nasty PT Boats were well liked by their commanders and became the backbone of the Sea Patrol Force.

- PTF Osprey

In order to replace a number of Nasty PT Boats that required long term repairs or were damaged while carrying out their missions, the Sea Patrol Force received a number of U.S. made fast PT Boats known as the "Osprey". These boats, of which we received six around the middle of 1968, were built by John Trumpy and Sons of Annapolis, Maryland.

The Osprey was modeled after the Norwegian Nasty except that the hull was constructed of aluminum instead of wood. The Osprey was air conditioned and well suited to the long missions it was undertaking. Although it was rumored that the aft section of the Osprey was prefabricated in Norway, its hull was made of aluminum so that it remained heavier than the Nasty. It did have a speed that was about five nautical miles slower than the Nasty and it rode somewhat higher in the water. While the armament was the same on both ships the aluminum hull of the Osprey could not withstand the wear and tear of bad weather. It was usually carried high by the waves and then slammed down with the result that cracks appeared in the hull after only six months in operation. For that reason four of these PT Boats were brought to Vietnam for testing but were subsequently returned to the U.S. and became PTF-23, 24, 25 and 26 in the Navy.

D. Personnel

Before getting into the special and more important aspects of the manpower that made up the Sea Patrol Force, it is necessary to mention the earlier sea invasion teams that could be viewed as the forerunners of the Sea Patrol Force and the Coastal Security Service.
According to superficial World and American public opinion, special forces operations aimed at North Vietnam were wholly organized by the RVN itself and the personnel involved were all Vietnamese. However, in reality there were a number of Taiwanese and third country personnel that were recruited by the CIA and participated in the program in its early stages. Just as the CIA hired Taiwanese personnel to pilot the planes that dropped special forces in North Vietnam, it also hired third country personnel to be used for commando raids that originated in Da Nang.

In the beginning while Nautilus junks were in use and the crews were all Vietnamese, the majority originated from the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh or were Nung ethnic minorities who had come South as refugees. The Nautilus junks were disguised to look exactly like North Vietnamese fishing junks and in order to infiltrate among them the crews were Vietnamese who looked like the local fishermen. The majority of the landing teams were also Vietnamese. However, in spite of that, there were some early missions in the Mong Cai area near the Vietnamese/Chinese border that utilized frogmen from Nationalist China but they may have only participated in actions that actually took place in the territory of China.

Later, due to mission requirements, the CIA replaced the Nautilus junks with Swift patrol boats but because they were new and modern the civilian Vietnamese were not qualified to operate them. So the CIA hired a number of third country personnel to serve as commanders. According to U.S. documents and a recent interview with Sven Oste, a Swede, all the Swift commanders were Norwegian nationals. (Mr. Oste interviewed two of the Norwegians, each of whom had served as a Swift boat commander in Vietnam). In addition to the Norwegian commander, each boat had three Vietnamese civilians; a helmsman, a gunner and an interpreter. The three Norwegian commanders were often referred to in a joking manner as the Vikings. They were recruited in Norway in July, 1963 and completed their final mission on May 27, 1964. They left Vietnam in June, 1964 when their contract expired. The consensus was that the Norwegian commanders were relatively capable and effectively carried out their assigned missions.

After the contract of the Norwegians expired in June, 1964, a number of Chinese were recruited as replacements but by the time their training was completed, the Swifts were no longer being used in missions north of the 17th Parallel.
In the beginning, the landing teams had a number of third country nationals, such as the Nationalist Chinese, who participated in early missions near the Vietnamese/Chinese border. However, following that all personnel were SEALS, the majority coming from the ranks of the frogmen of the RVN Navy.

Early on the CIA hired German nationals to be trained as skippers for the PTFs which would then operate with Vietnamese personnel and Nung ethnic minorities in support positions. However as time went on the Germans were dismissed because they were usually inebriated. The Germans were under contract and used that as a basis for objecting to the dismissal but the CIA made a cash settlement and ended the matter amicably. The German group did not carry out even one mission with the PTFs. The first operations, which were undertaken in July and August, 1964, were all under the command of RVN naval officers. The great majority of those in the landing teams on board the PTFs were Vietnamese nationals and a few Nung ethnic minorities.

From the moment that the Coastal Security Service and the Sea Patrol Force were officially established, the crews of the PTFs and the Swifts were all military volunteers from the Navy of the RVN. Because the number of volunteers always exceeded the actual manpower requirement, selections were made very carefully and based on the operational experience, esprit de corps, physical condition and tactical ability of the applicant. Security background checks were also very rigorous as clearances were required at the secret and top secret level. Once selected every recruit had to sign a six month contract. When the volunteer signed the contract he enjoyed a salary level equal to all others be they officers or enlisted personnel. Additionally, each individual received a bonus for every mission north of the 17th Parallel and an allowance for food. The budget for this was provided by the U.S. Government. Each volunteer also drew his regular Navy salary on a monthly basis.

As for the volunteer selection process, an officer who served many years in the Sea Patrol Force put it this way:

In as much as our lives were inextricably involved with the fleet we were greeted one day by one of our superior officers who came down to talk to us about recruiting a number of young naval officers to carry out a special assignment aboard a PT Boat. While an adventurous lot we were also admirers of the heroic image of President Kennedy when he was the commander of PT-109 during WW II. Therefore, it didn't take us long to leave the fleet and take up this new challenge. Our class included six officers who when added to our six colleagues from Class 11 became the first young officer group for the Sea Patrol Force.
Once a volunteer signed a contract to enter the Sea Patrol Force he was no longer under the control of the Navy. He had become a member of the Special Forces and was not required to wear his Navy uniform except for flag raising ceremonies on Monday mornings or when high ranking personnel came to visit. While on base most of the volunteers usually wore the uniform of the RVN infantry and then donned the simple black outfit of the local peasants when they went on a mission. They also changed their identity and used an alias. As for mail, that was received through a box number that was used for the entire force.

E. Armament

In the beginning the landing teams fired time delay rockets at their targets. These were in addition to the regular armament with which each PT Boat was equipped. However, because the rockets were lacking in accuracy the teams subsequently used 57 millimeter recoilless rifles for fire reinforcement. These mobile recoilless gun nests could be set up anywhere as they did not need a permanent mount. They were usually placed on the deck at the base of the 81 millimeter mortar whenever a target on shore was being shelled. The entire landing team also practiced firing the 57 millimeter recoilless rifle from the shoulder position so that it could be used from a small inflatable boat. In addition to the 57 millimeter recoilless, there were also 90 and 106 millimeter weapons but they were not used on a regular basis. There were also many types of time-delayed mines that were used by the SEALS in various sapper missions. As for personal weapons, the landing teams used the AK-47 of the Communist Bloc or the Swedish made submachine gun, also known as the K-gun.

