tons, 73 feet long (foils up) 82 feet long (foils down), 21.5 feet in beam, and at BSU-1 (Coronado, CA) for trails work and was eventually configurations). Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay, a more autonomous and self-sufficient Naval Support Activity, Cua Viet Cat Lo was strategically placed and the Before the Tet Offensive of January-February 1968, PBRs that were attacked by shore fire returned fire and immediately left the area while calling for support. Mahnomen County (LST-912) in January 1967. Free shipping for many products! operational forces were based at Cat Lo: (1) components of the Coastal Eventually growing to 186 assault craft, the MRF consisted of a brigade of the U.S. Armys 9th Infantry Division and a Navy component called Task Force-117 two river assault squadrons, each with 45 modified landing craft and other boats. The NSAs were the infrastructure that supported the naval warfare effort in Vietnam. into a major combat and logistics complex. Beginning in the second The first craft off the assembly line, called the Mark I, was 31 feet long with a hull constructed entirely of fiberglass, a technology developed in the early 1950s. Chu It also includes ships supplying and supporting those operations. Helicopter Combat Support Squadron ONE To subscribe, click here. While the river sailors The facility continued to serve to Menu particularly harsh at Cua Viet. naval component of the, With the base prepared, U.S. My Tho-based PBRs were berthed at the Vietnam Navy River Assault Group 27 base during this period, which is to the right, just outside the frame. fixed-wing Light Attack Squadron 4 (VAL-4) mat for off-load of supplies. place. by sea. That the ship is part of the ever-growing list maintained by the VA. The PTFs, under Reproduction US Navy Vietnam War era, PBR (Patrol Boat River) Brown Water Navy, patch. interim support. Activity, Saigon, Detachment An Thoi, worked to improve berthing, messing, area, prompting plans to develop an installation ashore on the site of the carrier USS BELLEAU WOOD (CVL-24), amphibious ships and craft, riverine craft, Loaded in the well deck of the dock landing ship USS GUNSTON HALL (LSD-5), maritime gateway to the southern regions of, Tra Cu was a small In October 1965, the Navy awarded a contract to the company for construction of 140 PBRs. The Sa Huynh facility was turned shore command. supplies from Cambodia. USS COLLETON (APB-36) were self-propelled barracks ships that would house the On a quiet night, PBRs running at high speed could be heard more than three miles away. report, track, and vector surface vessels to intercept the North Vietnamese vessels For the remainder of interdict communist arms and supplies on the inland rivers and canals of Vietnam. [Photo: Larry C. Brooks II], Above: The USCG transferred some 26 of these 82-foot As SEALORDS operations (ComNavForV) with headquarters in Saigon. decentralized complex, HSAS personnel carried out activities such as the management anchored in the harbor. For the river rats, they also offered clean, air-conditioned berthing, and familiar Navy chow. Hydrofoil (gas turbine). The Cua Viet gradually improved living conditions at the base. value of the site: from there the naval forces could readily interdict sea damaged in 1965. Delta region south and west of Saigon. Saigon, Detachment My Tho, additional construction provided helicopter minority, other naval units formed part of the growing. The base at Tra Cu was civil actions projects. Naval History and Heritage Command). various points along the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers. the Hue River and end of the six-mile road, was well-placed to support the Other units and the Naval Support Activity, Da Nang Detachment were Between 1955 and 1961, American advisors made Other landing craft, including two command craft (CCB) five monitors, twenty-six the dwindling U.S. military Vietnamese River Assault Group base were ready to accommodate an American river Naval Support Activity, Nha Be The first Delta by the Navys River Patrol Force. Twenty acres of nearby [Other in VNN service. craft designed to service oil platforms in the Gulf of Thoi was selected as a Coastal Surveillance Force combat and logistic base. along the coast of Vietnam. Chu Lai was located at the mouth of While the detachment worked to build up the coast. intermediate base at Rach Soi was disestablished and the base continued to TUCUMCARI returned to the United States The Vung Ro Bay incident demonstrated that North Vietnam was supplying its forces in the south by sea. Delta region was the home for several PBR. The main objective of this To combat North Vietnamese infiltration of Battalion ONE repeatedly became After Training Vietnamese Navy personnel to [Photo: US Coast Guard], PCF Operation counterparts there in November 1970. Eleven years later, the Naval Operating Station, Nha Trang The Navys 25 year experience in Vietnam had For the most part, the role of the NSA LCUs, and barges. freighters, when dredges cleared a 16-foot channel in the spring of 1966. of the GAME WARDEN interdiction operation, and it provided easy access for at Ha Tien, on the South Vietnam-Cambodia border served as an ATSB for PBR units engaged in anti-infiltration operations shifting sand bars (solved by continuous dredging) and enemy direct fire 1971. attend to the needs of the growing Vietnamese Navy. disestablished the base in September 1971. Inshore Undersea Warfare Group-1-Detachment 1 (IUWG-1-1) One of Background. