(6) That ComNavForV administer all naval construction in Vietnam. 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. Genesis of the U. S. Navys Role in the War. Area clearance and mopping-up operations continued until 24 February, plagued as before by continued foot dragging and intransigence. Assistance was provided, however, by the First Australian Task Force and by the Royal Thai Army Volunteers. Minesweeping and Interdiction Division 93, Historical Information on the Vietnamese Navy. My Time in Vietnam. | Tales of an Asia Sailor All U.S. Army units in South Vietnam, excluding advisory attachments, were assigned to the Army Support Group for administrative and logistical needs. 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. He could no longer approach or withdraw from the river with his old assurance. In March 1965, Westmoreland began a search for a new location large enough to accommodate the entire headquarters. It was inevitable that a significant phase of the counter-insurgency war in Vietnam would be fought on water. The chief naval advisor, Admiral Ward, foresaw the necessity for eventually returning responsibility for all naval operations in Vietnam to the Vietnamese Navy. 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 task force was organized into two groups, the Hue River Security Group and the Dong Ha River Security Group. 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. Huge construction projects were started at Cam Ranh Bay, Da Nang, and elsewhere. The large build-up of U. S. Navy forces in Vietnam was accompanied by a rapid expansion of the Vietnamese Navy. All of these programs hoped to bring about permanent and self-sustaining projects, which would survive the eventual conclusion of the Vietnamization process. He practiced and preached the need for his officers to avoid the political involvements which had crippled the Navy for so long. If the war, or domestic political considerations, made it necessary to turn over less American equipment fractional Vietnamese crews could be collected from our boats and brought together to form crews for a lesser number of boats. MACV replaced MAAG and the former MAAG personnel were absorbed by MACV. The Naval Advisory Group (NAG) of MACV assumed the responsibilities of the old Naval Section. Specific recommendations included: (1) the provision of modern, radar-equipped patrol aircraft; (2) the supply of a variety of small ships and craft for extending the offshore patrol into coastal waters, and for broadening the scope of river operations; and (3) the establishment of adequate repair and logistic facilities to maintain the new equipment to be provided. Unquestionably, the Navys ACTOV program was in the van of the general movement to Vietnamize the war. 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. TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. The Indochina War lasted seven years, seven months, and two days, more than twice as long as the Korean War. The strength of the Vietnamese Navy at this time was about 1,900 officers and men. Navy Naval Advisory Group Vietnam | Navy Veteran Locator - togetherweserved NAVAL ADVISORY GROUP VIETNAM? - VetFriends Almost immediately the Annex began to outstrip the main complex itself in the number of visitors it attracted. On 1 August 1965, operational responsibility for Market Time passed from the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet to General Westmoreland, and operational control from Commander Task Force 71, who had held this duty as a collateral function, to Commander Task Force 115, which was the new designation of the Commander of the Coastal Surveillance Force. The Rung Sat. By drawing upon the lessons learned in the deployment of the Advance Tactical Support Bases (ATSBs) in the Giant Slingshot operation, such a base, using an array of Ammi pontoon barges, was considered both feasible and defensible. They operate with them and they fight alongside them. Harkins became the senior U.S. military commander in South Vietnam and responsible for U.S. military policy, operations and assistance there. River Assault Groups seldom went on combat missions. Heavier timbers are sawed into short lengths, split, and sold to the charcoal makers. Naval Logistic Support, Qui Nhon to Phu Quoc, by Captain Herbert T. King, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1969. Not far from the landing area, the Special Forces uncovered a large cache of about 4,000 assorted rifles, submachine guns, BAR type weapons, several thousand cases of ammunition, and very large quantities of medical supplies. Finally, the Report indicated that U. S. Navy forces might have to ' be deployed in the Delta rivers to stop Communist infiltration, thus anticipating later Game Warden operations. The holding ground was good and the moor was successful. Until quite recently all fresh water had to be brought in by sampan from settlements in the north. [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. "U. S. Merchant Shipping and Vietnam, by Lane C. Kendall in Naval Review 1968. This added to the commands existing security vulnerabilities and communications difficulties. With an initial authorized strength of 216 men (113 Army), MACV was envisaged as a temporary HQ that would be withdrawn once the Viet Cong insurgency was brought under control. The second task was to wrest the initiative from the enemy in the Rung Sat Special Zone through aggressive military and psychological campaigns in order to secure the vital Long Tau shipping channel to Saigon. These were given the nicknames Friendship and Platypus. A fourth strike was directed at a nearby area on the beach where crates were stacked and from which small arms fire had been received. 