F. Intelligence and Aerial Photography

Before setting out on a mission the boat commanders and the landing team leaders usually received a briefing on the enemy situation and also examined the latest aerial photographs of the target area. Intelligence was often provided by prisoners or local fishermen who had been captured for that purpose. Most of the aerial photos were taken by the top secret U-2 aircraft whose high altitude put it well beyond the range of North Vietnamese planes or anti-aircraft fire. The U-2 planes usually took off from Bien Hoa near Saigon or from Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

Two U-2 spy planes were permanently based at the Bien Hoa airfield. U-2 aerial photography was the principal source of intelligence for OPLAN 34A. Typically, a U-2 would photograph the target early in the morning when a mission was scheduled. By noon the photos were in the office of MACSOG in Saigon. Sometimes the aerial photographs were made at lower altitudes by a pilotless drone or taken by planes that flew at night and used radarscope photography.

G. Esprit De Corps

Naturally there was an inherent danger each time the 17th Parallel was crossed to carry out a mission. However, any worry or uneasiness was not caused by the presence of enemy forces but by the feeling that it was very insecure to operate behind enemy lines. During the first missions, even though we followed a sea route, everyone became tense when we entered the territorial waters of the enemy by passing the imaginary 17th Parallel. By contrast, when we returned to our own seas everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Over time familiarity with the missions made the operations less stressful. Moreover, compared with the patrol boats of the North Vietnamese, the fast PT Boats of the Sea Patrol Force had greater fire power and faster speed which always provided us with an advantage.

So, early jitters dissipated over time but we still had to be very cautious and focus on achieving the mission. Having served in the River Assault Group (RAG) in South Vietnam we observed that cross border missions in the North were a lot less dangerous. The various operations in the narrow canals and streams of South Vietnam made our boats good passive targets for the enemy since he could hide in the brush on both sides of the waterways and ambush us at any moment. Conversely, the modern PT Boats of the Sea Patrol Force were out on the open seas and always maintained the offensive.

Every mission across the 17th Parallel was a great adventure as well as a challenge and each of them was relatively short, seldom exceeding a 24 hour period. With appropriate compensation and not really a lot of danger, the esprit de corps of the Sea Patrol Force remained extremely high. Proof of this lay in the fact that lots of crew members volunteered to serve with other crews that were short handed, even though it may not have been their turn. These volunteers often went on two or three times as many missions than they would have had they simply stayed with the crews to which they were assigned.

2. Navy SEALS

A CIA directed base was established at My Khe beach in November, 1962 so that American SEALS, an acronym that stands for sea, air and land, could provide training for the landing teams. While the base was under the authority of the CIA until 1964, the training was done entirely by the SEALS.

My Khe is located in the eastern part of the Tien Sha Peninsula which runs north from the base of Monkey Mountain to Marble Mountain, both of which the local inhabitants know by Vietnamese names. The Tien Sha Peninsula is part of a larger area east of the City of Da Nang. All of the SEAL bases were located along the beach at My Khe. The SEAL teams lived and trained in individual camps which were relatively small and accommodated up to no more that about 30 or 40 trainees. There was one camp known as Romulus that was reserved for SEALS who were recruited from infantry units and another called Vega which was used exclusively for SEALS that were formerly Navy frogmen and a third that provided training exclusively in underwater demolition. In addition there was one camp reserved for the Nung ethnic minority contingent that served as guards at the camps.

Sometime in 1964 a team of U.S. Navy SEALS began training Vietnamese SEAL teams under the command of Captain Cathal L. Flynn. The various SEAL teams were trained in the techniques of paddling an inflatable raft, landing on the beach, swimming underwater and using explosives, etc. They were also provided at the outset with arms training that consisted of using the 3.5 inch time-delay rocket which was furnished by the CIA. In principle, a team could land near the target, fire a rocket and then beat a hasty retreat back to base before the time-delay fuse detonated the round. However, this type of rocket was ineffective because it was not very accurate. The time-delay system often malfunctioned and the fact that it could explode unexpectedly made it especially dangerous. This rocket was used a few times in North Vietnamese landings but was later sidelined as ineffective in favor of the 57 millimeter recoilless rifle. This weapon was a light cannon that directed the explosive blast out the rear instead of requiring that it be set firmly on a base to absorb the recoil.

In March, 1964, Navy Captain Trinh Hoa Hiep of the Frogmen Unit of the RVN Navy was assigned to command the Vietnamese SEALS at My Khe. This team was very effective and
produced excellent results.

VIII. Some Activities

During its approximately ten year period of operation, the Nautilus junks and the PT Boats
of the Sea Patrol Force as well as the SEAL teams carried out thousands of assignments of every variety. Following are those missions worthy of mention.

1. Nautilus Junk Operations

Although the Nautilus junks were in operation since 1956 their first assignments were supply trips in support of the underground teams in North Vietnam and they occurred only rarely, perhaps once or twice a year. Later, in 1962 and 1963 Nautilus operations became more regular and had more positive objectives. Following are a number of activities that are representative of those undertaken by the Coastal Security Service and the Sea Patrol Force teams during this period:

Mission of Nautilus I, January 12, 1962

At 5 AM on January 12, 1962, Nautilus Junk I left Da Nang on its way to North Vietnam to carry out a liaison and supply mission for the operatives who were underground in the North. After a trouble free two-day trip in the Gulf of Tonkin, Nautilus I arrived at the point of contact at Hon Gai. Shortly before arrival an agent known as Ares requested many essential supplies including a radio. Except for the Captain of the Nautilus, the crew was very young and not clear about the purpose of the operation. Not long before that, under the authority of the agency for coastal penetration, Nautilus I put a person named Quang safely ashore at Ha Tinh near Deo Ngang. Other crew members also went ashore a number of times to mingle with the local fishermen for the purpose of gathering information.

When it arrived at Hon Gai, Nautilus I anchored near a small island and pretended to be fishing as it waited for nightfall. After dark the Nautilus I followed the secret signal of Agent Ares and when it arrived at the specified location it was ambushed. The junk and its entire crew fell into the hands of the enemy. Agent Ares was never heard from again!
Nautilus II Operations.