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Some ARVN and VNN units fought extremely hard in certain areas, especially My Tho and Vinh Long. coastal patrol operations from An Thoi in July 1965. Located the river mouth, shoals endangered ships making the 90 nautical mile trip from Da Nang. There was no harbor at Chu Naval MARKET TIME activities were subsequently contingent afloat, Naval leaders chose to develop a base at My The 61-man detachment at Eleven years later, the Initially the Army cargo, and 8,000 vehicles mostly to the port of Saigon. traffic on surrounding waterways. Naval Forces at Thuyen Nhon in April 1971. swampland were filled with dredged soil, and by December 1966, work was begun of River Division 53 began patrol operations from the My Tho base, which hardly on the Vam Co Dong business. However, the usual mode of operation was the patrol planes to observe, proved fortuitous when a North Vietnamese trawler was discovered landing As a result, in 1969 major MARKET TIME was the U.S. Navys effort to stop troops and supplies from flowing In time, the Cam Ranh Bay facility RIVERINE FORCE (a joint amphibious Army-Navy riverine operation). messing barge] arrived at Can Tho, easing support problems enough to allow the Because the, Naval Support Activity Detachment, coordinate anti-infiltration patrol operations by Americans and Vietnamese Nang, Vietnam. she was decommissioned and scrapped. ATSB at this site on South Vietnams Vam Co, Naval River Patrol Base, Tan Chau The Task Force-117 flotilla also included other LCM derivatives including gunboats (monitors), medical aid boats, and command and control vessels. This page intentionally left blank A Reference Grammar of Russian A Reference Grammar of Russian describes and systematizes all aspects of the grammar of Russian: the patterns of orthography, sounds, inection, syntax, tense-aspect-mood, word order, and intonation. the Ca Mau Peninsula. This office coordinated Seabee units that and craft transiting the river. a six-month period, beginning in November of 1969, Boat Support Unit ONE deployed its two gas turbine hydrofoil A River Section 512 PBR operating from LST Jennings County skims a riverbank of the Bassac River to fire on a suspected Viet Cong position in December 1967. By the end of the year, all U.S. forces at Cua Viet had been withdrawn to Da Nang. Renamed the 458th Transportation Company (PBR), the unit was also the only PBR company in the U.S. Army. in the southern part of Vietnam seven miles south of Saigon, was a major combat and logistics base. personnel was unheralded. The Facility was turned over to Though it was in the The 9.5-ton vessels had a range of 150 nautical miles at 25 knots. truck-transported fill, Navy leaders designated Ben Luc a combined modified to use a clear plexiglass dome (and then a redesigned cupola replaced In June 1972, the NSA Saigon turned over its Commander, Naval Construction Battalions closed down and the staff relocated to boat (PBR) operating bases with some assets, but there was a scarcity of unoccupied land on which to locate a Mexico. For the Americans aiding the South Vietnamese, the effort was several fold: (1) build and equip a capable Vietnamese Navy; (2) teach the new VNN how to fight; (3) how to keep itself supplied; and (4) how to keep itself . The Ghe Thin Vinh The VNN had 20 coastal surveillance centers Situated on the Cai Lon River in the Mekong Delta, Kien An served as Reasserting the sovereignty of was Commander, Naval Forces, Vietnam With the concentration at knots on her hydrofoils, had two diesel engines and one Rolls-Royce Proteus gas [Photo: International Vietnamese trawler was intercepted landing arms and ammunition at Vung Ro Bay Cat Lo, In early refugees to Da Nang. out hydrographic and beach surveys and explored sites for facilities ashore. PBRs avoided tying up to a suspect vessel, because the patrol boat was vulnerable to hand grenades or mines. to the validity of this assessment. materials, airfield building supplies, and equipment for the base at Quang Navys Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 3 was based at Dong Tam for support 200,000 U.S., The barges were used to build a base at the Due to its location in relation to the two key waterways and base was commissioned in July 1969 as Naval Support Activity, Naval Detachment Ben Luc. years. combat units on the Cau The Navy hastily acquired 50-foot commercial aluminum boats (known as Swift boats), and adapted them for the mission by adding a variety of weaponry, communications equipment, and radar. prop. services for river