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. Properly supported by vigorous and aggressive bank patrols, it is possible that the barriers might have succeeded in virtually shutting off what they could only curtail in the absence of the required level of ground support. Operation Search Turn was launched on 2 November 1968 and succeeded in establishing the first of the interdiction barriers, on the Rach Gia Long Xuyen and Ca San Canals in the upper Mekong Delta. 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 . 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. United States. There was a need for "an accelerated progress in improving Vietnamese capabilities in order that U. S. forces could, in fact, be withdrawn in significant numbers. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Secretary was further quoted as saying that "our orientation seems to have been more on operations than on assisting the South Vietnamese to acquire the means to defend themselves. While this may not have been intended as criticism of the past conduct of the war, it was unmistakable direction as to where future priorities were to be placed. 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. In that month U. S. Navy Oceangoing Minesweepers (MSOs) joined Vietnamese Navy ships in barrier patrols near the seventeenth parallel. The battlefield supply of ammunition for all of these assorted weapons was a difficult and vexing problem. Huge stockpiles accumulated just north of the border in Cambodia as the enemy waited for more propitious times to move them into South Vietnam. At first, the Annex was composed of two PCFs, and LSIL, and the Vietnamese hospital ship. This proposal received strong backing from ComNavForV and from Commanding General, II Field Force Vietnam. Vietnam: Naval Advisory Group [3]:37, MACV was reorganized on 15 May 1964, and absorbed MAAG Vietnam within it, when combat unit deployment became too large for advisory group control. "Pigs and chickens programs were initiated at most bases to provide the necessary protein that was often lacking in the diet of the Vietnamese dependents. Navy Awards and Decorations - The Mobile Riverine Force - MRFA In the absence of ground forces, the enemy could employ a further application of the strategy of sanctuary, for our boats could pursue" only to the maximum effective range of their installed weapons. Also attending were representatives from the Vietnamese Army's 23rd Division, the Vietnamese Special Forces, the Vietnamese Navy, and the U. S. Navy. In April, Operation Silver Mace II was launched with combined U. S. Navy, U. S. Air Force, Vietnamese Army, Navy, and Marine Corps units. 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. To what degree this public display reflected allegiance to the government in Saigon was difficult to determine, but that the people enjoyed a measure of safety and prosperity long denied them was indisputable. Historically, woodcutting has been the principal economic activity of the Nam Can, with fishing ranking a distant second. At about this same time public statements by Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford signaled the changing U. S. policy on the war. As a result, the 1st Logistics Command was established. In late April 1966, with the Saigon regime locked in a tense confrontation with Buddhist and ARVN rebels in I Corps, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Westmoreland reopened the effort to acquire the Tan Son Nhut soccer field. Advisors were assigned to the Sea, River, and Junk Forces, to the Naval Shipyard in Saigon, and to the Vietnamese Navy Headquarters. Vice Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander, U.S. LSM 405 landed a company of Vietnamese Army troops at 1830 to assist with the handling of this material, but an hour later, in spite of heated argument by the American advisors, both companies were embarked in LSM 405, although large quantities of arms and munitions remained on the beach. Naval Association of Canada - Association Navale du Canada The training programs at logistic support bases would, of necessity, be much longer and would proceed at a much slower pace. In a series of graduated increases, the Junk Force was authorized an increase to 644 motorized junks less than two years later. The original MACV Headquarters were colocated with MAAG at 606 Trn Hng o, Cholon. Public services broke down in the crush. Naval Group An International Group Elements of Task Group 117.2, Captain J. G. Now commanding, made the transit from Rach Gia to the Song Cua Lon on 19 December 1968. NAVAL ADVISORY GROUP VIETNAM? - VetFriends Notebooks and pencils were secured and distributed. This undoubtedly irritated those Vietnamese officers who felt their functions were being usurped by the Americans. 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. U.S. Navy SEAL Teams from Establishment through Operation Urgent Fury The Archives Branch originally filed the records in the order in which they arrived. Cang, who had been promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in the interim, was relieved of his command, as were the mutineers pending completion of an investigation of the affair. Furthermore, a large percentage of the Vietnamese Navy was recruited from relatively well-to-do city populations who preferred the smaller risks of that service to those offered by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). When the operation ended on 18 May 1955, at the expiration of the 300-day regroupment period, more than 310,000 people, 8,000 vehicles, and 69,000 tons of cargo had been carried to the South by the U. S. Navy. The Junk Force was viewed by many Vietnamese naval officers with something akin to disdain. Navy Vietnam Patches - US Navy Patches - Naval Station Patches, Ship Patches, Submarine patches and Navy Fleet Patches - Flying Tigers Surplus. Further, the disappointing performance of the Vietnamese armed forces at Vung Ro cast renewed doubt on the capacity and the willingness of the Vietnamese to stop such infiltration on their own. The 1st Signal Brigade operated the many elements of the Defense Communications System in South Vietnam. In the same month the Vietnamese Navy was finally persuaded to absorb the Junk Force into the regular Navy, a move long urged by advisors as one which might lead to increasing the effectiveness of coastal patrols. 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. Whereas 19 attacks on merchant shipping occurred in June prior to the start of the operation, a high for the war, none at all occurred during the remainder of the month, and only two occurred in July. The second aim was to "pacify" certain vital trans-Delta waterways,7 and the third was "to stir up the enemy and keep him off-balance" by Market Time raider incursions into the rivers of the Ca Mau peninsula. In September 1968, it had 81 of its authorized 85 PCFs and 24 of an allowed 26 WPBs. Five Coastal Surveillance Centers (Da Nang, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, and An Thoi) were responsible for coordinating U. S. Navy and Vietnamese Navy patrol units. 8 A large shipment was considered to be 15-20 sampan lots. The people came from all over the Delta to harvest the wood and fish of the area. 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. In 1964, VNN Coastal patrols searched 211,121 junks and 880,335 people. Dept. Collection Number: HDCL/34 (Formerly COLL/353). Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Wikipedia This headquarters became the Defense Attach Office, Saigon. A brigade of the 25th Infantry Division arrived in late 1965, with the 4th Infantry Division deploying between August and November 1966. On 21 February 1965, the Commander of the U. S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam requested the Commander-in-Chief Pacific and the Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet to send representatives to Saigon to plan a combined U. S.-Vietnamese Navy patrol effort. In most cases, the original organization of the records in Saigon was lost during the transshipment process. A Naval Advisory Group was established and the Commanding General, 2nd Air Division, became MACV's Air Force component commander. Group. of Defense in South Vietnam (1962-73), U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Transfer of the main body, drawn largely from the operations and intelligence sections of MACV and Seventh Air Force, began on 10 February. The daily average employment of those Sea Force and River Force units available for work at sea (and many were unavailable) was roughly 50 per cent. 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. The problem of attracting adequate ground forces has already been addressed. A second category, which makes up approximately half the bulk of the records, is messages. It was the opinion of the conference that "the best tactic to interdict coastal traffic infiltration would be to assist and inspire the Vietnamese Navy to increase the quality and quantity of its searches., With regard to the second category of infiltration, it was recommended that a conventional patrol be established by U. S. Navy ships and aircraft. The River Patrol Force and the Vietnamese Navy outdid themselves as they brought their highly mobile fire power and unquestioned courage to the defense of the besieged cities. Most Navy officers interpreted this as a serious loss of face for the Vietnamese Navy, but a few actually thought that it might be a blessing in disguise, since the Navy would at last have a voice at meetings of the Joint General Staff. There were four flag officers either on hand or with orders to Vietnam at the time of Vice Admiral Zumwalts assumption of commandComNavForV, Deputy ComNavForV, Commander U. S. Naval Support Activity, Da Nang, and the Officer in Charge of Construction. It took a great deal of persuasion and strong representations at the highest level, before the shotgun wedding was brought off. On 26 October 1955, Diem proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam with himself as President. Two of these are the subject and serial files of the immediate office of the Commander. 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. By the fall of 1968, on the eve of the introduction of the U. S. naval command's Accelerated Turnover (ACTOV) Program, the personnel strength of the Vietnamese Navy was more than 17,500. In the light of these events, ComNavForVs Accelerated Turnover Plan (ACTOV) was approved. Under the senior naval commander was the officer actually responsible for naval operations in Indochina, Commander Naval Division Far East. The Coastal Surveillance Force (it had moved its headquarters to Cam Ranh Bay in July 1967) employed 1051 officers and men, exclusive of those attached to Seventh Fleet units temporarily assigned to the task force. The popular conception of the enemy in Vietnam is that he is an ephemeral figure who travels light, lives off the land, and at the moment of battle somehow always manages to supply himself with arms and munitions dug up from long-buried caches, or plucked magically from the hollow stumps of jungle trees. 