The construction contractor was RMK-BRJ, at a cost of $25 million. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment was alerted for assignment to Southeast Asia on 11 March 1966. A region of ragged forests, thick mangrove swamps, barren mud flats, and interlacing rivers and canals whose waters churn to vicious tidal currents, it is not readily apparent why anyone would choose to live there. After Dien Bien Phu there was simply no French stomach left to continue the struggle, and, on 20 July 1954, a cease-fire agreement was signed at Geneva. The people of the Nam Can were warned by the Viet Cong to stay away from Sea Float. From Nam Can the Communist supply chain ran northward into the remainder of the Delta and into III Corps. A sense of frustration and lack of incentive was part of the dry rot that had set in as early as 1956, paralyzing effective action and inducing a curious numbness in the operating forces. On 18 May 1966, Captain B. Concurrent with this announcement, Rear Admiral Norvell G. Ward, the first Navy flag officer to be assigned to Vietnam, was ordered to relieve Captain William H. Hardcastle, Jr., U. S. Navy, as Chief, Naval Advisory Group. If it seemed unusual for the U. S. Navy to go into the pigs and chickens business halfway around the world, it was. Thanks VetFriends. "U. S. Merchant Shipping and Vietnam, by Lane C. Kendall in Naval Review 1968. General Vo Nguyen Giap, Peoples War, Peoples Army. They performed valuable service but, like our Victory and Liberty merchant ships, it is doubtful how much additional service life is left in them. 7 In this sense "pacify" means: establishing control over the people who live on the banks, ending Viet Cong tax extortion, denying the waterways to enemy use, while at the same time, restoring the use of the waterways to friendly civilian and military use. These in turn were tied in with the U. S. Task Force 115 operations through the various Coastal Surveillance Centers. Food, clothing, and other necessities were of course obtainable locally through the levying of Viet Cong "taxes on the regions inhabitants. [9], A multi-service organization was required to plan for the application of U.S. air and naval power into North or South Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos, should this be required and ordered. A company of Vietnamese Special Forces, meanwhile, would be lifted by helicopter to Dai Lanh, south of Vung Ro, where they would board LSM 405 for an amphibious landing near the sunken trawler: While the conference was progressing, ism 405 was joined at Vung Ro by the Vietnamese PCE 08. The Rung Sat was the one area where the Navy had, so to speak, a piece of the ground war (responsibility for military operations there rested with the Vietnamese Navy), and as Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy the Admiral considered his position to be somewhat analogous to that of a Senior Advisor to one of the Combat Tactical Zones. Naval Support Activity Saigon or NSA Saigon was a United States Navy logistics support organization located in Saigon, South Vietnam active from May 1966 to June 1972. Estimates of the areas population have varied from 5,000 to 13,000. The Naval Advisory Group (NAG) of MACV assumed the responsibilities of the former Naval Section. This "hot-house" growth was the more notable because it was accomplished in conditions of near constant crisis in the senior Vietnamese Navy leadership. American aid to the French in Indochina burgeoned, and part of this aid took the form of naval ships and craft, mostly small amphibious types, but including one aircraft carrier (the ex-USS Belleau Wood). Designated as Task Force Oregon, it included the 196th Infantry Brigade; the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division at Chu Lai Base Area; and the 1st Brigade, 10lst Airborne Division. By 1954, the strength of the French Navy engaged in the Indochina War stood at more than 10,000 men, and the tiny Vietnamese Navy mustered an additional 1,500 officers and men. By September the Nam Can population figures were growing at a rapid rate, doubling the number of people in the Sea Float area of operations every 25 days. Operation Sea Float. [10]:397[11]:48 U.S. air support operations into Cambodia continued under USSAG/7th AF until August 1973. The strength of the Vietnamese Navy at this time was about 1,900 officers and men. He practiced and preached the need for his officers to avoid the political involvements which had crippled the Navy for so long. River assault craft not only landed and extracted troops, but also provided close and accurate gunfire support, medical evacuation of the wounded, and the supply of ammunition. The Vietnamese Navy and the advisory effort had expanded sharply. The Junk Force was viewed by many Vietnamese naval officers with something akin to disdain. The first permanent United States naval presence in Vietnam was established in August 1950, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War, when the Navy Section of Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indo china, was formed in Saigon with Commander James B. Cannon, U. S. Navy, and seven officers and men. At 1430 on the 17th, LSM 405 arrived off Vung Ro without troops preceded by air strikes, two attempts were made to enter the harbor, but both were stopped