On June 28, 1962, the crew of Nautilus II left Da Nang to undertake a special mission north of the 17th Parallel. The objective was to put four frogmen ashore at the mouth of the Gianh River where they would place mines to destroy the Swatow ships of the Communists at the Quang Khe Naval Base which was located nearby. Their names were Le Van Kinh, Nguyen Huu Thao, Nguyen Van Tam and Le Van Chuyen. All four were members of the first team of frogmen of the RVN Navy that totaled 18 and had received training in Taiwan in August, 1960.

After arriving on site, the frogmen, who were part of the underwater demolition team, prepared to put the mines in place. No one knew why, but unfortunately, a mine exploded prematurely and fatally wounded one of the frogmen. The explosion alerted the Communist Coast Guard and one of its boats gave chase. The Nautilus II headed back to the 17th Parallel at full speed but the Communist patrol boat was faster and managed to catch up and sink the Nautilus II near the 17th Parallel. CIA personnel in Da Nang had heard voice communications among the Communist vessels but did nothing to come to the aid of Nautilus II.

The result was that the team leader of the frogmen, Le Van Kinh and one other named Nguyen Van Tam were captured. There was only one person who escaped from the Nautilus II by hiding under the sail of the sunken ship and he was later picked up by a rescue mission that originated in Da Nang.

A Mission in July, 1962

In this mission an agent named Nguyen Chau Thanh was successfully landed in the area of Ha Tinh. According to the plan, the crew of Nautilus III was assigned this mission but at the last minute it was given to the crew of another vessel.

Mission of Nautilus VII

In July, 1963 the Dragon Team consisted of six Nung ethnic minority personnel under the command of Moc A Tai whose mission was to land in the area of Mong Cai, which is located on the Chinese border with North Vietnam, and proceed to destroy a coastal radar facility. Additionally, the Dragon Team was given unlimited authority in this area that was heavily populated by the Nung and therefore well-known to all of them. They were to contact some former soldiers who had served in the 22nd Infantry Division of the RVN under the command of Colonel Woon A. Sang and had remained underground in the North since the evacuation to the South in 1954. The Topographical Service had contacted Colonel Sang to learn about the status of these former soldiers who were still underground in that locality. If they were located by the Dragon Team they would be used as guides and for other tasks related to the mission.

The junk Nautilus VII had the responsibility to transport the Dragon Team to the drop off point. The crew of the Nautilus had been warned to be careful in following a prescribed sea route in order to avoid being picked up by the radar station on Hai Nam Island and thus be discovered invading the territorial waters of North Vietnam.

Unfortunately, the Nautilus was discovered when it reached the drop off point and the landing team had gone ashore. Nautilus VII later returned to Da Nang but a number of the crew and all of the landing team had been captured. One of those who had been captured related the following:

The missions to invade by sea were very successful. The proof is that I completed eleven assignments before being caught. Our operations could be divided into three categories which were: observation runs to gather intelligence, trips to drop off commandos and destructive raids on enemy targets. We had a total of seven junks and the crew members were always rotating. For example, in the beginning I was with the team of Nautilus II and then served with Nautilus IV and finally went with Nautilus VII when I was captured. Nautilus IV invaded the major North Vietnamese port of Hai Phong twice and returned safely both times. Though our missions were often in distant locations such as at Mong Cai near the Chinese/North Vietnamese border and in the area of Deo Ngang which is located in the province of Ha Tinh, we successfully completed them on numerous occasions. As far as I know, Nautilus II was the only junk that was lost during its mission to transport frogmen to lay mines at Quang Khe in June, 1962".

2. Operations of the Fast Patrol Boats

There are no documents concerning the activities of the Swifts and the fast patrol boats prior to 1964 when foreigners from Germany and Norway served as boat commanders under the direction of the CIA. However, many successful missions were carried out after 1964 when the CSS was established and the PT Boats were operating under the command of the RVN Navy. It is also necessary to add that all the MACSOG missions were of a strategic rather than a tactical nature. Therefore, emphasis was not placed on destroying targets or neutralizing lots of enemy soldiers but on gathering intelligence, psychological operations and creating havoc behind enemy lines.

Throughout approximately eight years of operation, the fast patrol boats and the Sea Patrol Force accomplished about 1,000 raids into the territorial waters of North Vietnam, most of these occurring during the five year period from 1965 to 1970. Of special interest was the fact that during the period when U.S. aircraft were bombing North Vietnam, naval crews were undertaking six or seven missions per month.

The Sea Patrol Force had 12 teams which were simply numbered l through 12 and each crew consisted of 19 people. There were also 12 fast patrol boats so that theoretically each boat had its own crew. Therefore the first boat was sometimes referred to as the first crew and vice versa. A fast patrol boat of the Sea Patrol Force never operated alone north of the 17th Parallel. Every mission included from two to four fast patrol boats depending on the importance and location of the objective. Every crew was assigned to a particular boat but when it went on a mission only the best boats were utilized. Therefore, it was quite routine for the crew of one vessel to on occasion man another.

Following are a number of typical operations that took place in June, 1964.

- On June 12th, two boat crews dropped off landing teams at two different locations in the Tonkin Gulf. One team landed in the area of Cua Ron which was located in the province of Ha Tinh and the other landed further north in the province of Thanh Hoa. The group at Cua Ron used a 57 millimeter recoilless rifle to destroy a North Vietnamese military outpost at Hai Khau. The team at Thanh Hoa used explosives to destroy the Hang River Bridge. All 26 of the team members returned to the PT Boat unharmed.

- In the early morning of June 27th, a group of seven demolition experts worked together with a 24 man support team to blow up a bridge on National Route I near the province of Thanh Hoa. They killed two soldiers who were guarding the bridge and four other North Vietnamese troops. The team suffered no casualties.

- At dawn on July 1st, a team of about 30 used a 57 millimeter recoilless rifle to destroy a building that housed the water works at the mouth of the Kien River which was located near the coastal city of Dong Hoi. Sometime just after midnight Fast Patrol Boats 5 and 6 landed a party by inflatable raft. As the landing team made its way back on board the enemy opened fire. The two patrol boats came in close to the shore to provide fire support with their 20 and 40 millimeter cannon. Two of the landing party were lost but the others captured two enemy soldiers. Later, the North Vietnamese let it be known that one of those captured was a commando who confirmed that his landing team had indeed destroyed the Hang River Bridge on June 27th. He also said that all of the commandos were well trained and familiar with the technique of having a force land to destroy a target and then beating a hasty retreat by returning to the boats with little difficulty. Finally, he stated that the commandos preferred going ashore by sea rather than being dropped in by air because it was safer and the support was more effective.

