The United States Navy’s role in the Vietnam War is largely forgotten.
This is surprising, given that the Navy was involved in the war’s prosecution in almost every
conceivable way. This video introduces viewers to the Navy’s wartime contributions, including
intelligence and special operations; surface warfare; airpower; riverine combat; and logistics.
Along the way, you will hear the experiences of Navy veterans who describe their war in Vietnam.
Some might argue that it was naval action that led to direct U.S. involvement in the war. On August
2, 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident,
along with the belief that a second attack took place, induced Congress to pass the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Lyndon Johnson almost limitless authority
to use America’s armed forces to defend non-Communist nations in Southeast Asia
without a formal declaration of war. Once the United States escalated involvement in the war,
the U.S. Navy demonstrated its dynamic and diverse capabilities in earnest.
Virtually all military actions in Vietnam depended on accurate and timely intelligence. During
the war, naval intelligence personnel provided information that enabled successful operations,
influenced tactical victories, and saved the lives of Americans and their allies. From the
air, from the sea, and from the land, Sailors collected information about the North Vietnamese
and the Viet Cong rebels who supported them. Naval intelligence missions were dangerous and deadly.
Though not without failures, overall, naval intelligence critically aided the war effort,
hindering North Vietnam’s effort to resupply South Vietnam by sea. Further, naval intelligence
missions identified targets for attack aircraft and they helped riverine forces keep control of
the vital Mekong Delta. Additionally, in 1962,
the Navy established two counterinsurgency SEAL teams. Often operating in small six-man squads,
SEALs carried out ambushes, reconnaissance patrols, and special intelligence operations.
Forty-eight SEALs lost their lives in Vietnam and three others received the Medal of Honor.
Navy SEAL Rick Woolard recounted a typical patrol in the jungles of Vietnam:
At sea, ocean-going warships monitored coastal fortifications and enemy communications.
Cruisers and destroyers bombarded Vietnamese coastal and inland targets, often saving
allied troops in imminent danger. Along with Coast Guard vessels and South Vietnamese coastal craft,
U.S. Navy surface ships successfully blockaded a 1,200-mile coastline from the 17th parallel
to the Cambodian border. Other daily surface missions included search and rescue,
tracking enemy aircraft, and landing U.S. Marines for amphibious operations.
But the Navy’s 8” and 5” guns were in constant demand. Charlie Pfeifer, an officer aboard the
destroyer USS Richard Edwards, remembered how often his ship received calls for fire support:
Airpower was a crucial element of American strategy during the Vietnam War. U.S. pilots
provided fire support for friendly troops, attacked key supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, and bombed North Vietnam’s infrastructure to weaken the enemy’s campaign against South
Vietnam. During the course of the war, American planes dropped more than twice as many bombs in
Southeast Asia as they used in all of World War II. The Navy delivered 25% of that ordnance.
Task Force 77, the aircraft carrier group assigned to Seventh Fleet,
generally operated from an area off North Vietnam called “Yankee Station.” These aircraft carriers
provided the American war effort with one of its most important capabilities: the
projection of power from offshore. In this clip, Bob Ponton, an A-6 Intruder Bombardier/Navigator,
remembers the types of missions he and his pilot experienced when they flew off USS Midway:
Aircraft carriers were the scenes of the costliest Naval disasters of the Vietnam War.
The Navy suffered three deadly fires aboard the USS Oriskany, Forrestal, and Enterprise
that accounted for the deaths of 206 men. USS Forrestal’s fire occurred on July 29, 1967, when
a Zuni rocket misfired and hit the fuel tank of a plane parked on the flight deck. Marine Jonnie
Allen, stationed aboard Forrestal, remembered the devastation wrought by the unforgiving flames:
Perhaps most famously, the Navy clashed with Viet Cong guerrillas in the shallows of Vietnam
with the creation of the first Brown Water Navy since the American Civil War.
Control of the rivers was vital to the war effort. In Operation Game Warden, Swift Boats,
river patrol boats (or PBRs), and other vessels of the River Patrol Force fought to deny the
enemy’s use of South Vietnam’s inland waterways. The Navy supplied special vessels for the Mobile
Riverine Force to carry troops and support Army operations. Later in the war, Operation SEALORDS
increased security in the Mekong delta until American forces finally withdrew. During the war,
the brown water navy patrolled 3,000 nautical miles of inland waters. Many of these patrols
ended with wounds both physical and emotional, as recounted by Swift Boat Sailor Charlie Hunt:
The U.S. Navy was also the backbone of the American logistics effort in Vietnam.
The United States transported 99% of ammunition and 95% of supplies (including vehicles) by sea.
By mid-1967, the Military Sea Transport Service, or MSTS, ran a fleet of 527
ships to keep the ammunition and equipment moving. The MSTS also transported tens of thousands of
U.S. and allied troops to South Vietnam. The Seabees, or Navy Construction Battalions,
built, repaired, and maintained bases and port facilities, hangars, helicopter pads, runways,
piers, and offshore fuel lines. Naval personnel also provided spiritual and physical support. Navy
doctors and nurses treated the wounded on hospital ships and chaplains and corpsmen served with
Marines fighting on the front lines. Navy chaplain Gordon Paulson remembered the gut-wrenching duty
performed by one doctor at the hospital in Da Nang, a man he called “one of [his] heroes:”
After the Tet Offensive in 1968, when the U.S. downsized its role in the conflict,
Sailors continued to train their South Vietnamese counterparts and turned over equipment and
installations. American firepower—both naval gunfire support and aerial bombing—helped
turn back the 1972 Easter Offensive, which in turn helped commit the North Vietnamese to peace talks.
Later, the Navy rescued tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the country when North Vietnam
took Saigon, just as it did twenty years earlier when Communist forces overthrew French rule.
In the end, U.S. and allied operational successes were often plagued by America’s inconsistent
and continually shifting strategic goals.
Further, the unstable South Vietnamese government and the erosion of support in American society
led to America’s ultimate withdrawal from the region. During more than a decade of conflict,
the U.S. Navy suffered the loss of 1,631 men killed and 4,178 wounded.
Overall, U.S. Navy Sailors demonstrated skill and dedication during the Vietnam War.
Most veterans were not welcomed home with pageantry or fanfare. Quite the contrary,
many Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines returning from Vietnam were advised not to wear their uniforms.
Even today, many Americans view involvement in Southeast Asia as a tragedy,
but Navy Corpsman Danny Lliteras characterized his service in Vietnam differently: