The Communist soldier in Vietnam travels and fights only to the extent permitted him by slender lines of supply connecting him to a secure rear area. At the end of 1963, the Junk Force consisted of 632 junks, 400 VNN officers and men, and 3,700 civilian irregulars. Normally, each patrol area was the responsibility of a DER or, if sufficient DERs were not available, an MSO. 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. What is that "Naval Advisory Group" in Vietnam - U.S. Militaria Forum [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. In the Vietnam War, sea power made possible one of history's longest supply lines. Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam Notes Commander Graf was a member of the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam. The new designation went into effect on 1 March 1964. Engines were backed just before beaching and the landing was aborted. The number of people then living under Vietnamese control in the area was estimated to be about 9,000. The tactic of keeping the enemy constantly on the move, never surrendering the initiative, and denying him a secure base area completely changed the complexion of the war in the "Forest of Assassins." The old Navy section of MAAG became the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam, and by the end of 1964 there were 235 naval . The war destroyed the old French cisterns and what few wells there were in the area. U. S. Navy DEs were withdrawn from the Gulf of Thailand on 26 May 1962, and the MSO patrol was suspended on 1 August. Certain small increases had been made in the Sea Forces, however, and overall strength had grown to about 3,500 officers and men. The enemy suffered 21 casualties and the loss of 380 weapons. 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. Day and night, hundreds of thousands of porters and young volunteers crossed passes and forded rivers in spite of enemy planes and delayed-action bombs. During the long months of the northeast monsoon the climate is probably the countrys worst, with cold, grey and rainy days following each other in seemingly endless succession. Minimum training requirements for the buildup were estimated to be: (1) Recruit training increased by a factor of four; (2) The Vietnam Navys advanced school capacity tripled; (3) A four-fold increase in offshore training; and (4) English language training expanded by almost thirty times. When President Diem was overthrown, Captain Quyen, who was closely associated with the fallen President, and who had been instrumental in defeating several previously attempted coups, was himself murdered by a subordinate officer sympathetic to the incoming regime. The Vietnamese Navy would assign liaison personnel to the PBRs and LCPLs.5. Though the number of Vietnamese Navy ships available for coastal patrol increased to 28 during the year, detection remained low. The fishermen in the Nam Can harvest several varieties of shrimp and small fish. These statistics could of course be interpreted two ways; either there was little sea infiltration, or the counter-infiltration effort was remarkably ineffective. [7] COMUSMACV was in one sense the top person in charge of the U.S. military on the Indochinese peninsula; however, in reality, the CINCPAC and the U.S. ambassadors to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia also had "top person in charge" status with regard to various aspects of the war's strategy. The change of command took place on 10 May 1965. But it was a necessary business and the Brown Water sailor attacked the job of getting it done with the same enthusiasm he had shown in seeking out the enemy on the rivers and canals of the Delta. MACV was first implemented to assist the Military Assistance Advisory Group(MAAG) Vietnam, controlling every advisory and assistance effort in Vietnam. The American sailors were gradually being sent home. Numerous bunkers and fortifications were thrown up, and solidly constructed barricades appeared across the more important waterways in an all-out Viet Cong effort to end the Swift boat raids. In keeping with the recommendations of the September conference, it was planned that the task force would initially consist of 120 specially designed river patrol boats (PBRs), 20 LCPLs, an LSD, an LST, and 8 UH-1B helicopters. The insurgency problem in South Vietnam began to assume serious proportions late in 1959, when it became apparent to many observers that increased U. S. military aid would be required if the independence of the South was to be preserved. The economy of the Nam Can grew dramatically, the population mushroomed, and the pace of the pacification effort was quickened to keep in step. Prior to the establishment of Market Time operations, the Nam Can provided a terminus for many Communist arms shipments arriving from the sea. DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. MACV occupied its new headquarters early in August 1967. The situation, in the fall of 1968 was not one for faint hearts. 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. The Marlins were phased out of service by 1967. With few exceptions, the Coastal Groups (the Junk bases) are located in areas considered undesirable for duty. Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. Assistance, advice, and expertise in the formulation and implementation of the accelerated turnover program could be expected, within budgetary limitations, from the other Pacific commands and from the Navy in Washington. It was the only uncut supply line of any consequence for allied military forces there. Vietnamese ground commanders, and some of their American advisors, thought that such a base would be virtually indefensible. The attack on the U. S. destroyer Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf in early August signaled a new and dramatically different phase of the war in Vietnam. The men of both navies had adopted the Admiral's daily watchword and admonition to all concerned: "Go faster.". As a result of recommendations made to the Secretary of Defense during his July 1965 visit to Vietnam, additional Swift boats were ordered, bringing the approved total to 54 from the 36 originally planned. 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. In October the number of PBRs attached to the task force increased to 220. 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. Food, clothing, and other necessities were of course obtainable locally through the levying of Viet Cong "taxes on the regions inhabitants. Broad areas of the banks were soon taken over by the drying catch. 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. It was unmistakably evident that great amounts of supplies for the Communists had been brought into Vietnam to support and fuel the offensive. The deep seated economic ills of the Republic of Vietnam, exemplified by a roaring inflation, drove the Vietnamese serviceman up against the wall. The Navy section of MAAG Indochina was thus intimately concerned with the training and logistic support required to use the material we were then furnishing the French. With the arrival of the second APB, the USS Colleton (APB-36), in early May, plans were made to move all these units of the Mobile Riverine Base to Dong Tam. Training activities ashore suffered from a lack of facilities and a lack of instructors. 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. Naval Forces, Vietnam Monthly Historical Summary for July 1969 Accession Number: ADA953992 Title: U.S. The Naval Forces Vietnam command had its origins in the Navy Section of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indochina, which was established in 1950 to provide supplies and equipment to the French. They are attached to nearly every Vietnamese naval unit. 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. The Junk Force was viewed by many Vietnamese naval officers with something akin to disdain. Minings in the Long Tau, with relatively few exceptions, involved either limpet mines attached to ships at anchor by swimmers or mines detonated under passing ships from observation points on the river bank. [10]:397[11]:48 U.S. air support operations into Cambodia continued under USSAG/7th AF until August 1973. Naval Forces in Vietnam and the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam, was so impressed with SEAL successes that he wanted "hundreds" of SEALs in Vietnam. Vietnam: Naval Advisory Group Vietnam: Naval Forces Vietnam (NAVFORV) Lessons Learned and End of Tour Reports Vietnam: Navy Research and Development Unit (NRDUV) Vietnam Operational. Pacification programs took hold, abandoned hamlets were resettled, and the economy improved. He found himself the victim of a mutiny on 8 April 1965, when his Force Commanders and other senior officers rose against him, charging him with graft in the operation of a fleet of coastal freighters, which had been seized by the Government at the time of the 1963 coup. The strength of the Vietnamese Navy at this time was about 1,900 officers and men. He could have been a SEAL or Riverine, some something in between. The Naval Forces Vietnam command had its origins in the Navy Section of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indochina, which was established in 1950 to provide supplies and equipment to the French. Given the seriousness of the military situation, the performance of the Vietnamese Navy was far from satisfactory. Meanwhile, to the despair of U. S. Navy advisors, the Vietnamese River Assault Groups frequently found themselves involved in logistic support and static defense roles assigned them by ARVN ground commanders. The area commands were in turn divided into river, coastal, and sea forces. I really hope some other people can find this service and get in touch with people like I did. First, until late 1968 the operational and logistic capability to mount such a naval patrol did not exist. Admiral Harry D. Felt, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, established the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, on 8 February 1962, as a subordinate unified command under his control. Development of plans for several standard shelters constructed from concrete block, some of which would use ferro-cement dome roofs. In recognition of the