Today, ranging across the oceans of the world
from the Atlantic and the Pacific
to the South China Sea
is a fleet which is probably the most powerful in history
the modern United States Navy.
And yet today, with all the sophistication and refinement of modern weapons
and computerized systems,
this same navy has been called upon to fight a unique
and different kind of war.
In Vietnam,
the special demands of guerrilla warfare
have shaped another navy.
I am Raymond Burr.
What you're about to see is not the story of the familiar deep water navy
we already know so well,
the navy of aircraft carrier, cruiser and destroyer.
This is about the shallow water fleet, the specially designed craft
which serve in Vietnam,
prepare to meet the Viet Cong on its own terms and outlast it.
It is the story of river warfare and coastal surveillance,
of patrol boat and river assault craft.
It is this story of the small boat navy.
The US Navy Presents
The Small Boat Navy
In the late 50s and the early 60s,
American naval advisers working with units of the South Vietnamese Navy
observe the terrain and consider the tactics
which will one day confront the small boat navy.
All along the 1,500 miles of South Vietnam's coastline
and the endless waterways of the Meikong River Delta,
9 million acres of fertile wet rice paddies and farm lands,
the only practical means of transportation for farmers and businessmen,
fishermen and tourists,
government loyalists and Viet Cong
is by water.
Uncontrolled,
this normal activity provides the VC with a continuing opportunity
for smuggling and infiltration.
It is clear to American naval observers early in the war
that an essential step
in denying this most populous area of South Vietnam to the Viet Cong
would be the development of patrol craft
suited to the task of controlling these lands of transportation and communication.
Some existing craft come close to fitting the requirements.
The US Navy's LCPL, originally designed for amphibious operations,
is quickly singled out for assignment in Vietnam.
WPB,
an 82 foot Coast Guard cutter
used throughout US waters, is one of the first craft
to arrive for duty.
Today, the Coast Guard and Navy work hand-in-hand on coastal patrol.
More advanced designs are studied.
An air cushion vehicle capable of 60 miles per hour over ground or water
is tested to examine the possibilities it offers for use in swampy terrain.
In a search for shallow draft high-speed craft,
the navy examines various hulls and propulsion systems.
Many of them already being used at the time in some of the newest pleasure boat
and in small commercial craft, such as this
high-speed supply and replenishment boat being used with offshore
oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
From this civilian hull, it developed a new military craft,
the US navy's patrol craft Fast,
better known as the swift boat.
50 feet long and capable of running at 25 knot,
the swift boat is armed with twin 50 caliber machine guns forward
and a single 50 mounted with an 81mm mortar aft.
The swifts are the first of the new navy small boats to operate in Vietnam.
There are two basic areas of operation for the small boat navy in Vietnam,
in the rivers
and along the coast.
The swift boats were assigned to Operation Market Time,
the navy's code name for coastal patrol and security.
Each day along the coast of Vietnam, thousands of civilian craft
take to the waters in an normal activities of fishing
travel and marketing.
To prevent the enemy for mixing with his normal traffic
for smuggling and infiltration,
the units of Operation Market Time are constantly on patrol.
Operation Market Time is a continuous round the clock effort
which is coordinated through five coastal surveillance centers
located at key points along the coast.
At these centers, US naval personnel
work together with the south Vietnamese navy
to direct the activities of the units assigned to their surveillance area.
--__ __ have Red Baron 3-2 to proceed to intercept that junk. --All right, Sir.
Red Baron 3-2, this is coast watcher. Over.
As suspicious contact report received at the coast of surveillance center
is relayed to a swift boat patrolling on station.
Coast Watcher, this is Red Baron 3-2 roger. Over.
3-2, this Coast Watcher,
A small cargo junk
(?)at just as far as the beach
Please contact. It's on the unidentifing. Proceed doing this ... Over.
Coast Watcher, this is Red Baron 3-2, Uh... roger. We are going to intercept(?) her.
Send the general quarter to prepare a board(?) search. --All right, sir.
The swifts board hundreds of junks each day
searching for possible Viet Cong contraband,
separating it from legitimate cargo.
Because papers may have been falsified, holds are opened and inspected.
Identification cards and cargo manifest have to be checked.
If contraband is found or if their papers are not in order,
the men will be turned over to Vietnamese authorities.
But the majority of people who encountered the Americans' swift boats
are legitimate fishermen or merchants.
And an important byproduct of Operation Market Time
is a good will exchange between the American sailors
and those who are operating within established regulations.
Swift boats have also assisted in many special operations.
