Issue 8 Patriots Point, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina Winter 2009

 

Scuttlebutt

Voice of the Patriots Point Volunteers

The Brown-Water Navy in Vietnam

by Chip Biernbaum

 

There is a physical as well as psychological separation between our

four pier-side vessels and our ground-based Vietnam Naval Support Base.

This separation reflects the functional separation that existed between the

traditional offshore blue-water Navy and the riverine brown-water Navy

during the Vietnam War.

 

During that period, nearly 90% of transportation routes in the Mekong

River Delta region of South Vietnam, almost a third of the country, were

rivers and canals, not roads. Furthermore, the country’s long, irregular

coastline with its many small islands provided an ideal topography for infiltration. Consequently, in 1965 our coastal and riverine Naval forces were established, then consisting of operations Market Time (Task Force 115) and Game Warden (TF-116). These operations were designed to interdict the movement of men and materiel to

communist forces.

 

Market Time’s essentially blue-water mission was surveillance of coastal vessels up to 40 miles offshore. Its assets included numerous heavily armed, 50-ft "swift boats" (PCFs: Patrol Craft, Fast), 82-ft and 311-ft Coast Guard cutters, and 306-ft Navy radar-picket destroyer escorts. Roughly 500 vessels were boarded and inspected daily during the mid-to-late 1960s. In an effort to assuage bad feelings, inspectors gave gifts such as candy, soap, and medicine to those on boarded vessels. Market Time inspections significantly reduced enemy re-supply by sea, increasing their dependence on the more difficult Ho Chi Minh trail.

 

Game Warden’s brown-water, riverine efforts were almost entirely based in the southern part of the country: between Saigon and the ocean (Rung Sat Special Zone) and the Mekong Delta region. Its missions were to enforce curfews, stop Viet Cong movement and resupply, prevent Viet Cong taxation of watercraft, promote the amnesty

(Chieu Hoi) program for enemy deserters, clear mines from shipping channels, and gain the support of citizens through Civic Action programs and gifts. Almost all of their vessels were PBRs (Patrol Boat, River), one of which is on display at our Naval Support Base. These exceptionally maneuverable, 31-ft, fiberglass craft had a draft of 9-

18 inches and could go 25 knots quietly using twin, rotatable, water-jet propulsion systems. Machine guns on board included two .50-caliber, one .30-caliber, and an M-60, plus a grenade-launcher. Hand-held weapons included M-16 automatic rifles, grenade launchers, and shotguns. There was a volunteer crew of four plus a petty-officer

captain (from any rating – even clerks and cooks served as skippers), each of whom proudly bore the name "river rat." Bases similar to ours were constructed on land or units used Navy LSTs that traveled upriver. In a typical month during the height of the war, Game Warden PBRs detected 200,000 vessels, boarding about half of them.

Morale was great – even though one out of every three PBR sailors was wounded, one out of every five requested a six-month extension of his tour.

 

Creativity was common on both sides. Enemy vessels sometimes had false bottoms or secured contraband to the underside of sampans. They also restricted PBR maneuverability by attacking at low tide or deploying large numbers of fish traps in the waterway. PBR crews sometimes used remote underwater detection devices, infrared

and ultraviolet spotlights, and pebble-filled Coke cans hung on trip wires across streams to detect intruders. On one mission, six PBRs, complete with crews, were air-lifted to a river 16 miles away, achieving complete tactical surprise.

 

Unlike Market Time and Game Warden, the Riverine Assault Force (TF-117, established in 1967) was not created with interdiction in mind. Its purpose was to support the Army on search-and-destroy missions in the Mekong Delta. Insufficient dry land prevented the Army from using traditional methods of assault. The 9th Infantry Division therefore joined with TF-117 as the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF).

 

The MRF had a wide variety of vessels, many of which were modified LCMs ("Mike boats"). The most numerous were 56-ft, armored troop carriers (ATCs or "Tango boats"), which could carry a platoon of 40 men, vehicles, or artillery. Some had a helicopter landing pad. They had armored plating as well as external "bar armor" that predetonated incoming shells, and were armed with 20-mm cannon, .50-caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, and hand-held weapons. Some had a high-pressure water cannon to destroy enemy bunkers along the bank ("Douche boats").