expanding U. S. role, Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) was established in February 1962, and the Headquarters Support Activity was commissioned on 1 July. LSM 405 then departed for Dai Lanh, returning in the early evening with the company of Special Forces. The records in this collection were collected at the naval headquarters in Saigon by naval officers who acted as historians and were assigned to the staff. The primary mission of Market Time at this period was "to conduct surveillance, gunfire support, visit and search, and other operations as directed along the coast of the Republic of Vietnam in order to assist the Republic of Vietnam in detection and prevention of Communist infiltration from the sea." The ships and barges that made up the floating support assets were also to a great extent pulled from our aging mothball fleet. Captain (now Commodore) Tran Van Chon was named to the top Navy post on 31 October 1966, a move that took the Naval Advisory Group completely by surprise, since he had been "exiled for so long (five years). The Navy helicopter gunships, Seawolves, would provide support for Sea Lords in much the same way that they were supporting Game Warden and Mobile Riverine Force operations. Eventually a plan was approved which called for a complex of nine Ammis (later increased to 13), including a helicopter landing platform. VMH: Vietnam - usnamemorialhall.org The first turnover of U. S. Navy boats and equipment occurred on schedule on 1 February 1969, when River Assault Division 91 of the Riverine Assault Force was dissolved and VNN River Assault and Interdiction Divisions 70 and 71 were formed. A cyclone fence, topped with barbed wire and with watch towers at intervals, provided close-in protection. This ushered in nearly three years of turmoil in the senior Vietnamese Navy leadership. 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. This, so it seemed to the Navy, ignored the potential of the region and the history of its use by the Viet Cong. At the time, the Military Assistance Advisory Group was the only U.S. military headquarters in South Vietnam. Light sniper fire was taken, but by mid-afternoon the immediate area near the sunken trawler was secured and the LDNN began salvage operations. Permission to conduct these operations was granted. Vice Admiral Zumwalt and the New Strategy. At this time, U. S. personnel also assumed an advisory role whereas during the French era they had primarily supplied material. Prior to his departure, Rear Admiral Veth had recommended to General Abrams and to the Chief of Naval Operations a plan to turn over two River Assault Squadrons (roughly the equivalent of six Vietnamese Navy River Assault Groups) by the end of the fiscal year 1969- Vice Admiral Zumwalt proposed to expand that plan so that virtually all U. S. Navy operational responsibilities in Vietnam with the equipment necessary for meeting them, would be turned over by 30 June 1970. The roaring current provided the best defenses from swimmer attack, and on nearby shore areas an array of electronic sensors was emplaced to provide early warning of enemy movement. U. S. Marines, traditionally the force trained and equipped for amphibious assault operations, were not available, already having been committed in maximum strength to the I Corps Tactical Zone. That night (16-17 February) the requested air strikes and illumination failed to materialize. During the year, the U.S. buildup continued, especially in aviation, communications, intelligence, special warfare and logistic units, reaching a total of 17,068 men, of which 10,916 were Army. 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. Additional patrol aircraft were provided by the Commander of the Seventh Fleet. While some additional men were absorbed by the training program and by the Sea Forces, many names simply appeared on a padded payroll, or belonged to a disproportionately growing shore establishment. The former had six River Assault Groups (RAGs) which were patterned after the old French Division Naval DAssaut, but with two significant differences. When the III Marine Amphibious Force moved to Da Nang on 6 May 1965, its commanding general, Major General William R. Collins, was designated MACV's naval component commander. It appears to be sparsely populated in comparison with the rest of the Delta, but an accurate census has never been taken. The first of these was to bring the naval forces under his command together in coordinated operations to stop enemy infiltration into the Delta and to further the cause of pacification. In April, Operation Silver Mace II was launched with combined U. S. Navy, U. S. Air Force, Vietnamese Army, Navy, and Marine Corps units. English language leaflets were floated to the MATSB on tiny wooden rafts. Without the reforms introduced and enforced by this officer, the later "Vietnamization of the naval war would have been virtually impossible. 