The 81-mm mortar gives the swift the capability
to support friendly troop operations
or defense Vietnamese outpost along the coast.
In a fire fight, the swift 50 caliber machine guns
have been used to support reconnaissance team,
amphibious assault,
and cover the evacuation of wound from combat areas.
Costal patrols comprise the largest phase of Operation Market Time.
But there is another phase, Operation Stable Door,
in which the US Navy has formed a protective screen around the merchant ships
which must wait in Vietnam's harbors
until clear to unload their vital cargos.
On a hill overlooking the merchant ships
is the harbor entrance control post
in which a 24 hour surveillance is maintained
over all movements in the anchorage area.
Listener 3-3, this is High Post. Over.
The other half of this harbor defense team
is the detachment of US Navy gunboats
which patrol among the merchant ships themselves.
Listener 3-3, this is High Post. Over.
High Post, this is Listener 3-3. Over.
High Post. Eagle watch.
Recon reports, a large fishing junk into your area.
Eagle watch suspects she is changing course
to avoid your patrol and you investigate it. Over.
High Post, this is Listener 3-3 roger. Have contact visually. Go intercept. Out.
The Stable Door patrol boats move among the anchored merchantmen,
guarding them from any possibility of the Viet Cong attack
or sabotage which could come in the form of
underwater swimmers, mines or small boats.
They are especially wary of a civilian craft
that entered the immediate anchorage area
or move in an unusual manner.
Suspicious junk has stopped and searched.
Cargoes are inspected.
And identification papers are checked.
Stable door patrol boats also worked with divers
of specially-trained EOD
or explosive ordinance disposal teams
who are skilled in the detection and disposal of mines
which could be planted by Viet Cong swimmers.
By constantly checking the hulls of anchored merchant ships,
these EOD divers
have contributed heavily to the success of Operations Stable Door.
Less than a mile from the anchorage on a hillside near Vung Tau,
there is an illustration of a different phase(?)
of the small boat navy operations in Vietnam.
In addition to their strictly military duties,
the men of Operation Market Time contribute to many problems of civic action.
In this case,
helping an army nurse who was almost single-handedly adopted an orphanage
Throughout Vietnam, the navy along with other services and agencies
is committed to people-to-people programs like this one.
These men go beyond their normal routine to do this work
and yet it may well be that in the long run
these extra voluntary efforts
and civic action who proved to have been just as important
as their regular military duties on coastal patrol.
From the harbor here at Vung Tau to the inland port of Saigon,
it is 45 tortuous miles
of a twisting, turning river called the Long Tau.
What makes it hazardous is that Long Tau winds
through a 400 square mile area of mangroves(紅樹林) swamps
and waterways known as the Rung Sat, the evil place.
From the air,
it looked drab, forbidding, and uninhabitant.
But to the Viet Cong, it represents a continuing opportunity
to sink one of those merchant ships,
to block the shipping channel,
and stop the flow of supplies to Saigon.
Here on duty in the Long Tau
is another detachment of the small boat navy.
+++
Each morning, just after the first light of dawn,
The MSBs,
US Navy mine sweeping boats,
cast-off and begin to sweep the river.
+++
The MSB is 57 feet long,
wooden-hulled and charged with a single vital responsibility
of keeping the river free of mine.
To do this, the crewmen deploy a special mine sweeping gear
It is designed so that when the sweeper has been set to drag behind the boat,
special blades attached to the cable
will cut any control wires or mooring devices attached to the mine.
Once the gear is up,
the six man crew settles into what has become a familiar routine
long hours and methodically moving up and down the Long Tau,
periodically resetting the sweep gear
standing guard and more hours of sweeping.
This too has become part of the daily routine.
Somehow, and no one remembers exactly how,
these men have established their own small people-to-people programs.
It's not much:
cigarettes, soap,
few items of food left over from the daily rations.
But every day as a minesweeper passes this small settlement on the river bank,
the welcoming committee is ready.
And in a way, the hand of friendship is extended.
Day after day from dawn until dusk,
the MSBs sweep the Long Tau.
And yet, it is never really routine.
Often passing only a few yards from the riverbank,
the MSBs are vulnerable
and have often been hit by VC snipers and recoilless rifle fire.
On October 9th 1967,
the mine sweepers of Detachment Alpha Mine Squadron 11
were awarded the first Presidential Unit Citation of the Vietnam War
for extraordinary heroism in action.
The navy's code name
for patrol and security operations on the rivers of Vietnam
is Operation Game Warden.
The mine sweepers are one part of this effort
but they are by no means alone.
At the end of the day the minesweepers returning to their base near Nha Be
pass by a pier where another branch of the small boat navy
is preparing to send out it's night patrol.
Also based in Nha Be are units of one of the navy's newest craft,
the river patrol boat or PBR,
The PBR, developed from an existing civilian pleasure craft,
has been redesigned and equipped for use in
Operation Game Warden on the rivers of Vietnam.
I'll be the patrol __ Sting Ray One.
Cover boat will be the Sting Ray One seven
We have friendly ambushes located tonight here and here.
These are the men who ride the PBRs.
Their mission is to conduct continuous patrols day and night,
denying the use of waterways to Viet Cong
for the transport of men, supplies, or communication.
23:00 in the dark of the moon
and a crossing attempt tonight
will probably occur sometime
between 23:00 and 03:00.
I want one boat positioning in here
all the time and the other boat would patrol patrols through the complete area.
Each boat carries a four-man crew
consisting of the boat captain and helmsman,
a forward machine gunner manning twin fifties, and an aft gunner
manning a single fifty with an M-79 grenade launcher.
The PBR is a high-speed Fiberglas s boat,
driving on the 18 inches of water
with no propellers or other hull protrusion.
It's powered at the speeds up to 25 knots by water jet pumps
which not only drive the boat but also steering
Here in the __ __,
the primary mission is to keep the shipping channel secure
To the PBRs, this means constant patrol,
checking out any suspicious craft or unusual activity along the shore
By denying the VC the ability to move freely in this area,
Operation Game Warden has kept open
the vital shipping routes into Saigon.
In addition to their important contribution to the security of the __ __
PBRs operate at several other locations in the Delta.
At Binh Thuy, near Can Tho on the Bassac River,
is the headquarters for the river patrol force.
From this command center,
the activities of Operation Game Warden units
throughout the Delta are coordinated.
Almost everything that moves any distance in the Delta moves by water.
These men from intelligence reports and first-hand observation
keep up to date on where the VC are and what they're doing.
Don't have any support in there other than the Seawolves.
We can get them for you in about 6~7 minutes
Make sure that you got your ammo check out. Your gun(?).
Make sure that your got all your charts up to date.
The critical importance of control in the rivers and canals is
what has brought the small boat navy to the Delta.
Their job is to secure the waterways for those who are engaged
in legitimate business and travel and to deny them to the Viet Cong.
Like their shipmates in the coastal waters
the men of Operation Game Warden spend much of their time
boarding and searching
the thousands of civilian craft which crowd the inland waterways.
Representatives of the Vietnamese national police
assigned to duty with the PBRs advise their American counterparts
check documents and interpret the objectives
of Operation Game Warden to the Vietnamese people.
Nine times out of ten, they're simply on their way to market,
or returning home.
As a gesture of friendship, soap or cigarettes may be given to the people or
a printed explanation
of how Operation Game Warden hopes to protect and benefit them.
Then the PBRs resume their routine patrols.
Nine times out of ten,
but then ...
then there's the 10th time.
I'm Warden X-Ray, Warden One, this is Warden X-Ray
I have a sampan crossing up ahead.
__ __. I will ... attempt to intercept. Check out.
Warning shots fired in the air
are the signal for a suspicious craft to stop and identify itself.
Warden X-Ray, Warden One ...
This is Warden X-Ray. Ah... seen to be heading to the beach
__ __ __ the fire __ to drive the maximum result. Over.
A junk or sampan turns to run from the PBRs
has something to hide.
And in the VC territory, the PBRs don't take any chances.
Warden One, I'm Warden X-Ray, over.
This is Warden One, roger. Over.
Warden One, This is Warden X-Ray ...
One sampan evaded to beach. 2 male occupants..
A man in the sampan ahead up to the beach.
___ the area under fire.
We'll ample fire it later. Over.
This is Warden One, roger. Out.
Return fire from the river bank
indicates a larger force supporting the crossing.
What looks at first like a couple of farmers or fishmen
may turn out to be VC
carrying intelligence, supplies, weapons, or ...
the sampan loaded with explosives.
Warden One, Warden X-Ray
receiving heavy automatic weapons fire
by the vicinity of evasion uh...
request a scramble of Seawolves. Over.
This is Warden One. We're roger. Out.
Steel Base 3, Steel Base 3 ...
This is R__ Warden. Scramble Seawolves.
At the river patrol force headquarters,
the request for air support
is relayed to a LST downriver
which serves as one of the several bases for special navy helicopters
supporting the PBRs.
These are the Seawolves,
armed helicopter gunships operated by navy pilots
from LSTs and airstrips throughout the Delta.
They stand by on call to provide reconnaissance
or fire support for the PBRs.
Armed with machine guns and air to service rockets,
the Seawolves are prepared to move quickly to the scene of action.
By working together,
the PBR-Seawolf team
can deliver their extra measure of firepower
which gives the edge to the small boat navy.
With nightfall,
the Delta undergoes a subtle change
for the night presents a special challenge.
The Viet Cong
take advantage of the hours of darkness to activate their lines of communication.
For the PBR crews preparing for a night patrol
there is the knowledge that
now is when they're most likely to encounter the VC.
Again they move out to their stations in pairs.
Through the long, warm night,
they maintain their vigil either moving quietly along the river
or lurking silent and invisible
at the location of some suspected VC crossing point.
Night patrols by the units of Operation Game Warden
have sharply limited the mobility
of the Viet Cong guerrillas in an area where they once moved almost at will.
On many nights
back on the dark at Binh Thuy,
at about the time the PBR night patrols are arriving on station
a small band of men working silently behind the scenes
is preparing to move to an undisclosed location downriver.
To them, the darkness of the Delta night
is an ally and a friend.
These are the Navy SEAL teams,
so-called because they operate on sea, air and land.
The SEALs operate in hostile
and restricted environments with almost no support.
The intelligence they bring back
is often the basis for key operations of the small boat navy.
One of the bonuses provided by the introduction of the PBRs in the Delta
has been the opportunity for expanded programs for civic action.
By getting to know the people in the towns and villages
throughout their patrol areas, the men of the small boat navy
have become familiar with their needs and have found ways to help them.
Usually it is the basic things which are important.
In this case, cement and steel reinforcing rods
which will allow the villages to complete the work
on a small bridge they've been building.
MEDCAs,
medical civic action patrols, are also run as regularly as possible.
American and Vietnamese doctors and __ hold clinics in villages
which would otherwise go for months without medical treatment.
This kind of attention from friendly forces
is often the winning stroke against the Viet Cong.
Operation Game Warden has done much
to limit Viet Cong movement in the Meikong Delta.
More recently a new branch of the small boat navy
has helped take a fight beyond the rivers
into VC sanctuaries in the swamps and rice paddies.
For many years, the South Vietnamese army and navy
have worked together in river assault groups
attacking Viet Cong concentrations throughout the Delta.
To augment this effort
and increase the pressure on the VC,
American assault troops have stationed on
moved and supported by ships and craft of the United States Navy.
They operate in ever increasing numbers
throughout the 4,500 miles of rivers and canals in the Delta area.
This is the River Flotilla One,
American fighting force designed for riverine warfare
with various support ships which serve as mobile bases
capable of moving quickly from place to place in the Delta.
The navy craft designed to accomplish this job
have been adapted specifically for operation in the rivers and canals of Vietnam.
The ATC,
armored troop carrier
which transports the assault troops.
The CCB,
command-communication's boat to the floating command post.
and the LCM monitor,
battleship of the fleet
which provides firepower to protect the force and support the landing.
In effect,
River Flotilla One
is an amphibious assault group of small boat navy.
The assault craft move the troops
from the afloat base to the scene of the operation often several miles away.
In a typical Search and Destroy operation,
forces approach their objective.
They moved from the main river channel
into narrower streams.
The landing areas are softened up with fire
The assault boats hit the shore
and the troops are landed.
The operation may last 2 days or as long as a week.
While the troops are ashore,
some assault craft are assigned to form a blocking force
and provide gunfire support if needed.
Others return to the base to stand by.
When the operation is over,
troops are picked up and returned to the mother ships.
Later the entire flotilla will move to the scene for the next operation.
In a sense the modern United States Navy
attuned to the advanced technologies of the space age
has had to adjust to the unique nature of the conflict in Vietnam.
The demands of coastal patrol and
river warfare
have produced new craft
and new tactics
to meet the situation.
Vietnam has given birth to a new breed of sailor.
Unprepared at first, he has developed the craft and weapons to do the job.
Unskilled, he's studied and learned the ways of the river.
Trained to military accomplishment,
he's achieved many of his greatest successes through civic action.
He sails not upon the seas and oceans of the world
but on the local waters of
the small country in Southeast Asia.
He's a member of a proud new rank of men
who's taken a step beyond convention
to accept a unique
new challenge in Vietnam,
a challenge which has been met by the small boat navy.