3. Psychological Warfare Operations

In addition to the missions to drop a team that would destroy a target or capture North Vietnamese cadre or soldiers, the fast patrol boats undertook missions on the high seas that did not require a landing party. These operations included searching for enemy documents on the fishing junks and capturing a few local fishermen for interrogation, shelling targets on shore and dropping psywar leaflets on the coastal population centers, etc. Leaflet drops usually took place in the highly populated areas south of the 18th Parallel. Large quantities of them were placed in the shell of an 81 millimeter mortar that was fired into the coastal villages and communities from the fast patrol boats when they were 1,500 to 2,000 meters offshore. The shell would explode overhead like a flare and the leaflets would flutter down from the sky. Sometimes the fast patrol boats also distributed radios wrapped in waterproof plastic in the villages along the coast so that the population could listen to South Vietnamese radio stations such as the Voice of Freedom, Mother Vietnam or the Sacred Sword of Patriotism.

Missions to capture fishermen for the purpose of indoctrination began on May 27, 1964. In this operation a fast patrol boat and a Swift captured a fishing junk in the waters off Dong Hoi. Six fishermen along with their junk were brought to a place called Cu Lao Cham Island which was located off the coast of Da Nang. In an effort to win their support, the fishermen were treated very kindly and were well fed. On June 2nd, the fishermen and their junk were returned to where they were captured and they brought along with them the various gifts of cloth, food and plastic utensils, etc., that they had been given during their stay.

The PT Boats captured three more junks on July 7th and an additional two on July 20th. Following this the Swifts did not undertake any further missions north of the 17th Parallel and the task of observing and capturing the fishermen was taken over exclusively by the fast patrol boats. However, these boats were faster than the Swifts and when towing them in to Cu Lao Cham without a crew they were often swamped and sunk. So for that reason the crew was transported on our boats but the junk was left behind. When the fishermen were returned, small bamboo rafts were brought along and the fishermen were released on these tiny craft in the area where they were captured.

Sometime later there were American documents alleging that the junks left behind were rigged with explosives and left as floating booby traps. This allegation was baseless. The fact that the junks were not towed was really a decision that was based on the practicalities of the matter and not on any desire to inflict harm on the enemy. The people who depended on fishing for their livelihood eked out an existence under the Communist regime and were very poor. As a consequence their junks were very fragile and very primitive. They had to be kept relatively close to the shore and used only on those days when the ocean was calm. For that reason, even the Swift, which was a small patrol boat, had to be very careful when towing a junk and could not exceed ten nautical miles per hour to avoid sinking or otherwise damaging the fragile vessels. The people who lived in the area of the 17th Parallel such as the inhabitants of Dong Hoi and Quang Khe at least had junks to fish with though they were quite rudimentary. Further north in the area of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An the fishermen were so poor that they had no junks at all. They had to use a type of raft made of large bamboo logs which were lashed together with a fiber of split bamboo. Naturally, these rafts had no engines and were powered by sail or oars. No fabric was available for the sails so they were made of palm fronds or a sort of woven bamboo and the mast was made of a large tree trunk. Fishing with one of these rafts meant that those on board were always wet because while the raft floated on the surface it sank ankle deep in the water! Even if one wanted to tow one of these rafts it was not possible. If they were lucky the fishermen had clothes with untold layers of patches and the majority had a coat like covering made of palm fronds that were tied together. Their very modest fishing gear consisted of droplines and hooks.

We recall once searching a junk near the estuary known as Lach Truong which is the opening to the Sam Son Beach near Thanh Hoa. It was a December day with a steady drizzle and a cold north wind. As we approached one of the fishing rafts described above we saw a half dozen or so fishermen dressed in cone hats and wearing palm frond overcoats which they held tightly around themselves. They were huddled in one corner as if to protect each other from the cold. As they looked somewhat suspicious those who conducted the search from on board the PT Boat used a megaphone to order the fishermen to stand and raise their hands. The fishermen seemed embarrassed but when they saw that guns were aimed in their direction they complied with the order. Everyone on board the PT Boat was astonished because when the palm frond overcoats were released they fell to the deck revealing the completely naked body of each fisherman. Under the palm frond coats, they had on not one stitch of clothing. When they were brought on board and given a solid meal we learned that each citizen of North Vietnam was allowed to buy only two yards of cloth per year from the regimeҳ monopoly and they did not have the money necessary to make a purchase on the black market. Therefore, whenever they went fishing the lucky ones wore old patched rags while the majority wore only a coat of palm fronds to provide some protection from the elements. Whatever attire they may have owned was set aside to be used for important occasions only.

As for psychological operations, an experienced commander of the Sea Patrol Force gave the following account:

During 1967 we undertook a special psychological warfare program. For a period of almost three months we captured more than 300 fishermen in the area from Dong Hoi to Thanh Hoa. We took two individuals from every village. After delivering them to Cu Lao Cham we made sure that they were well fed. Each person ate a half chicken every day and after three months was plump and had a healthy complexion. We took them back, each to his hometown, to see what the reaction would be both locally and by the regime in North Vietnam. It came as no surprise to us during the next six months that when we tried to capture the same individuals again, they were nowhere to be found. After almost nine months had passed we finally captured one fellow who sighed: you folks hurt us. When you released us the local government officials noticed that we were fat so they put us in the thought reform camps and just released us.

IX. The Fast Patrol Boats and the Tonkin Gulf Incident

At the time that the Maddox, a U.S. Navy Destroyer, was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, its mission coincided with the operations of the fast patrol boats of the Sea Patrol Force. Because there has been much speculation that the fast patrol boats and the Destroyer Maddox were coordinating their efforts to provoke North Vietnam into making an attack at sea so that the U.S. would have a pretext for bombing North Vietnam, we are summarizing herewith some of the events related to this matter so that the reader can find out for himself what really happened.

1. Operations of the Destroyer Maddox

Early on July 31, 1964, the Maddox, a U.S. Navy Destroyer arrived in the coastal waters of Vietnam just off the 17th Parallel to begin patrolling the coastal waters of North Vietnam. Its mission was known as Operation De Soto.

