He further proposed that all support functions and bases be transferred by the end of the fiscal year 1972. The heart of the problem was, of course, political and not peculiar to the Vietnamese Navy, nor for that matter to the Vietnamese armed forces as a whole. NAG - Naval Advisory Group. Almost immediately the Annex began to outstrip the main complex itself in the number of visitors it attracted. When the work at Nha Be was completed, the Ammis were carried to the mouth of the Cua Lon River by Seventh Fleet LSDs. 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. On 26 April 1966, Captain Tran Van Phan, the former Chief of Staff to Admiral Cang, was designated Acting Commander-in-Chief, and in May all of the mutineers, with the exception of the River Force Commander, who was replaced, were returned to their original posts. On 12 January the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific assigned the task force designator 117 and the descriptive title "Riverine Assault Force. On 28 February, TF 117 was officially activated under the operational control of ComNavForV and the administrative control of ComPhibPac. [9]:18, The DAO was established as a subsidiary command of MACV and remained under the command of commander of MACV until the deactivation of MACV on 27 March 1973. *The appendices are missing from the files as of October 2020. [6]:15, Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam (COMNAVFORV) also controlled the Naval Support Activity Saigon (NSA Saigon), which supplied naval forces in the II, III and IV Corps areas. The original MACV Headquarters were colocated with MAAG at 606 Trn Hng o, Cholon. At the end of 1964 there were 235 sailors assigned to MACV duties which included support functions in the Saigon area, construction and medical activities, and advising the South Vietnamese Navy and the marine corps. In essence, the early planning envisioned a highly mobile force of river assault craft and embarked troops capable of sustained search and destroy missions in the Delta. Though broad strips on either side of the Long Tau had been defoliated and cleared, attacks on merchant ships proceeding to and from Saigon began to increase significantly in the first half of 1969- By the end of June, 51 such attacks had occurred, compared to 44 in all of 1968. The consequences of this bitter infighting for the operational effectiveness of the Vietnamese Navy, in this period, may well be imagined. 5 See "River Patrol Relearned by Commander Sayre A. Swarztrauber, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1970. An industrious woodcutter and his family can earn a very decent living by Vietnamese standards from their labors in the forests of Nam Can. Heavier timbers are sawed into short lengths, split, and sold to the charcoal makers. [2]:59. The effect of the U. S. naval advisory effort on the relatively static insurgency of the preceding five years was minimal. These are netted in cleverly designed fish traps which are located strategically in the waterways to make best use of the currents and backwaters. In January 1964, a team of eight naval officers, headed by Captain Phillip H. Bucklew, met in Saigon to study the infiltration problem. Engines were backed just before beaching and the landing was aborted. 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. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month. Many of these vessels, of course, have been, and are being, transferred from our inventory to that of the Vietnamese Navy through the ACTOV program. In September 1966, Captain Phan was removed from his post, and command of the Navy passed to Lieutenant General Cao Van Vien of the Vietnamese Army. In IV Corps Tactical Zone, this situation would plague Sea Lords operations from beginning to end. "Combat patrols often consisted of short trips to and from anchorages. PC 04 and LSM 405 immediately began a run to the beach, but at a range of about 500 yards encountered small arms and automatic weapons fire. Vice Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is a designation for United States military advisors sent to other countries to assist in the training of conventional armed forces and facilitate military aid. Naval Advisory Group Vietnam, HQ, Military Assistance Command Vietnam The decision had been made in Washington that Vietnamization was vital to continued home support of the war. Contact with a generally elusive enemy was established on seven occasions. In February 1966, the first Game Warden sailors reported for duty, and in March the first PBRs arrived. Allied sweeps along the Long Tau in this period were also occasionally uncovering 107 mm. With the elapse of five months, all the three same brigades remained in the new division, but the brigade at Chu Lai was now named the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, after a responsibility swap that had occurred in August. [3]:45 In May 1965, the Army's 173d Airborne Brigade from Okinawa arrived. In May 1962 it moved to 137 Pasteur Street (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}104658.25N 1064135.94E / 10.7828472N 106.6933167E / 10.7828472; 106.6933167 (pre-1967 MACV, Saigon)) in central Saigon. A second category, which makes up approximately half the bulk of the records, is messages. This headquarters became the Defense Attach Office, Saigon. Navy, consisting of a Marine Group of two landing battalions. The LCUs usually had chiefs or first class petty officers as captains. The facilities at Cua Viet were almost constantly subject to enemy artillery and rocket attack, and the pressures and rigors of life at this exposed forward base were extreme. In all, more than 800,000 people are thought to have fled the North, while less than 100,000, including Viet Minh troops, opted to make the journey in the opposite direction. 