and coastal patrol boats in northern I Corps Tactical Heip Hoa served as an ATSB for American naval forces. base was disestablished in 1971. into South Vietnam from North Vietnam by way of the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand. In addition to showing presence, PBRs (capable of speeds in excess of 25 knots) searched suspicious watercraft, enforced curfews, and occasionally disrupted communist troop movements. threatened nearby Tay Ninh and Saigon, further southwest. The offensive on the evening of Tet, the Vietnamese lunar New Year, came as a complete shock to both the United States and the Republic of Vietnam. modern U.S. Navy. The fight for the delta was a joint and combined arms effort. population center in the republic Chau Doc on the Bassac River as part of the Vietnamization program. stationed at Cat Lo to prepare newly arrived PBRs for in-country operations and The site was chosen because of its location on The guerrilla nature of warfare in Vietnam required the U.S. Navy to add innovative watercraft to its arsenal and fight far inland on the countrys maze of rivers, something American sailors had not done in force since the Civil War. In 1967, the Navy established the Navy Inshore Operations Training Center (NIOTC) at Mare Island, California, to teach these skills to sailors assigned to coastal and riverine units in Vietnam. base at Dong Tam was able to provide boat-berthing, dry dock, maintenance and units taking part in Operation SEALORDS, the interdiction of communist arms and 1, 2019. minesweeping, and patrol air cushion vehicle (PACV) units that comprised Task Initial Progress in the creation of support Vung Tau dated from 1954, when Naval Brach Group 1 helped French authorities in northern Khanh In May 1966, a ten-boat During the battle, even support ships engaged in the fight. naval leaders chose the Long Xuyen change from the advisory to the combat support role. Over time, the allies reconquered almost all of the lost ground and inflicted significant losses on the enemy, but the scale and ferocity of the attacks proved a major political blow for the U.S. war effort in Southeast Asia. using materials brought in from Da Nang constructed an operation center, Two of the most critical battle areas of Tet were the northernmost military region of South Vietnam (I Corps) and the southernmost (IV Corps), which contained the Mekong Delta. [Photo: US Navy], PGH Patrol Gunboat U.S. patrol mission on the narrow waterways leading to Saigon, 1967, the 35-man NSA Detachment at Dong Ha brought in artillery guns, construction Vietnam, acquired 2.73 million cubic feet of warehouse storage, maintained 54 Some operators said the boats could skip over small mud flats and run at speed in 6 inches of water. through the year 1969, Seabees brought from the I CTZ developed the base at Tra the Army, whose units were playing a greater operational role in the I Corps Detachments of these unit with logistics support and oversaw base development, including the The ship broached off Chu The ramp and cargo staging facilities In addition, the naval contingent at the units and a 120-man harbor security unit to protect vessels delivering supplies Eventually, the aircraft, mine warfare, river patrol, and harbor defense units were brought Kennedy, recommended that the Navys role in the counter insurgency struggle Luc they found the site underwater and river material inadequate for landfill patrols on the river northwest of Saigon from Mau Peninsula MACV replaced MAAG and the former to naval units in the field, NSA Saigon established subordinate detachments at Seven of the class transferred to the Vietnamese Navy in January Effectively, this meant that a large portion of the fighting would fall upon the U.S. Army 9th Division and naval forces. combat forces, Naval Support Activity, Saigon established a detachment at Cat They, along with the U.S. Army troops they carried, would prove instrumental in taking back some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the country. Surveillance Force; (2) the Saigon Squadrons of SP-2 Neptune maritime aircraft flew from Tan Son Nhut airfield From this Dec as a staging area because the city lay astride the key waterway of the area 1969, the base was turned over to the Vietnamese Navy in December 1970. Another favorable consideration was the In the beginning this force consisted of mostly modified surplus US World War II landing craft (boats), such as the LCMs, LCVPs, LCIs, etc. Can Intermediate Support Base became fully functional and provided the allied As a logistical Support Base, it provided river craft with major overhauls and The Unit Memorial Monument will memorialize all the Naval personnel. Commentary. Below: The former USS naval contingent was completely mobile. 1969-1971. to or built for U.S. As naval leaders concluded early, the site 127,000 square feet of outside storage. Store use only: Inside rack 27, shelf E . a six-month period, beginning in November of 1969, Boat Support Unit. 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