At noon on August 2nd when the warship was located about 18 nautical miles offshore and approximately 10 nautical miles away from Hon Me, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats marked T-333, T-336 and T-339, fired torpedoes at the Maddox. The result of the encounter was that the North Vietnamese boats were heavily damaged while the Maddox remained unscathed.

On the morning of August 3rd, the Destroyer Maddox received orders from Admiral Johnson, Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet to continue Operation De Soto but this time the Destroyer Turner Joy would join the mission as a reinforcement. According to a U.S. Navy report, at 9:34 PM local time on August 4th, both warships reported that they were under attack by North Vietnamese ships and commenced firing at 9:39 PM. At that time the target was 8,000 yards away. Later many people said that the second confrontation had never occurred.

2. The Activities of the Fast Patrol Boats During Operation De Soto

On July 22, 1964, four PT Boats including PTFs 3, 4, 5 and 6, were preparing to go on an operation to land commandos who would then attack various military outposts and a coastal radar facility near Vinh. However, the missions were scrubbed at the last minute because aerial photography taken that morning by a U-2 spy plane showed that two enemy Swatow ships were spotted in the area of Hon Nieu and three others were observed near Hon Me which was about 50 nautical miles north of the target area. Naturally, the fast patrol boats undertook another mission to patrol the coast and prepare to do battle at sea with the North Vietnamese ships in the area instead of dropping off SEAL teams on the shore. It was not clear whether the enemy ships simply slipped away but we did not intercept them on that day.

On July 27, 1964, two fast patrol boats were providing support for two Swifts that were searching fishing junks in the waters off Vinh Son when enemy Swatow boats appeared. They may have come from the Quang Khe base that was located near the mouth of the Gian River. Under orders to be on guard for enemy ships that attacked unexpectedly from the front, the fast PT Boats that were escorting the Swifts proceeded quickly to open water and prepared for battle but the North Vietnamese Swatows dared not chase after us. Because the main mission was to search fishing vessels and not attack enemy ships, the fast patrol boats returned to base without incident.

On July 30, 1964, a group of four PT Boats including PTF-2, 3, 5 and 6, went out on an operation. The objective was to land teams on the islands of Hon Nieu and Hon Me for the purpose of using sapper charges to destroy various military positions. Hon Me was located about 12 kilometers from shore and around 19 degrees North in the open sea off Lach Tray, also known as Sam Son. Hon Nieu lay further South and only about four kilometers off Ben Thuy Harbor that is located at the city of Vinh in Nghe An Province.

This was a very desperate mission fraught with danger because commando teams were to be dropped off deep in enemy territory and intelligence as well as aerial photographs indicated that enemy ships were laying in ambush in the target area. For that reason, the crews of the fast patrol boats had all been carefully selected on the basis of each members time in service and his combat experience.

Just before midnight on July 7th, at 11:15 PM to be exact, the fast patrol boats arrived at the final rendezvous point Southeast of Hon Me. The coordinates for this position were 19 degrees North and 106.16 East. At this location the PT Boats split up into two pairs. The Northern two included PTF-3 and 6, which headed toward the target on Hon Me, and the Southern pair, which was made up of PTF-2 and 5, started moving toward the objective at Hon Nieu.

The Northern PT Boats reached their target that was located in the Southern area of Hon Me at 9:00 PM on July 31st. While it is called an island, Hon Me is really a mountain that rises out of the sea. It is covered with large trees and dense vegetation that make it very difficult to observe what is happening on the island, especially at night. At the summit of Hon Me, which is 500 meters above sea level, there was a North Vietnamese artillery emplacement. Intended for coastal defense, it could hit targets on the high seas within a radius of 15 nautical miles.

Both PT Boats cautiously proceeded to the target according to the prescribed formation, one boat providing cover as the other moved to the drop off point, about 2,000 meters offshore. The landing team was making preparations to go ashore with explosives to blow up a lookout tower and various other military installations on the island. As the SEAL team was preparing to drop its pneumatic raft, a Swatow was spotted close to the shore by one of the crew looking through binoculars. At that moment the enemy ship opened fire first with a 37 millimeter cannon and a heavy machine gun. Although attacked first the PT Boats returned fire and effectively silenced the enemy after engaging him for only a few minutes. The appearance of the enemy ship at Hon Me came as no surprise to the crews of the PT Boats. It merely confirmed the intelligence they had already received.

Having been discovered, it was now imperative that the landing be canceled but the fast patrol boats switched to an alternative plan and shelled coastal targets with their regular armament which included 20, 40 and 81 millimeter mortar. The landing team's 57 millimeter recoilless rifle provided an extra degree of firepower for the bombardment. This shelling was the first time that targets on shore were hit by the fast patrol boats within the framework of OPLAN 34A. In a period of only about 20 minutes PTF-3 and 6 laid down a deadly wall of fire that completely destroyed the designated targets as well as many machine gun nests. Having completed the mission, the two PT Boats left the area shortly after midnight.

According to later U.S. reports, a Swatow identified as T-142 had come to assist the force defending Hon Me and did its utmost to follow the activities of the fast patrol boats but dared not engage in hostilities. Documents captured by the Americans noted that the ship in question made up an excuse when reporting to the enemy high command that it had to quit the chase because the fast patrol boats traveled at such a high rate of speed. It is possible that this particular Swatow may not have been discovered by the fast patrol boats because it was hiding near the shore.

At the same time that the hostile action at Hon Me was unfolding, the two boats that made up the Southern pair were only 800 meters from their objective which was a radio installation on the island of Hon Nieu. However, perhaps because the enemy at Hon Me had sounded the alarm, the defenders at Hon Nieu were prepared for an imminent attack. Realizing the disadvantage inherent in landing a team under these conditions, the officers in charge decided to scrub the landing in favor of shelling the target from the two fast patrol boats that comprised the Southern pair. Because of the clarity and relative closeness of the target, the radio station was destroyed by the first few volleys. After that the fast patrol boats turned their weapons on secondary targets such as military and defensive installations. After more than a half hour of destructive fire, throughout which the enemy did not respond, PTF-2 and 5 left the area and returned to base.

The Northern pair arrived back in Da Nang around 10:00 AM on July 31st and the Southern pair arrived a little later about 11:00 AM because PTF-2 had developed engine trouble during the long journey.