in the face of small arms and automatic weapons fire. In many cases the historians in Saigon made detailed listings of the messages and these are filed as appendices to this inventory. Fish from the rivers and seas are an important staple in the Vietnamese diet. [6]:45, Major component commands of MACV were:[2]:60. This leaves a tremendous gap for the student of the navy in Vietnam for the . On 30 April, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara approved the eventual transfer of the operational control of Market Time to the Chief, Naval Advisory Group (CNAG), as the agent for Com USMACV. In some respects, of course, the effectiveness of such an operation was probably not measurable, for like the tariff in international trade, Market Time may have discouraged certain Communist arms shipments from ever being attempted. The effect of the U. S. naval advisory effort on the relatively static insurgency of the preceding five years was minimal. Conversely, the Vietnamese sailors, seeing that the boats and the responsibility for operating them were soon going to be theirs, would be expected to redouble their efforts to prepare themselves. Without that cooperation a measure of initiative always remained with the enemy, who had the choice of when and where to dispute the control and ownership of a particular stretch of navigable water. Power saws and modern lumbering techniques have not yet been introduced in the Nam Can. Naval Advisory Group Naval Forces Vietnam Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer National Police Field Force North Vietnamese Army Patrol Boat, River vii . It was obvious, however, that what Naval Forces Vietnam and the Vietnamese Navy actually faced was a gigantic boot-strap operation which had to be carried out concurrently with the prosecution of the war. On 25 February, an additional responsibility was assigned to maintain the lines of communication on the Cua Viet River, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. In the fall of 1968 our naval advisory effort in Vietnam was entering its nineteenth year. As the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam grew, MACV quickly outgrew the Pasteur Street quarters and expanded into a proliferating number of buildings throughout downtown Saigon. [11]:52 The DAO was activated on 28 January 1973 with United States Army Major General John E. Murray, formerly MACV director of logistics, as the Defense Attach and United States Air Force Brigadier General Ralph J. Maglione, formerly the MACV J-1 (Director for Manpower and Personnel), as deputy Defense Attach. By the summer of 1966, nearly 50 per cent of the senior officers of the Navy were either out of the country or assigned to non-Navy duties in the country. While many of our ships were old, and much of our equipment was, too, the Brown Water sailor exemplified youth. The heaviest fighting of the war had occurred in the North, and consequently the bulk of the French Expeditionary Force and the great mass of its equipment were located there when the fighting ended. It is probably correct to state that few, if any, of those recruited desired to serve in the Junk Force. With the deployment of U. S. Navy combat units to Vietnam in the spring of 1965, the Naval Advisory Group additionally took on operational responsibilities. Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. It is a tribute to the splendid morale of our sailors, and their sense of sharing in what was in many ways a unique drama, that many volunteered to stay on and finish their tours at Cua Viet. It is a fair question to ask ourselves why, after such a great and prolonged effort, we had not succeeded in accomplishing more. 5 See "River Patrol Relearned by Commander Sayre A. Swarztrauber, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1970. Edit: not mirrored, onset of Vietnam when UDT teams became SEALs. The issuance of a personal appeal to the Navy League for donations of construction materials, which could be transported to Vietnam on deploying Navy ships. They live with their Vietnamese counterparts. After the operation they returned to Rach Gia by the same coastal route. At 1030 on 16 February 1965, Lieutenant James S- Bowers, U. S. Army, while piloting a UH-1B helicopter on a medical rescue mission from Qui Nhon, sighted a camouflaged ship lying in Vung Ro Bay on South Vietnams central coast. His command and control decisions were shaped by the following principles: (1) U. S. Navy operations in Vietnam would be coordinated with Vietnamese Operations, allowing integrated operations to be instituted as soon as practicable; (2) facilities required for U. S. naval operations would be located with Vietnamese naval installations so that support operations could be integrated, and later turnover of the facilities more practically achieved. Certain small increases had been made in the Sea Forces, however, and overall strength had grown to about 3,500 officers and men. 