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. New task forces were put together to help fight a war that was in many respects a completely alien experience for the modern American sailor. In August new combined operations were launched against the base camp areas in the Nhon Trach "sanctuary" area outside of the Rung Sat, which was a much harder area for the Viet Cong to hide in. Called the United States Support Activities Group & 7th Air Force (USSAG/7th AF), it was located at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in northeast Thailand. The Junk Force was notorious for "gun-decking its operational reports. Navy Naval Advisory Group Vietnam | Navy Veteran Locator - togetherweserved [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. The construction contractor was RMK-BRJ, at a cost of $25 million. In IV Corps Tactical Zone, this situation would plague Sea Lords operations from beginning to end. 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. It's on the right bc it was developed from slides. "Building the Advanced Base at Da Nang, by Captain K. P. Huff, U. S. Naval Reserve, in Naval Review 1968. The catch is salted and dried in the sun prior to shipment to market. All of these operations used U. S. Navy and Vietnamese Navy forces as a blocking force while a combination of Australian, Thai, and Vietnamese troops methodically swept the area around the guerrilla group's base camp. My Time in Vietnam. | Tales of an Asia Sailor 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. An observation plane reported lights and activity near the stricken ship, and on the adjacent beach. In a series of graduated increases, the Junk Force was authorized an increase to 644 motorized junks less than two years later. 0. The advisory effort, meanwhile, grew rapidly. The EOD and UDT teams were often used interchangeably to destroy the enemy's fortifications. The leadership of our Navy for many years to come will be drawn largely from the ranks of those whose courage and sense of responsibility were fire-hardened on the rivers of Vietnam. Shortly before 0600 on 20 February, therefore, both companies were again landed. Selected Documents prepared by the U.S. Marine Advisory Unit, Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam War History. Few of these attacks managed to score hits, much less cause serious damage, but the enemy probably reaped considerable propaganda benefit from them and in the world press was credited with more strength than he actually possessed. Operation Sea Float. The Rung Sat. Each man assigned had to pull his share of the load. United States. Coastal Group 16, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam - Navy Unit Directory The Fleet Reserve Association pledged to raise $75,000 to support "Project Pay Dirtan expansion of the animal husbandry program. If you served in Advisory Team 143, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam, Join TWS for free to reconnect with service friends. It Was decided the boats would be based at Qui Nhon, Cain Ranh Bay, and Vung Tau. The advisory role was taking second priority and receiving less command attention than the growing direct involvement of U. S. fighting units. The men at Cua Viet lived little better than moles in heavily bunkered huts burrowed down among the sand dunes. It was inevitable that a significant phase of the counter-insurgency war in Vietnam would be fought on water. Naval Group An International Group Martin P5 Marlin seaplanes, operating from tenders, and Lockheed P2V Neptunes flying from Tan Son Nhut and later from Cam Ranh Bay, carried out patrol missions across the river entrances south from Vung Tau to An Thoi. NAVAL ADVISORY GROUP, VIETNAM? - VetFriends . As 1963 drew to a close there were 742 U. S. Navy officers and men in Vietnam. More than 5000 landings were recorded in the first year of operations from the single-spot helo deck of the USS Benewah alone. Air strikes were called in, and after the third strike the ship was awash in shallow water, resting on her port side. The swampy Rung Sat controls the waterways connecting Saigon with the sea. U.S. Navy advisors helped transform the Vietnam Navy from a small collection of landing craft and minesweepers to the world's fifth largest navy - a modern service of 42,000 sailors and 1,500 surface vessels capable of fighting not only on the rivers of Vietnam but also far out to sea. [3]:45 In May 1965, the Army's 173d Airborne Brigade from Okinawa arrived. Air power, to be sure, could further that pursuit and proved invaluable in support of our boats when they were caught up in a fire fight, but a lesson that was learned in the Indochina War and which was re-learned in the Vietnam War, is that air power has only limited effectiveness in a counterinsurgency war and in the interdiction of enemy lines of communication through difficult and largely trackless terrain. two-volume history of the u.s. Navy in Vietnam the second volume ends with the year 1965. 