On the afternoon of July 3rd, four PT Boats PTF-1, 2, 5 and 6, left the base at Da Nang to undertake a mission. The objective was to destroy various targets along the North Vietnamese coast in an area known as the Cape of Vinh Son and Cua Ron which were located near the city of Vinh approximately 70 nautical miles North of the 17th Parallel.
PTF-2 developed engine trouble again and had to turn back. At approximately 11:00 PM PTF 1 and 5 directed their fire on the radar facility at Vinh Son for about 20 minutes. PTF-6 remained alone at the mouth of the Giang River firing at various targets on shore and a group of North Vietnamese tropedo boats that were docked at the Quang Khe Naval Base. A North Vietnamese PT Boat left port to give chase to PTF-6 but returned after about 40 minutes because it was unable to catch up. When the mission was completed all the PT Boats returned safely to Da Nang.

In the attacks that took place on Hon Ngu and Hon Me during the night of July 30th and the dawn of July 31st, North Vietnam did not let it be known that the warship Maddox had been involved. But in the attack that occurred on the night of August 3rd and into the dawn of August 4th, North Vietnam clearly indicated that the attacking force included four PT Boats from Da Nang and two American Destroyers. One of the reasons that North Vietnam did not know exactly how many ships were engaged in the attack was because the radar station at Vinh Son had been heavily damaged by the fire from the PT Boats and was knocked out of commission.

X. North Vietnamese Defense Capability

The North Vietnamese coastal defense system included naval ships and specialized junks. It also included radar facilities and artillery that were placed at locations all along the coast.
North Vietnamese Navy: North Vietnamҳ naval ships could only operate in the shallow coastal waters. Based on the intelligence that was available at that time, the North Vietnamese Navy had four SO I escort vessels, 12 P-4 torpedo boats and a number of Swatow PT Boats.

The SO 1 escorts weighed in at about 250 tons and were provided by the Soviets, two in 1960-61 and two in 1964-65. They were 140 feet in length and 20 feet wide. With a diesel engine and a crew of 30 they had a top speed of about 28 nautical miles per hour. Their armament included two 25 millimeter cannons mounted on the bow and behind the bridge. There were also four positions where depth charges could be launched against submarines. On February 1, 1966, one of the SO 1 vessels was sunk by an American plane. The remaining three were broken down or otherwise unfit for service as they were not observed on the scene at the time. As for the patrol boats which were lighter, they were very old and while their firepower was heavy their speed was relatively slow so that they were not a cause for concern.

The P-4 torpedo boats could be seen as the most effective weapons in the arsenal of the North Vietnamese Navy as they were capable of inflicting heavy damage on their enemy. These boats were small with a gross weight of about 50 tons. Diesel powered with a length of 85 feet and a width of 20 feet, they had a top speed of about 40 nautical miles per hour. Their armament included one heavy machine gun mounted behind the bridge and a torpedo tube on each side. Each torpedo had a warhead equal to 550 pounds of TNT which could sink a large warship. However, the effective range of the torpedoes did not exceed one kilometer. They were also equipped with a 253-type radar that had a range of 15 nautical miles in good weather. Normally, the P-4 would have to travel at high speed to launch a torpedo but when traveling very fast the radar antenna would have to be folded down to reduce wind resistance and to avoid damage from the heavy sea. Although the P-4 had a fairly high speed it was far inferior to the speed of our fast patrol boats. Also, the radar range was very limited and its firepower consisted of only one machine gun. For these reasons the P-4 was not a real contender against our fast patrol boats. American planes during their air raids against North Vietnam sank the majority of the P-4 boats.

The Swatow PT Boats had a displacement of 67 tons, were 83.5 feet long and were 20 feet wide amidship. They were equipped with two double 37 millimeter cannons. These Swatow ships of the North Vietnamese were fairly equal contenders with our fast patrol boats but our ships were faster and the Swatow had a difficult time trying to keep up. American planes also sank a fairly large number of the Swatow boats.

During the years when our fast patrol boats were active, direct contention with the coastal defense vessels of the North Vietnamese were very rare and only a few instances of such confrontations were ever known to have occurred. This was due partially to the fact that small North Vietnamese vessels did not dare to go far from shore because they were afraid of an air attack and partially because they were painfully aware of their inferior capability. A fast patrol boat commander gave the following account of one such rare occurrence:
On five years of operations we only came face to face with a North Vietnamese patrol boat once in early 1965 in a joint mission with our two sister ships. While enroute to Mui Dao which is north of Dong Hoi at about three in the morning the radar picked up the echos of three vessels speeding toward us from shore at high speed. Immediately after notifying the U.S. Seventh Fleet, we formed into a battle formation and increased our speed to 55 nautical miles per hour. In keeping with standard naval tactics we attempted to form into a T-formation in order that our weapons would begin firing together. The enemy also jockeyed for position. In the end we faced off in an irregular position. The enemy opened fire first but we refrained from shooting until they were about 1,000 yards away.

In the skirmish that followed one of our ships was damaged lightly by an enemy shell and a number of personnel were wounded. Our two ships that were escorting the third returned safely. In the days that followed our intelligence reports indicated that the enemy force received fairly heavy damage because they commenced firing too early and concentrated their fire on only one target. They received direct hits from our other two vesselsԮ
Decoy fishing junks: Having seen the fast patrol boats searching fishing junks and detaining the fishermen, the Vietnamese Communists took advantage of what they saw as an opportunity to arm fishing junks with both weapons and explosives. Thus disguised, they waited in ambush among the other real fishing junks. When the fast patrol boats approached the enemy opened fire unexpectedly with a B-40 or tossed explosives onto the PT Boats. While this technique caused damage on a few occasions, all of the crew of the decoy vessels were killed and then each junk was sunk on the spot.

Coastal radar defense: North Vietnam placed a number of radar stations along the coast in order to monitor the activities of the fast patrol boats that operated out in the ocean. However, as time went on, all of the radar stations were destroyed or under constant air attack which rendered them ineffective.

Coastal artillery defense: This consisted of artillery emplacements that were located on the peaks of the islands or on the high rocky outcrops along the coast in order to fire out to sea. The range of the artillery was quite far, about 15 nautical miles, and even though they fired on a fairly regular basis no fast patrol boat was ever hit. At times the enemy would place a fairly large junk in position as bait. They then would predetermine the coordinates and wait for a fast patrol boat to approach before opening fire. However, even this tactic did not produce an optimum result. They were never able to hit a PT Boat but they did hit a number of U.S. warships which presented them with larger targets.

