James E. Williams knew that time was running out for him and his team. Their two patrol
boats had been ambushed by more than 50 Viet Cong sampans at the Mekong Delta,
and enemy fire was tearing the gunboats apart.
Still, Williams kept his temper and ordered his men to do the impossible: race straight through
the enemy formation to avoid being encircled. The crewmen from the brown water navy doubted
but trusted their captain and braced themselves to get close and personal with the enemy.
They desperately needed helicopter support, but nobody knew if they’d arrive on time… or at all.
Moments later, the two boats dashed across the area and faced their foes head-on.
It was now or never, and they needed to throw away as many enemies and sampans
as they could if they wanted to make it out alive…
Brown-Water Navy
The term brown-water navy originated during the American Civil War in the 1860s. To cripple the
economy and area of operations of the Confederate States, Union General Winfield Scott prepared
the Anaconda plan, which involved blocking the harbors of the Southern States and then pushing
along the Mississippi River with Union forces. To achieve this, General Scott worked with the
Navy to establish a new river force of terrifying ironclads and gunboats
that would ravage Confederate forts and cities along the Mississippi.
These boats were referred to as the brown-water navy because of the river’s muddy appearance.
Brown-water navy boats were briefly used in China during the 1920s and 1930s as
part of the American Asiatic Fleet. These American gunboats
or river boats patrolled Chinese rivers to safeguard foreign interests in the region.
Still, most of them were captured after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941,
and none were deployed during World War 2 or the Korean War.
They would have to wait until the outbreak of the Vietnam War in 1965 to make a comeback.
The River Patrol Force
During the first months of the Vietnam War, the US Army and Marine Corps realized that taking
control of the rivers that connected North and South Vietnam was vital.
The North Vietnamese Army and their guerrilla, the Viet Cong, often used rivers to transport food,
ammunition, weapons, and other supplies from one region to another without any American opposition.
From simple sampans used by villagers to bigger boats,
the enemy used these vessels to conceal supplies.
Additionally, pirates and contrabandists infested river towns and cooperated with the Communists.
Consequently, on December 18, 1965, the United States Navy formally introduced the brown-water
navy in Vietnam. The boats would be part of the River Patrol Force and the Mobile Riverine Force.
Together, the US Army and the US Navy would conduct joint operations to stop the flow
of North Vietnamese troops, supplies, and communications into South Vietnam.
The Army and Navy took inspiration from the Dinassaut or French Riverine
Force coastal patrols of the First Indochina War.
The Mobile Riverine Force was tasked with not just fighting the enemy in the Vietnamese rivers but
also transporting soldiers, Marines, and supplies to military outposts across Indochina. Also called
the Riverines, their main base of operations was at Đồng Tâm Base Camp in the Mekong Delta River.
Meanwhile, the River Patrol Force supported Task Force 116, a unit of 250 boats, most of which
comprised the Patrol Boat Riverine boat or PBR. During the first months of 1966, the brown-water
navy was composed of converted landing craft from World War 2 or modified small commercial boats.
Still, the armed forces would quickly deliver authentic war boats with lethal equipment.
Fighting the Mekong The Army soldiers and Navy sailors that
patrolled the rivers of Vietnam were tough men who fought at different combat fronts simultaneously.
First and foremost, the men had to deal with the ambiance. Then, there was the solitude. Once a
boat made its way into inland waterways, they got little to no sun, and the sailors could only rely
on their fellow boatmates. More importantly, there was the enemy, who knew the terrain well.
The North Vietnamese were masters at blending with the jungles and forests,
and like the many serpents found in Vietnam, they knew when to strike.
River patrols were often attacked when they were the most vulnerable, especially
when patrol boat sailors stopped alongside Vietnamese sampans to check for contraband.
The lightly armored boats were built for speed and constant movement but lacked armored protection,
and all types of grenades caused a lot of damage to the American ships.
The most used gunboats were the Armored Troop Carrier or ATC,
the Armored Support Patrol Boat or ASPB, and the Patrol Boat, Riverine or PBR.
The PBR was the most used vehicle of them all, and was made of a small fiberglass hull and
manned by a crew of four. It saw action for the first time as part of Operation
Game Warden in March of 1966 to deny the Viet Cong access to resources in the Mekong Delta.
The River Patrol Boat The small PBR patrol
boat came in two variants, the MKI and MKII, the latter of which had a length of 12 feet,
one foot longer than its predecessor. Both had a beam of 11.5 feet and a draft of two feet.
The PBR displaced 14,600 pounds and was propelled by two Jacuzzi water jet pumps powered by two
General Motors 220-horsepower diesel engines that resulted in speeds of over 20 and 30 knots.
In addition, the boat was equipped with a Raytheon Pathfinder surface
search radar and two AN/VRC46 radios. In the hands of an able captain,
the PBR was fast, highly maneuverable, and responsive.
Offensive armament comprised a twin .50-caliber machine gun in a forward turret and a single
.50-caliber MG located aft. Plus, a 40-millimeter grenade launcher and an M60 machine gun were found
on port and starboard amidships. The 31-foot fiberglass hull was
resistant to teredo worms and other marine borers found in the Vietnamese rivers.