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. [3]:45 In May 1965, the Army's 173d Airborne Brigade from Okinawa arrived. MACV was first implemented to assist the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) Vietnam, controlling every advisory and assistance effort in Vietnam. It was the function of these centers to coordinate patrols of the two navies, but in practice some duplication occurred. At the time, the Military Assistance Advisory Group was the only U.S. military headquarters in South Vietnam. Specific activities which were initiated included: In all, it was estimated that the growing Vietnamese Navy would require 14,000 housing units. 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. A rumor, the authenticity of which could not be determined, circulated on Sea Float that "Hanoi Hannah" herself had taken note of the new operation and she had warned that the MATSB would be "at the bottom of Song Cua Lon by 17 July." A brigade of the 25th Infantry Division arrived in late 1965, with the 4th Infantry Division deploying between August and November 1966. 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. More than 5000 landings were recorded in the first year of operations from the single-spot helo deck of the USS Benewah alone. The "Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam" was known by the abbreviation COMUSMACV (/km.jusmkvi/ "com-U.S.-mack-vee"). The effect of the U. S. naval advisory effort on the relatively static insurgency of the preceding five years was minimal. $9.99; $9.99; Publisher Description. One of this officers very first acts was to remove French officers from the Vietnamese Navy and Marine Corps Headquarters. The Brown Water Navy in Vietnam - Warboats.org of Defense in South Vietnam (1962-73), U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. 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. Public services broke down in the crush. No-Campaign189 28 days ago For all the haters, his dad was 99% a SEAL with NAG - Naval Advisory Group. The MSOs were not themselves permitted to intercept suspect shipping, but used their radar to vector Vietnamese naval units to suspicious contacts. In that event, the Military Assistance Advisory Group would be restored to its former position as the principal U.S. headquarters in South Vietnam. They were accompanied by the USS Mercer (APB-39) and the USS Satyr (ARL-23). Provision for systematic screening of materials declared excess by all military commands. Ships were loaned to CFF 115 by the Seventh Fleet. 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. 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. 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. Teachers were found and hired. As in the past, we will honour those who served in the RCN, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Merchant Navy during the Second World War's Battle of the Atlantic, as well as the Korean War. In the North, the intense and tragic struggle for Hue made it absolutely essential that water communication by way of the Perfume River remain open. The enemy was unable to infiltrate and stockpile sufficient material in the Delta to sustain any significant offensive action, much less repeat the violence unleashed in the 1968 Tet offensive; Enemy forces in the Delta were gradually starved for supplies and ammunition, and hard pressed to maintain themselves; and. He further proposed that all support functions and bases be transferred by the end of the fiscal year 1972. In 1955 after the French defeat in Indochina the Navy Section became part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam. This had been largely accomplished with river patrols, drastic defoliation, mine sweeping, and by hunting the enemy on land. After the operation they returned to Rach Gia by the same coastal route. Although numerous MAAGs operated around the world throughout the 1940s-1970s, including in Yugoslavia after 1951, the most famous MAAGs were those active in Southeast Asia before and during . The minimum requirement established was that pilot programs be underway and materials stockpiled to complete construction with the arrival of the first dependents at the ACTOV bases. PRICE In February 1966, the first Game Warden sailors reported for duty, and in March the first PBRs arrived. Edit: not mirrored, onset of Vietnam when UDT teams became SEALs. PDF DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for public release; distribution is The American boat captain would be the last to leave, and control and ownership of the boat would remain with the U. S. as long as he was aboard. 