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All Navy personnel then being ordered to Vietnam reported to Military Assistance Command Vietnam for further assignment to the Naval Advisory Group, and Westmoreland delegated operational control of assigned naval forces to the Chief, Naval Advisory Group. of Defense in South Vietnam (1962-73), U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Distinguished Flying Cross, Operational loss, Vietnam, 559th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Fixed Wing, USNA 22nd Company. A battalion of either Vietnamese Marines, or the Mobile Strike Force was requested to augment the Rung Sat Commanders ground troops. Transfer of the main body, drawn largely from the operations and intelligence sections of MACV and Seventh Air Force, began on 10 February. The companion piece to this tragedy, often conveniently forgotten by later critics of the war and self-styled pacifists, was the liquidation of perhaps 50,000 "enemies of the people, by the Communists own estimate, during the consolidation of Viet Minh rule in the North. It is hard and demanding work. When the Navy became involved in port security (basically an Army responsibility), the incidence of minings at anchor fell off. Navy Vietnam Patches - US Navy Patches - Naval Station Patches, Ship Patches, Submarine patches and Navy Fleet Patches - Flying Tigers Surplus. On 11 May the Government of South Vietnam granted formal authorization for U. S. Navy Market Time units to stop, search, and seize vessels not clearly engaged in innocent passage, inside the three mile limit of the Republic of Vietnam's territorial waters. The group included ATCs, Monitors, and ASPBs. Enlarge. Forces initially at the disposal of the Clearwater task force commander included TF 116 PBRs, helicopter gunships, attack aircraft, artillery, and ground security troops. [3]:601 It supported the combat signal battalions of the divisions and field forces in each corps area. Operating initially with five APAs, two AKAs, two LSDs, two APDs, and four LSTs, his task force grew in the first three months of the operation to more than 100 Navy and MSTS ships and craft. The force levels decided upon in September 1965 were later increased, and thus it may be assumed they were not in themselves sufficient. Such patrols were considered tiresome, time consuming, and virtually devoid of the tangible results obtainable from "search and destroy operations. [8], The Vietnamese government refused to turn over the most suitable location, a soccer field (104845.62N 1063957.49E / 10.8126722N 106.6659694E / 10.8126722; 106.6659694 (post-1967 MACV, Saigon)) near the civilian air terminal, allegedly because Premier Nguyn Cao K wanted to keep the property for a postwar tourist hotel. Why had not the Bucklew Reports recommendations concerning a mobile patrol force along the Cambodian border been implemented? The arrival in March of elements of the second River Assault Squadron, RAS 11, permitted the deployment of the first units of RAS 9 to other parts of the Delta. [2]: 59 In the fall of that year a joint State-Defense Survey Mission visited Vietnam. In April the operation expanded rapidly. In following months additional equipment was transferred to the Vietnamese Navy, primarily patrol craft, and accelerated training of both officers and enlisted men began; some of it in schools in the United States. Hard intelligence had repeatedly confirmed that the bulk of enemy war material for the III and IV Corps areas entered Cambodia from the sea, in Communist Chinese and Eastern Bloc ships, primarily through the port of Sihanoukville. In April, as the first Game Warden PBRs became operational, patrols were begun in the Rung Sat Special Zone, and in the following month operations were expanded into the Delta. At about this same time, a personal friend and confidant of Diem, Lieutenant Commander Le Quang My, was appointed to the important post of Naval Deputy to the Vietnamese Armed Forces General Staff. The Junk Force was seriously undermanned, with some Coastal Groups reduced to little more than 50 per cent of authorized strength. In addition to taxes in kind, it was estimated that the Viet Cong were able to extort several million piasters each year from this region to fuel their war effort in the lower Delta. Combined operations in November and December 1968 cleared the important Cho Gao Canal and swept through the Can Tho Crossing corridor and the Dung Island complex in the Bassac River. By 1 April 1970, 242 craft, worth more than $68 million, had been turned over under the ACTOV program. The most economical and direct routes for supplying the Viet Cong were sea routes. This ushered in nearly three years of turmoil in the senior Vietnamese Navy leadership. At peak strength in 1968, the American naval advisory . It took a great deal of persuasion and strong representations at the highest level, before the shotgun wedding was brought off. Many of these lines of supply run through or across navigable water, and naval operations, dating back to the Indochina War, have endeavored to sever or disrupt them. On 1 January 1966, the following recommendations were submitted: (1) That a Naval Force, Vietnam (NavForV), Command be established as the Naval Component Command in Vietnam under the operational command of CinCPacFlt,3 and operational control of ComUSMACV.4. When the rain stopped falling, the sand, finegrained and gritty, began to blow, accumulating in drifts before the huts, sifting through screens and under doors, finding its way into lockers and between sheets and even into the food the men ate. Notebooks and pencils were secured and distributed. 