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. The combined operation, called Sea Float by the U. S. Navy and Tran Hung Dao III by the Vietnamese, began with the towing of the first Ammis up the river to the vicinity of Old Nam Can on 25 June 1969 by U. S. Navy YFUs. By the middle of October 1969, it was estimated that more than 3000 people were living under Vietnamese control in the Nam Can. These units at first operated from the Army base at Dong Tam on the My Tho River. The senior military officer on this Mission was Major General Graves B. Erskine, U. S. Marine Corps, and the naval officers attached were Captain Mervin Halstead and Commander Ralph J. Michels. American-furnished material doubled and redoubled the Vietnamese Navy inventory. The last French naval advisors were those assigned to the Naval Academy at Nha Trang, and they left in May 1957. At one time charcoal preparation was an important source of the areas meager wealth. Training afloat depended almost entirely on the whims of individual commanding officers, because there was no effective system to ensure that standards set by higher authority were met. As Vietnamese sailors replaced American sailors on the rivers, and as other American sailors became available from the gradual phasing out of Navy responsibilities in I Corps, Naval Construction Action Teams (NAVCATS) were formed and young and sometimes bewildered U. S. Navy sailors, under Seabee supervision, became laborers, hod carriers, masons and carpenters in the dependents shelter project. They were given hot meals, small gifts, and services which ran the gamut from sampan motor repair to the grinding of woodcutters axes on a wheel specially acquired for that purpose in Nha Trang, and shipped to Sea Float by CTF 115. In October, ComUSMACV directed that a program be developed for an accelerated turnover of U. S. equipment, while the war continued, in order to make the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) as self-sufficient as possible. Naval Association of Canada - Association Navale du Canada In June, Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, cited an urgent need for the U. S. Navy to prepare to assume naval responsibilities in restricted waters and rivers. The force levels decided upon in September 1965 were later increased, and thus it may be assumed they were not in themselves sufficient. The shift to "stage three of the insurgency, with its attendant pitched battles involving large units, forced Hanoi to make an important decision concerning the continued supply of Communist forces in the South. "Fighting Boats of the United States, by Captain Richards T. Miller, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1968. In the newly settled hamlets of Tran Hung Dao One and Tran Hung Dao Two, lying along the north bank of the Cua Lon, between Sea Float and the Cai Nhap, small stores appeared and a restaurant opened its doors for business. In numbers of ships and craft assigned, the River Forces had not appreciably changed since 1955. Sea Float sailors constructed schools in each of the two newly settled hamlets. The proposed force would have been quite similar, in fact, to the old French Division Naval dassaut generally known as Dinassaut. Join now and never hit a limit. Unquestionably, the Navys ACTOV program was in the van of the general movement to Vietnamize the war. Establishment of Seabee teams which were made available to instruct and provide technical assistance in construction of shelters. It is a fair question to ask ourselves why, after such a great and prolonged effort, we had not succeeded in accomplishing more. This proposal received strong backing from ComNavForV and from Commanding General, II Field Force Vietnam. Beyond the contiguous zone, vessels thought to be of South Vietnamese registry, could be searched. VMH: Vietnam - usnamemorialhall.org Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [4]:3301 The deployment of a division-sized U.S. Army force would allow the 1st Marine Division to move north, to provide greater support for the 3rd Marine Division in the northern portion of the I Corps Tactical Zone. The Junk Force at this time was "paramilitary rather than "military because it was manned by civilian it" regulars, and was but nominally officered and led by the Vietnamese Navy, which was charged with its operation and support. Compensation would be paid by the Government of South Vietnam if they proved to be foreign ships. The rivers of the Nam Can, being tidal, are heavily salted. In the fall of that year a joint State-Defense Survey Mission visited Vietnam. "Jackstay: New Dimensions in Amphibious Warfare, by Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Mumford, Jr., U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1968. The change of command took place on 10 May 1965. There was literally nowhere in the Delta, given navigable water, that the Riverine Assault Force could not go. Once U. S. involvement in the war terminated in 1973 it became clear a more useable arrangement of the records was necessary. The two Vietnamese RAIDS promptly began operations on the Giant Slingshot barrier. . The Vung Ro Incident confirmed what had long been suspected, but for which there had been no previous evidence.1 The large amount of material discovered indicated that more than just a few shipments had been made. Minesweeping and Interdiction Division 93, Historical Information on the Vietnamese Navy. The following morning LSM 405 arrived at Tuy Hoa to embark the company of troops, but the Province Chief refused to provide them, asserting that the area surrounding Vung Ro Bay and the Cap Varella peninsula was too strongly held by the Viet Cong. Over all hung the specter of the French defeat, "in the streets of Paris rather than on the battlefields of Indochina.. Vigorous efforts had been made, beginning in 1966, to clear the area of the enemy to prevent the ambushing and mining of the ships in transit. All of these programs hoped to bring about permanent and self-sustaining projects, which would survive the eventual conclusion of the Vietnamization process. Chronology - Navy At Geneva, France pledged to remove its Expeditionary Force from all of Vietnam when and if requested to do so by "the Government of Vietnam. The nominal Chief of State in the South at that time was the Emperor Bao Dai, then in exile on the French Riviera. Advisors reported that even these statistics did not reflect the true situation, since units were frequently only "administratively employed. No-Campaign189 28 days ago For all the haters, his dad was 99% a SEAL with NAG - Naval Advisory Group. These sailors brought a high level of enthusiasm and dedication to their unconventional assignment, and as a result of their labors dozens of austere "Levittowns sprang up at remote base sites throughout the country. Only 11 were confirmed Viet Cong. 