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. The force levels decided upon in September 1965 were later increased, and thus it may be assumed they were not in themselves sufficient. Coastal Group 16, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam - Navy Unit Directory Ships and patrol craft would be manned by the U. S. Navy, and the U. S. Army would furnish helicopters and pilots. He initially tried to obtain a site between the ARVN Joint General Staff compound and Tan Son Nhut Airport, desirable from the standpoint of removing Americans from central Saigon and placing MACV conveniently close to its Vietnamese counterpart. "Vietnamization" proceeded at a steady pace. A battalion of either Vietnamese Marines, or the Mobile Strike Force was requested to augment the Rung Sat Commanders ground troops. A concerted and innovative psychological operation might succeed in winning the people to active support of the government of Vietnam, the majority of whom were judged to be apolitical. The interdiction effort that had been directed against these routes was concentrated on the major rivers, and might be likened to an attempt to stem the flow of water through a sieve by the tactic of inserting a limited number of needles in selected openings in the sieve, effective locally, but virtually useless overall. Naturally, stand-off weapons, frequently command-fired from concealed positions well inland, became more attractive to the enemy. It is hard and demanding work. Additional naval forces, U. S. and Vietnamese, were committed to the operation. They had been . 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. . Find Coastal Group 16, Naval Advisory Group Vietnam unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. Frequently, these were individuals who by reason of age or infirmity were ineligible for service in the Uniformed Services. The Interdiction Barriers. A second category, which makes up approximately half the bulk of the records, is messages. The military impact of harassing attacks on Long Tau shipping was virtually nil, but the Viet Cong derived great propaganda value from their efforts. At this time Admiral Ward was both CNAG and CTF 115. 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). Lieutenant Commander Thoai, supported by Lieutenant Commander Sang from the office of the Vietnamese Navy Chief of Staff, refused to order the troops back ashore. 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. 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. [5] Initially, Westmoreland exercised this command through the Chief, Naval Advisory Group. As the quotation from General Giap so well affirms, the importance of logistics in war has not changed very much since Napoleons famous dictum that an army travels on its stomach. The third and perhaps most important task was to develop and recommend a plan which, if approved, would make it possible to accelerate the scheduled turnover of U. S. Navy equipment to the Vietnamese. Thousands of bicycles from the towns also carried food and munitions to the front. When he was considered ready to take over, the American would leave and a second VNN sailor would be assigned to train in the duties of another American crew member until eventually the entire crew became Vietnamese. 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. If you have a conquering spirit and are not afraid of even the most complex problems, apply now to Naval Group! 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. The new designation went into effect on 1 March 1964. At the time, the Military Assistance Advisory Group was the only U.S. military headquarters in South Vietnam. It was believed to consist of either nine or ten elements (Doi) of between 30 and 55 men each. Throughout 1963 the duties of the U.S. Army Support Group steadily increased, particularly regarding to combat support activities and logistics. 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. Wet-rice farming, the principal agricultural activity, requires an intricate system of irrigation dikes and canals. This headquarters became the Defense Attach Office, Saigon. Waterborne transportation is relied upon almost exclusively in the rural areas for the movement of goods and crops to market, and for inter-village communications. The people came from all over the Delta to harvest the wood and fish of the area. Finally, at 1100, on the third attempt, the Special Forces company was put ashore. Once U. S. involvement in the war terminated in 1973 it became clear a more useable arrangement of the records was necessary. 5 See "River Patrol Relearned by Commander Sayre A. Swarztrauber, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1970. The year 1964 was one of rapid change in the posture of U. S. Navy activity in Vietnam. At this time the Government of Vietnam commanded little support within its own structure. Transfer of the main body, drawn largely from the operations and intelligence sections of MACV and Seventh Air Force, began on 10 February. 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. Although the Chief, Naval Advisory Group was the senior naval officer in Vietnam, he was not in actuality a commander. This peculiar command structure was not destined to last, however. The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam: February 1962 July 1965 - GWDG 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. On 27 April 1967, just as the Mobile Riverine Force was getting started, Rear Admiral Ward was relieved as ComNavForV (and as CNAG) by Rear Admiral Kenneth L. Veth. Market Time operations were then already in their twentieth week. It Was decided the boats would be based at Qui Nhon, Cain Ranh Bay, and Vung Tau. The author estimates the sampans travel at about six to eight knots depending on the tide. Eventually a plan was approved which called for a complex of nine Ammis (later increased to 13), including a helicopter landing platform. 