Still, it was not immune to shrapnel from RPGs and other explosives, but armor plates did
protect the engines and the coxswain’s flat. The four-man crew comprised a boat captain,
seaman, engineman, and gunner’s mate, all of which often carried M16s, shotguns,
M79 grenade launchers, a Starlight night vision device, and a 60-millimeter mortar.
James E. Williams
It was common to spot Navy lieutenants commanding river patrol operations across the Mekong.
Such patrols often comprised two boats to face the enemies together.
The sailors and soldiers were used to being overwhelmed and outnumbered by the North
Vietnamese, but what they lacked in manpower, they made up for in firepower. Still, the PBR
boats were highly vulnerable when they turned on their searchlights during night operations.
The heroism of PBR crews was admirable. Historian and River Water veteran Tom
Cutler said that the PBR: (QUOTE) “Proved to be a fierce little combatant. The boats
and the men who fought in them were truthfully characterized as proud, brave, and reliable.”
And Petty Officer First Class James E. Williams, in command
of River Patrol Boat 105, was one of them. In May of 1966, Williams was assigned to the River
Patrol Force and given command of PBR105. Then, on October 31, he was given a specific mission:
to hunt down Viet Cong guerrillas located in an isolated sector of the Mekong Delta near My Tho.
When PBR105 and PBR107 approached the area, the duo was greeted by small-arms fire from a hostile
sampan. Williams ordered them to return the fire, and they eliminated one of the enemy occupants.
Still, the sampan fled to an adjacent smaller river, and they went after it.
Little did they know that they were walking straight into a trap.
Survival As the two PBRs went after
the damaged enemy sampan, they were greeted by a second one emerging from the waterway.
The enemy sampan crew then opened fire with their AK47 rifles and RPK machine guns,
prompting a pursuit that quickly turned into a full-fledged combat encounter.
Moments later, Williams ordered both boats to flee the waterway, but it was too late.
A heavy volume of assault rifle and machine gun fire began pummeling
the two American boats from well-concealed positions on both sides of the riverbanks.
Williams then ordered his men to fire at will with everything they had. As the men
fought their way out of the trap, the PBRs were confronted by more hostile Viet Cong
armed to the teeth aboard two junks. PBR105 and PBR107 were outnumbered
and outgunned in a matter of minutes. And to make matters worse, over eight
other sampans showed up behind the two junks. Williams then got in the way of the hostile
fire to help his men direct their mortar rounds and grenade launcher shots to where the enemy
concentrated the most. He knew mobility was vital to survive the onslaught and
made a shocking decision, calling his comrades to break through the enemy formation at top speed.
The two patrol boats then crashed at high speed right through the Viet Cong formation,
smashing some sampans along the way and sending enemy soldiers into the water.
Soon after, Williams repositioned PBR105 and PBR107 and continued firing .50-caliber rounds
toward the enemies, who were still recovering from the Americans’ unexpected maneuvers.
Williams then called in air support through the radio as the crewmen continued firing
their M16s and grenade launchers to decimate the approaching Viet Cong.
However, it was going to take some time for the helicopters to arrive;
valuable time that Williams and his men lacked as they sighted an even more
significant concentration of hostile enemy boats coming to encircle them.
River Patrol Boat 105 As Williams and his men were tearing apart
the wooden sampans by the dozens, it was time to move out before they were entirely surrounded.
Once again, PBR105 and PBR107 raced through the enemy boats, and they had a close call
with an RPG round that damaged their hulls with shrapnel. Still, the boats were ready to go.
Williams kept ordering his men to concentrate fire on the closest enemy
boats to take them down more efficiently, which they did with devastating effect.
As more than 50 enemy sampans started to sink, the Viet Cong casualties began to mount.
Wounded and drained by the adrenaline, Williams and his crewmen kept firing
until their main ammunition began to run dry. Soon, UH1 Huey helicopters showed up to support
the patrol boats, and the Hueys began to clean up the river with their M60s and rocket launchers.
Williams and his men then returned to the ambush area to finish the surviving enemies. By then,
night had fallen, and he ordered his men to turn the boat searchlights on to spot the Viet Cong.
While the helicopters focused on the rivercraft, the two patrol boats got dangerously close to
the shore to better illuminate the area and eliminate the enemies hiding there.
The crewmen then engaged them with their M16s, combat shotguns, and their last mortar rounds.
After three hours of relentless combat, the river ambush was finally over. The survivors
had run away, and over 65 enemy boats had been destroyed with over 1,000 enemy casualties.
James E. Williams was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 14, 1968, for his courage and leadership
shown during the October 1, 1966, patrol mission. Meanwhile, the brown-water navy and its brave
Army and Navy crews would continue fighting across the rivers of Vietnam,
and many patrol boats would become essential for delivering and extracting special forces such as
the Green Berets and MACV-SOG personnel during classified operations as the war came to an end.
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