4 Operational Control is the authority to direct forces assigned. After 30 years and learning the computer and finding VetFriends, I went to my first reunion of the USS Navasota AO-106. These trawlers were believed to originate in North Vietnam and Communist China. As these records were no longer needed in Saigon they were shipped to the Operation Archives Branch of the Naval History Division (the NHHC Navy Archives). There was, in addition, opposition within the Joint General Staff of the Vietnamese Armed Forces for any aggrandizement of the Vietnamese Navy, which has always been the political inferior of the ARVN. They operate with them and they fight alongside them. Finally, at 1100, on the third attempt, the Special Forces company was put ashore. Rear Admiral Lorenzo S. Sabin, U. S. Navy, Commander Amphibious Group Western Pacific, was assigned responsibility for aiding the exodus from the North. In a departure from the planning conference recommendation of the preceding month, the decision was taken to introduce U.S. PCFS (Swifts) for close inshore patrolling. American-furnished material doubled and redoubled the Vietnamese Navy inventory. Update. The NAVFORV and Naval Advisory Group records fall into several main series. Naval Forces, Vietnam Monthly Historical Summary for July 1969 Accession Number: ADA953992 Title: U.S. The economy of the Nam Can grew dramatically, the population mushroomed, and the pace of the pacification effort was quickened to keep in step. The Naval Advisory Group reported that "there were cases of failures to carry out orders and missed commitments, but not as many as might have been predicted.. The roofs of huts were strengthened for defense against mortar attack, and the sides were heavily sand-bagged to afford protection from small arms fire. Almost no tangible results had been achieved to measure the effectiveness of the operation. The swampy Rung Sat controls the waterways connecting Saigon with the sea. The Mobile Riverine Force had its own floating artillery in the guns of the support ships, and the barge-mounted 105 mm howitzers of the 9th Division. - Veteran J. Reuter. However, no further successes were achieved by the enemy until the mining of the Panamanian freighter Welfare in July 1969. No-Campaign189 28 days ago For all the haters, his dad was 99% a SEAL with NAG - Naval Advisory Group. Captain Chon had served a previous tour as Commander-in-Chief in the period 1957-1959. The situation, in the fall of 1968 was not one for faint hearts. The old Navy section of MAAG became the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam, and by the end of 1964 there were 235 naval . The situation inside South Vietnam was becoming critical, and a rapid buildup of our military strength seemed imperative to keep the Government from going under. (2) That NavForV be commanded by a naval officer, and that this naval officer have additional duty as Chief, Naval Advisory Group. Significantly, this marked the formal recognition of the Naval Advisory Group's new role as an operational as well as an advisory command. The Vietnamese Navy would assign liaison personnel to the PBRs and LCPLs.5. By Commander R. L. Schreadley, U. S. Navy, CNO Naval History - Midshipmen and Cadets, CNO Naval History - Professional Historian. Long lines of motorized cargo sampans moved north through the Cai Nhap9 laden with wood and fish products. The Naval Shipyard struggled along with barely sixty per cent of its authorized work force, and skilled labor could not be attracted or held because of wage scales that were chronically below the market level. French Union forces suffered more than 172,000 casualties, including 45,000 dead and 48,000 missing. The Commander of the task force could say with obvious pride that "Commanders involved in this unique operation felt that they had succeeded in gaining the most difficult of all military advantages in this warsurprise.. The Riverine Assault Force with its 3717 officers and men operated 161 specialized river craft, and these included 103 ATCs, 31 ASPBs, 6 CCBs, 17 Monitors and 4 Refuelers. The rivers of the Nam Can, being tidal, are heavily salted. This, so it seemed to the Navy, ignored the potential of the region and the history of its use by the Viet Cong. This "balloting by feet was acutely embarrassing to the Communists, and during the latter part of the regroupment period the agreement on freedom of movement was openly violated and would-be refugees were prevented from leaving. However, on 30 September 1968, when Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., the first naval officer of three-star rank to be assigned to Vietnam, relieved Rear Admiral Kenneth L. Veth as Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam, the personnel strength of the Navy command stood at 38,386. During this same period, civilians residing in either zone were to be allowed complete freedom to move to the other zone. Find Advisory Team 143, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. A year later there were virtually no U. S. Navy combat craft in Vietnam With wholly American crews. It was transported overland to various staging areas just north of the border, and was then brought into South Vietnam by the enemy's well-organized network of Commo-Liaison and transportation people.
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