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. That afternoon, additional caches were uncovered. An industrious woodcutter and his family can earn a very decent living by Vietnamese standards from their labors in the forests of Nam Can. Efforts at population and resources control should concentrate, they argued, in areas where the population was heavier and the resources greater than they were in the uninviting barrens of the Nam Can. River Assault Groups seldom went on combat missions. Its conclusions were that infiltration from the North existed on a scale sufficient to support the expanded level of operations by the enemy in South Vietnam, and that only nominal resistance to that infiltration was being made. Almost from the very beginning, the weather was an inhibiting factor. A six-point fore and aft moor with 9000-pound anchors and heavy concrete clumps was selected. On 7 August, a Joint Resolution of the Congress affirmed that the United States would continue to support the Republic of Vietnam and "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States. By the end of the year, the U. S. military strength in Vietnam numbered about 23,000 officers and men. Vietnam: Tonkin Gulf Collection - history.navy.mil MACV was created on 8 February 1962, in response to the increase in United States military assistance to South Vietnam. 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.. Prior to reporting to our boats Vietnamese sailors would be given at least a minimal English language training, but even so it was recognized that to a greater extent than perhaps desirable, "show and tell" instruction would really be "show and do." The Roman Catholic Church advised its adherents to abandon ancestral homes and fields and seek sanctuary in the South. New basing and support concepts were created. (4) That all Navy commands, unless otherwise specified, be under the operational control of ComNavForV. By the fall of 1968, "Vietnamization" of the war (although the term itself was not to be coined until the President-elect's speech on 31 December) had become a matter of the greatest political urgency and it seemed clear that it would remain so, regardless of the outcome of the November elections in the United States. For the most part the records of the latter organization contain documentation on U. S. Naval operations. Truck convoys valiantly crossed streams, mountains and forests; drivers spent scores of sleepless nights, in defiance of difficulties and dangers, to bring food and ammunition to the front, to permit the army to annihilate the enemy. The mooring of this large complex of Ammi barges in tidal currents, which frequently reached velocities of six to eight knots, proved to be a considerable feat in itself. TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. Task Force 115 consisted of seven DERs, two MSOs, two LSTs originally used to provide radar coverage of the Mekong River entrances, five SP-2H patrol aircraft based at Tan Son Nhut Airfield at Saigon, and Coast Guard Squadron One with nine WPBs based at An Thoi and eight at Da Nang. By 1960, the date on Vietnam's Campaign Medal, a state of armed conflict existed between the two Vietnams and their allies In that event, the Military Assistance Advisory Group would be restored to its former position as the principal U.S. headquarters in South Vietnam. Effective pacification would deny the enemy a strategic haven and source of material and financial support. Historically, woodcutting has been the principal economic activity of the Nam Can, with fishing ranking a distant second. On 16 August 1954, the first U. S. Navy transport to be assigned to Operation Passage to Freedom loaded refugees in Haiphong. Ships and patrol craft would be manned by the U. S. Navy, and the U. S. Army would furnish helicopters and pilots. There was literally nowhere in the Delta, given navigable water, that the Riverine Assault Force could not go. The operational forces had undergone many changes in organization and strength. At first, the Annex was composed of two PCFs, and LSIL, and the Vietnamese hospital ship. Personal possessions representing the savings of a lifetime were hawked fruitlessly from door to door. There were then two major operational commandsthe River Forces and the Sea Forces. Power saws and modern lumbering techniques have not yet been introduced in the Nam Can. A great deal of attention was of course paid to weather forecasting, and the transit was accomplished in the Gulf of Thailand's "good weather" part of the year. Despite an avowed intention late in the war to increase the combat role of the Vietnamese, particularly under the ill-starred Navarre Plan, the war ended with the Vietnamese Navy operating only one Infantry Landing Ship Large (LSIL), one LCU, and some thirty smaller amphibious craft. Collection Number: HDCL/34 (Formerly COLL/353). Cooking, medical work, transport, and the like were carried on right in the trenches, under enemy bombing and crossfire. Until March 1965 and the beginning of direct U. S. participation in the Vietnam War, the Navy served in an advisory capacity. There was a tendency on our part, based largely upon the observations of our naval advisors, to discount the effectiveness of VNN patrols, but force levels were not determined on the supposition that we would be doing the job alone. A most significant factor was the deplorable care, housing, and security of dependent families.
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