 

Probably the most unusual vessels were 60-ft, armored monitors. They carried the same weapons as an ATC plus an 81-mm mortar and a 40-mm turret-mounted cannon – a

few had a flame-thrower (the "Zippos") or a howitzer. Another common craft was the 50-ft, heavily armed Assault Support Patrol Boat (ASPB or "Alpha boat") capable of minesweeping. Brown-water forces had a few air-cushion vessels (PAC-Vs) that could go up to 70 knots, but because they were loud, expensive, and required too much maintenance, their use was limited.

 

Volunteer Monti Montillo, one of the 9th Division’s brown-water infantrymen, shares the following: "We infantry boys would board the Tango boats around midnight. Once

onboard, we would attempt to catch some sleep, sitting-up or lying on the hull deck of the boat, which always had about an inch of water on it. The Navy would start-up the Tangos, Zippos and Monitors and begin the patrol down the rivers and canals to some predetermined riverbank. Meanwhile, in the quiet of the Mekong Delta the enemy could hear our diesel engines coming for hours and prepare their ambush. We usually arrived at or near our destination around dawn, the enemy dug-in and waiting. The quiet of the morning and the beauty of the jungle along the riverbank made everything surreal. Suddenly, the air was filled with incoming rifle, machine gun, and rocket fire from the riverbank. The noise was deafening – boats being hit by rockets, guys getting hit, screams, soldiers and sailors returning fire: organized chaos. The Tango pilots would swing their boats directly into the ambush, drop the gate, and we boys would assault the enemy. The ambushes were intense, close, adrenaline-spiked, and deadly."

 

Mobile riverine bases were used when land bases weren’t possible. These bases, which were commonly over a mile in length when anchored, had barracks ships (each housing over 650 men), supply craft, aviation fuel barges with helicopter flight decks, and command and control vessels.

 

Elements of TF-116 and 117 also served in the northern part of South Vietnam as Task Force Clearwater, helping the Marines keep rivers open. In 1968, Army and Navy elements of Task Forces 115, 116, and 117 participated in a new operation called Sea Lords, whose primary mission was to interdict riverine infiltration routes near the Cambodian border.

 

Huey helicopter gunships of Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 3 (HAL-3, the "seawolves"), the only Navy attack helicopter squadron in Vietnam, were critical elements of riverine forces. No helicopter squadron flew more combat missions or received more recognitions or awards during the Vietnam War than HAL-3. In fact, HAL-3 is the most decorated Navy squadron in history. Seawolf gunships, which were usually stationed at remote sites, could be scrambled within three minutes. According to volunteer Art Schmitt, a seawolf pilot, "the seawolves, the river rats, and the SEALs all

worked together like a well-oiled machine." However, Art continued, "the borrowed Army Huey UH-1s we used were dogs and very underpowered. On a hot, no-wind day, when the low rpm warning light and signal came on, the door gunners jettisoned the rockets and threw all of the ammunition out of the helo. Most of the time we could milk the rpm back if the door gunners were quick enough. We never could get gun barrels, so we traded with the Army. They could get anything, including lobster. Once we traded an air conditioner for a Loach observation helo." Typically operating in pairs (a "fire team"), Seawolf choppers were armed with two to four externally mounted M-60 machine guns, two M-60s and a grenade launcher fired by two door gunners, and fourteen 2.75-inch rockets housed in two externally mounted pods. Sometimes a door gunner would replace his M-60 with a .50-caliber machine gun (two .50-calibers would shake the floor rivets loose). A six-barreled, Gatlin-style mini-gun was included in the weaponry after 1969. Our Naval Support Base has become very significant to seawolf veterans – on the base is their memorial to those seawolves who lost their lives during the war. Their 2010 reunion will be at Patriots Point.

 

The mission of fixed-wing, twin-prop OV-10A Broncos ("black ponies," borrowed from the Marines) of Light Attack Squadron 4 (VAL-4) was usually armed reconnaissance, but they also flew tactical missions. Flying in pairs, they carried rockets, machine guns, a mini-gun, and sometimes a 20-mm cannon.

 

As with other operational units, brown-water Navy operations and vessels were gradually turned over to the South Vietnamese. The last vessels were placed in their hands in 1970 and HAL-3 and VAL-4 were decommissioned in 1972.