XI. Damage

Throughout the eight years that it was in operation, the Sea Patrol Force suffered negligent enemy damage.

As for the PT Boats, not a single one was ever sunk by enemy fire and only a number of them ever sustained light damage. Of course, there were a number of PT Boats that ran aground. This was easy to understand because most of the missions were carried out at night and close to shore in areas that were unfamiliar. All of those that ran aground were subsequently bombed and destroyed by U.S. aircraft to keep them from falling into enemy hands. There was also one case when a PT Boat was sunk by mistake by an American plane.

As for personnel, enemy impact was very light. There were only about 30 or 40 casualties that occurred during the thousands of individual missions that were carried out. The heaviest personnel loss occurred when one of our boats was mistakenly hit by friendly fire during a skirmish and two officers were killed.

XII. A Number of Mistakes and Disputed Facts Concerning the Sea Patrol Forces

Because it was an irregular unit that was cleverly disguised, only a few people really knew the backgrounds of the personnel who made up the Sea Patrol Force. It was not uncommon for even those who served together in the various naval units to be unaware of a comradeҳ origins except when the mission took place in the Da Nang area. The PT Boats of the Sea Patrol Force are also a source of much heated debate, especially among authors and people who are not familiar with the Navy.

The war ended almost 30 years ago but there is still much misinformation and considerable controversy concerning the Sea Patrol Force. Some falsehoods and misconceptions are still propagated by personnel who served with MACSOG as well as by American writers. This is not because there is a deliberate effort to distort the truth. It is rather the nature of classified operations. Each individual is aware of only a part of the missions on a "need to know" basis. Therefore only a very few had a broad and complete view of the entire program.

Following are some "truths" concerning a number of disputed facts and mistakes that are known to us and can be found in American and Vietnamese books written on this subject.
Concerning Personnel

In Presidents War, the author Anthony Austin writes that while there were Vietnamese on the various PT Boats there were no RVN Navy personnel. All of the crews consisted of direct hires.

A MACSOG document entitled Maritime Operation stated that RVN Navy personnel were not recruited during the period prior to the beginning of 1964. Therefore, civilian personnel had to be hired.

In his book Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, historian Edwin Moise of Clemson University, wrote on page 15 that: There is good evidence that the Nasty boat crews belonged to the South Vietnamese Navy and wore uniforms while on operationsԮ Professor Moise also wrote on page 15 that: The RVN Navy had said it was assigning the cream of its men to this program and the officers in particular were convinced that they were the cream.

The Truth: From the moment that the Sea Patrol Force was founded, the crews of the PT Boats were all RVN Navy personnel. However, they were not in uniform when they went on missions. Professor Moise was right when he wrote that all of the officers were: The cream of the crop.

The Equipment and the Mission

In his book, The RVN Navy Goes to Sea, author Diep My Linh wrote on page 69 that the PT Motor Torpedo Boat was about eighty feet long with a composite/plastic hull. It was built in Norway, ran on fuel oil and had a top speed that exceeded 50 nautical miles per hour. The various PT Boats of the Coastal Security Service were nicknamed Nasty and Swift. Every PT Boat was routinely equipped with an 81 or 130 millimeter rotating mortar located behind the bridge; two .50 caliber double barreled machine guns mounted on the sides and an automatic 40 millimeter double barreled anti-aircraft cannonԮ The author also wrote on page 69 that: after returning from a mission in North Vietnam our crews were tired and exhausted in both body and soul. The patrol forces of the RVN were often stopped and hit by the patrol forces of the enemy at Hon Cop. MIGs that flew in pairs discovered the boats with radar and then attacked them with heat seeking missiles. The Vietnamese Communists usually used the Kronstad PT Boat that had a top speed of 35 nautical miles per hour and the P-4 which had a top speed of 65 nautical miles per hour and was equipped with six .50 caliber double barreled machine gun positions with which to attack the PT Boats of the RVN.

The Truth: The PT Boat hulls were constructed of laminated wood or aluminum, not composite/plastic. Only the Norwegian built boat was known as a Nasty. Swift was a nickname used by the Sea Patrol Force.

The fast patrol boats only had an 81 millimeter mortar that was mounted in FRONT of the bridge not behind it and did not have a 130 millimeter gun at all. It was another type of boat that had an 81 millimeter mortar mounted behind the bridge.

The PTF had 40 millimeter single barreled, not double barreled, cannon. Our crew members were tired after a mission that kept them up all night but not to the point of exhaustion.
Our PT Boats were not routinely stopped and fired upon by enemy PT Boats at Hon Cop because most of the North Vietnamese PT Boats had been sunk. Those ships that remained stayed close to shore as they dared not to engage our patrol boats that had more firepower and were faster. Moreover, our PT Boats could call in U.S. air support when necessary. We recall operation Double Tango in which our fast patrol boats blockaded and shelled Hon Cop continuously for a full month and never observed a North Vietnamese PT Boat offer any resistance. Throughout the five years of experience with the Sea Patrol Force that included over two hundred missions, we never saw a North Vietnamese PT Boat with the naked eye.

We also never tracked one with radar at night. According to our experience in thousands of missions there were only a few instances of confrontations between our fast patrol boats and North Vietnamese PT Boats. The North Vietnamese refer to Hon Cop Island by another name; Con Co Island. Speaking of this location a PT Boat commander said: North of the 17th Parallel and about 30 nautical miles off Vinh Linh is a small island that Radio Hanoi continuously praised as the Con Co Island of heroism. The island was home to a North Vietnamese naval base and an artillery emplacement that was used for shore defense. It was a sad situation for the comrade troopers on the island who had to maintain an alert status for months on end because every time we went past we would receive an order to lob in a few rounds to wake them up. American planes also used this island to drop whatever extra ordinance they were carrying before returning to their bases.

Under ideal conditions the Kronstad boat had a top speed of about 28 nautical miles per hour and it is not certain that the enemy even had this type of craft. As for the P-4, its top speed was 45 nautical miles per hour.

There are no reports confirming that there were ever more than a very few attacks on our fast patrol boats by North Vietnamese planes. Their airborne heat seeking missiles were only used for targets they encountered in their dogfights in the air or for targets on the ground such as tanks. As for targets at sea the MIGs routinely used air to surface missiles.