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. While many of our ships were old, and much of our equipment was, too, the Brown Water sailor exemplified youth. The Vietnamese Navy would assign liaison personnel to the PBRs and LCPLs.5. The Junk Force was seriously undermanned, with some Coastal Groups reduced to little more than 50 per cent of authorized strength. "Building the Advanced Base at Da Nang, by Captain K. P. Huff, U. S. Naval Reserve, in Naval Review 1968. The former had six River Assault Groups (RAGs) which were patterned after the old French Division Naval DAssaut, but with two significant differences. [10]:400. Enemy trawlers operated with virtual impunity along the coasts of the Ca Mau peninsula and in the mouths of its rivers. In April the operation expanded rapidly. Search Turn was followed, on 16 November, by Operation Foul Deck (later renamed Tran Hung Dao), which placed naval patrols on the Rach Giang Thanh and Vinh Te Canal at the Cambodian border itself, and by Operation Giant Slingshot on 6 December, which extended the barrier patrols to the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers on either side of the notorious Parrots Beak. Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.). At this time a message was received, its origin unclear, which postponed the scheduled landing. Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam Notes Commander Graf was a member of the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam. Morale flagged. In most cases, the original organization of the records in Saigon was lost during the transshipment process. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/navy-seals-beret-flash-vietnam-war-27754383 Reply Thatsrite8182 Additional comment actions The brigade from the 101st Airborne Division was originally planned to replace the 173d Airborne Brigade but, with the need for additional combat forces, both brigades remained in South Vietnam. 4 Operational Control is the authority to direct forces assigned. [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. Attacks on the Long Tau were ordinarily carried out by small groups of five or fewer men who, after firing their weapons, simply faded back into their haven in the north. In 1964, VNN Coastal patrols searched 211,121 junks and 880,335 people. By 1 April 1970, 242 craft, worth more than $68 million, had been turned over under the ACTOV program. The enormity of this undertaking could not be measured solely in terms of the numbers of the Vietnamese naval personnel it would be necessary to recruit and train. The situation, in the fall of 1968 was not one for faint hearts. - Veteran J. Reuter. Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. Now fully operational, the Riverine Assault Force began a long series of actions with the 9th Infantry Division embarked. In the Vietnam War, sea power made possible one of history's longest supply lines. In the summer of 1969 a few charcoal kilns were still standing in the midst of the ruins of Old Nam Can. Construction of a block plant at Cam Ranh Bay. In June the first operational test of the offshore support ship concept was initiated when the USS Tortuga (BD-26), which had arrived in May, anchored near the mouths of the Co Chien and Bassac Rivers. The city, a pathetic oasis of nominal Saigon control, in a region which had been a Communist sanctuary for many years, was finally overrun during the 1968 Tet offensive and later abandoned by the Government of Vietnam. The military decisions that were taken at this time were not, nor could they be, based solely on our operational experience in the war. In spite of changes in the turnover plans, which required the recruiting and training of nearly 10,000 additional Vietnamese Navymen and the transfer of a proportionately larger number of craft, five-sixths of all operational craft would be turned over by June 1970, and the rest by December of that year. There were no "spare" people on our boat crews. Naval Academy, The Sullivan Brothers and the Assignment of Family Members, Historic Former U.S. Navy Bases and Stations, The African American Experience in the U.S. Navy, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Navy, Contributions of Native Americans to the U.S. Navy, The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet, Navy Underwater Archaeology Return Program, Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards - Main, Research Permits for Sunken & Terrestrial Military Craft, Scanning, Copyright & Citation Information, Obtain Duplications of Records and Photos, Assistant SECNAV Installations and Environment, Bainbridge Recruit Training Center Scrapbooks, Bethesda National Naval Medical Center Rapid Implementation Team, Immediate Office Files 1946 to the Present, CNO Oceanographer of the Navy Operation Deep Freeze, CNO Organization of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, CNO Organizational Research and Policy Division, CNO Shore and Fleet Organization Branch (SNDL) Records, CNO Undersea and Submarine Warfare Division, Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center, Historical Documentation Team Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Military Sealift Command in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Military Sealift Command Transportation Directorate, USS Constitution and OPSAIL 200 Historical Materials, Vietnam: Chief of Naval Operations Flag Plot Office, Vietnam: Commander Naval Forces Vietnam (COMNAVFORV), Vietnam: Naval Forces Vietnam (NAVFORV) Lessons Learned and End of Tour Reports, Vietnam: Navy Research and Development Unit (NRDUV), Vietnam Operational History Section Subject Files, Yorktown Mine Warfare Engineering Activity.

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