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. Vast numbers of people live on or near the rivers, canals, and seacoasts. Most of its people were removed to a site roughly ten miles to the north which was named "New Nam Can to distinguish it from the old district capital. Finally, it was recommended that an extensive river patrol be established, with 120 river patrol craft operating from LSTs anchored off the mouths of the major rivers. In time a new hamlet was established at the site. NAVAL ADVISORY GROUP VIETNAM Air Force Units Army Units Coast Guard Units Marine Corps Units Navy Units Become a VetFriends Member Site Map Search Veterans & Personnel Photos, Humor, Stories & More Military Records & Resources Reunions, Parades, & Events Online Catalog About VetFriends My Profile MetLife Veteran Insurance Discounts Contact Us However, no further successes were achieved by the enemy until the mining of the Panamanian freighter Welfare in July 1969. They agreed that a study should be conducted on the subject. The DAO performed many of the same roles of MACV within the restrictions imposed by the Paris Peace Accords until the Fall of Saigon. Such was the situation at Dien Bien Phu. The proposal to establish a permanent base in the Nam Can met with little enthusiasm in IV Corps Headquarters. 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. In the fall of 1968 our naval advisory effort in Vietnam was entering its nineteenth year. Harkins concurred and General James Francis Collins, commander of United States Army Pacific and Admiral Felt approved the redesignation. The duty mostly required time riding the rivers on U. S. Navy boats that had been turned over to the Vietnamese Navy. Four specially outfitted LSTs, scheduled to arrive by September 1966, would replace the original support ships. An observation plane reported lights and activity near the stricken ship, and on the adjacent beach. Vietnamese flags fluttered from the tops of tall cay go poles in each hamlet, and from crude flagstaffs on virtually all water craft, and from the fronts of most of the peoples hootches or shelters. In IV Corps Tactical Zone, this situation would plague Sea Lords operations from beginning to end. Wages, U. S. Navy, and in concert with his Vietnamese Navy counterpart, Commander Nguyen Van Tan, he proposed that the RSSZ area of operations be enlarged temporarily to permit sweeps against the enemys "sanctuary in the Nhon Trach. As industrial contractor, designer and overall integrator of whole warships and combat systems, Naval Group is an international player in naval defence. Route 12, which once connected Old Nam Can City with Ca Mau City, has long since fallen into disuse, and has all but vanished in the swampy terrain. The deep seated economic ills of the Republic of Vietnam, exemplified by a roaring inflation, drove the Vietnamese serviceman up against the wall. An industrious woodcutter and his family can earn a very decent living by Vietnamese standards from their labors in the forests of Nam Can. Captain Chon had served a previous tour as Commander-in-Chief in the period 1957-1959. Additional patrol aircraft were provided by the Commander of the Seventh Fleet. Part of the increase in the number of attacks on shipping could be attributed to the longer range weapons then coming into use. It was reorganized on 15 May 1964 and absorbed MAAG Vietnam to its command when combat unit deployment became too large for advisory group control. Units from Vietnamese Naval Coastal Group 24 were also ordered to assist, and requests were sent out for a Vietnamese Navy SEAL Team (LDNN) to provide divers for an attempted salvage of the sunken trawler. On 15 May 1964, the Navy Section became the Naval Advisory Group when the Military Assistance Advisory Group was merged into the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. U.S. Further, it seemed important that in the wake of effective search and destroy operations a permanent Vietnamese Government presence be established in the Nam Can. The best evidence seemed to point to the fact that what the Bucklew Report had warned would happen, had happened. Overall command of the navies was exercised by Commander French Naval Forces Far East, who was himself directly subordinate to the theater commander, Commander in Chief, Armed Forces Indochina. Shortly before 0600 on 20 February, therefore, both companies were again landed. As Market Time throttled infiltration from the sea, the communists simply shifted their principal supply lines to inland routes, which crossed the borders from supposedly "neutral Cambodia and Laos. - Veteran J. Reuter. The first units of the new force arrived at Vung Tau on board the USS Whitfield County (LST-1169) on 7 January 1967 and began training with elements of the U. S. 9th Infantry Division. The PCFs and the ISIL inspected traffic on the river, and provided protection for the hospital ship while it conducted its civil action program. 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). The advisory role was taking second priority and receiving less command attention than the growing direct involvement of U. S. fighting units. Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.). Size: 3 1/2" x 4 1/4" SKU# P303. Estimates of the areas population have varied from 5,000 to 13,000. Given the seriousness of the military situation, the performance of the Vietnamese Navy was far from satisfactory. Forces initially at the disposal of the Clearwater task force commander included TF 116 PBRs, helicopter gunships, attack aircraft, artillery, and ground security troops. Sea Float sailors constructed schools in each of the two newly settled hamlets.