Equipment and Training

An article entitled, The SEALS and Sea Patrol: the Battle With Communist Troops Along the Coast, was published in the Vietnamese newspaper, Economy, on December 3, 1999. Its author, Vuong Hong Anh wrote that: ..SOG naval advisors modified 12 Swift river patrol boats to be used in secret missions. With a top speed of 80 kilometers an hour the PT Boats were armed with 40 millimeter cannon and various light weapons. SOG took the boat crews and SEAL teams from Long Thanh to be trained to go ashore and attack targets along the coast. These teams were trained at a secret base in the South near Saigon. The boat crews were trained to go out into the high seas of the South Vietnamese coast from 100 to 110 kilometers and then head into North Vietnamese waters from the open seas. Such a tactic would be necessary because the coastal waters were crowded with boats and rafts making it difficult to slip by undetected and avoid pursuit or discovery.

The Truth: The Swift is not a river patrol boat but a coastal patrol boat.

A river patrol boat is a small boat with a fiberglass hull. An ocean going PT Boat may operate in a river but the reverse is not true. If a river patrol boat were to venture out into the high seas it could be capsized by a large wave, especially if it is 100 to 110 kilometers offshore. The crews of the fast patrol boats and the Swifts were all trained in the waters off Da Nang. The mission routes usually took us along the coast of North Vietnam and we were very seldom 100 kilometers away from shore.

Communist Naval Base

Writer, Vuong Hong Anh, also wrote about the mission to attack and destroy boats belonging to the North Vietnamese Communists at Hon Cop as follows: The first mission was undertaken by a SEALS team that secretly attacked and destroyed a North Vietnamese Communist vessel at Hon Cop...

The Truth: The North Vietnamese Communists did not have a naval base at Hon Cop and that island did not have a beach or a place to drop anchor.

The North Vietnamese Communist naval base closest to the 17th Parallel was at Dong Hoi. Based on our knowledge of the situation, the mission was directed at the Quang Khe base that was located at the mouth of the Gianh River.

The Boat Crews

Did American personnel who trained the boat crews actually go on missions north of the 17th Parallel? Although strictly forbidden, was this policy absolutely observed? According to Colonel Bucklew, Chief of the Support Group for Naval Operations who was also responsible for the Americans serving with MACSOG, the prohibition was habitually violated. Historian, Edwin Moise, also interviewed Colonel Bucklew concerning this matter and wrote on page 16 of his book as follows: "Indeed, he is not aware of any cases in which the PTFs from Da Nang went on combat operations without American personnel on board. His recollection is that the Americans were running the boat with the Vietnamese along in what was essentially an apprenticeship role. He states that there were suggestions during 1964 that Vietnamese officers and men be given actual responsibility for handling the boats on combat missions, but that these suggestions had been opposed on the grounds that the Vietnamese did not have the skills"

In an interview conducted by historian Moise on March 10, 1988 with Vice Admiral Roy L. Johnson, who had served as Seventh Fleet Commander starting in June , 1964, Johnson recalls that the Vietnamese crews proved unreliable. When sent out on an operation against the North they sometimes just cruised around in circles for a few hours off shore, and then filed a false report that they had conducted the assigned operation. Admiral Johnson is pretty sure that American crews were used on raids against the North Vietnamese coasts by August 1964; if the change had not come by this time, it came soon after.

The Truth: There were never any Americans that went along on the missions that were conducted in the territorial waters of North Vietnam north of the 17th Parallel. The belief that American crews took the fast patrol boats into North Vietnam only exists in the imagination of the Seventh Fleet Commander because he has always believed that only his crews were reliable. There were many practical cases that serve as proof that an experienced commander of a PT Boat is much more well versed in naval warfare and more reliable than the advisers who were still wet behind the ears.

Moreover, when the PT boats went out on a mission they followed an established route that required them to check in at certain points and times so that friendly forces would not mistake them for the enemy. Therefore, there never was any cruising around in circles.

On this subject of Americans a commander that served for many years in the Sea Patrol Force said the following:

The Sea Patrol Force was probably the only unit in the armed forces of the RVN that in eight years of fighting in enemy territory was never accompanied by an American adviser. Our naval advisers were only responsible for providing support, i.e., intelligence, logistics and maintenance. They had a profound respect for us. Occasionally a few officers or noncoms would joke that somehow they were going to accompany us on a mission but no one believed that the joking would ever come to pass. On one mission that consisted of two ships, I took the second position. After crossing the 17th Parallel, two U.S. noncommissioned artillery officers suddenly appeared on deck and cheerfully volunteered to serve under my command while on that mission. Somewhat shocked I asked the commander of the lead boat for a decision. He then reported to our operations office and within ten minutes we received an urgent request for the joint mission to return to base.

When we returned to our base we saw an armored vehicle that whisked these two adventurous American friends away to the airport for an immediate trip home. We were happy that this incident only happened once.

We hope that the foregoing, though far from complete, will cast a little light on the truth connected with the Coastal Security Service and the Sea Patrol Force. The purpose of this article is to also commemorate and show our gratitude to those warrior SEALS who responded to the call of their homeland and did not hesitate to charge into the waters of North Vietnam.

= = = = = = =
This article was excerpted in its entirety with the permission of the author and the publisher from pages 80 to 107 of the Florida Vie Bao Directory Yearbook, 2000 c/o Mr. Chu Ba Yen, Publisher, P.O. Box 277625, Miramar, Florida 33027 - 7625
Translated from the Vietnamese language in June, 2000 by Donald C. Brewster, Frederick, Maryland with the able assistance of the author, Mr. Tran Do Cam of Austin, Texas. This translation is a result of our joint effort and In the process of working together we became good friends during this Spring of the new millennium.

Republic Of Vietnam Sea Commando

The Refugee come home / Commander Le Ba Hung

At the helm of a U.S. warship,

a Vietnam refugee comes home

Operation Vulcan

BY SEA, AIR, and LAND Chapter 1

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARDWASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 1: The Early Years, 1950-1959

Chapter 2 / The Sea Commando

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARDWASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 2 : The Era of Growing Conflict, 1959-1965

Chapter 3

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARDWASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 3: The Years of Combat, 1965-1968

Chapter 4

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARDWASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Chapter 4: Winding Down the War, 1968 - 1973

The Final Chapter

Chapter 5: The Final Curtain, 1973 - 1975

The Gulf Raiders

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060