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. This requirement was strongly re-emphasized later in the month when General Abrams returned from a visit to the United States. Minesweeping and Interdiction Division 93, Historical Information on the Vietnamese Navy. What had been conceived and organized as an advisers job, no longer fit the changing nature of growing operational command. The DAO performed many of the same roles of MACV within the restrictions imposed by the Paris Peace Accords until the Fall of Saigon. English language leaflets were floated to the MATSB on tiny wooden rafts. It was readily apparent that French transportation alone could never cope with the staggering demands placed upon it, and the assistance of the U. S. Government was requested. That afternoon, additional caches were uncovered. Captain Phans command was marred by extreme factionalism within his navy, the exiling of many senior naval officers, and inept leadership. At this time a message was received, its origin unclear, which postponed the scheduled landing. [2]: 59 In September, Operation Chuong Duong struck at the same area, and in October the first of a series of operations called Wolf Pack lashed out at Doan-10. Assistance was provided, however, by the First Australian Task Force and by the Royal Thai Army Volunteers. The roles again began to overlap after 1969 with the beginning of the Vietnamization program. Coast Guard Squadron One provided WPBs for barrier patrols along the seventeenth parallel and in the Gulf of Thailand. Naval Advisory Group Vietnam, HQ, Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) United States Navy Strength Group Type HQ/Command Elements Years 1960 - 1973 Report To HQ, Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) Reporting Units 4th Coastal Zone Advisory Team 143 Advisory Team 159 Advisory Team 57 Advisory Team 63 Advisory Team 86 Coastal Group 16 Naval advisors complained that their advice was frequently not taken, that new equipment and military supplies were not being used effectively. After Market Time broke the sea end of this chain, the logistics flow reversed itself and the local Viet Cong were supplied with necessary munitions infiltrated from the north. It was the only uncut supply line of any consequence for allied military forces there. In March 1965, Westmoreland began a search for a new location large enough to accommodate the entire headquarters. The new complex soon earned the nickname "Pentagon East. Drawn carefully on a map, the Rung Sat Special Zone looks curiously like a human brain, its convolutions etched by numberless rivers and streams. The Naval Support Activity, Saigon, which was commissioned when the Headquarters Support Activity was disestablished in May 1966, supported naval operations in II, III, and IV Corps Tactical Zones through its many scattered detachments. 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. [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 old city was declared a free fire zone and became in effect a dumping ground for bombs and other air ordnance that could not be conveniently expended elsewhere in the Delta. 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. On 1 September 1966, the first administrative unit of the future Mobile Riverine Force, River Assault Flotilla One, was commissioned at the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, California, with Captain W. C. Wells, U. S. Navy, as its Commander. 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 operation achieved immediate and striking success in its objective of easing pressure on the Long Tau shipping channel. Particularly in the years following 1964, enormous sums of money and huge quantities of material and equipment were transferred. In the Vietnam War, sea power made possible one of history's longest supply lines. In attempting to restore the records to their original arrangement, they first were divided into those of Chief, Naval Advisory Group and Commander, Naval Forces Vietnam. Creation of a NavForV dependent shelter project team to coordinate allocation of materials and technical assistance. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month. On November 15, 1969, he was a crew member of a Grumman Mohawk Aircraft (OV-1C) on a visual reconnaissance mission, when his aircraft was hit by hostile ground fire and crashed 20 miles southeast of Tra Vinh, Vinh Binh Province, South Vietnam. All the older sailing junks were either converted to power, or discarded. At this time, U. S. personnel also assumed an advisory role whereas during the French era they had primarily supplied material. 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 Interdiction Barriers. 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. Additional patrol aircraft were provided by the Commander of the Seventh Fleet. Anyone know what patch this is? From Vietnam (USN). - Reddit Complicating the task of engaging and destroying Doan-10 was the fact that the unit enjoyed a relatively safe and untouched base camp area just north of the Rung Sat area of operations in the Nhon Trach District of Bien Hoa Province. The disadvantages of this support concept for continuing boat operations were the same as noted earlier for the offshore support of PBRs during early Game Warden operations. [6]:2 Naval Support Activity Danang (NSA Danang), provided logistic support to all American forces in I Corps, where the predominant Marine presence demanded a naval supply establishment. There were no "spare" people on our boat crews. Task Force Clearwater. Naval Forces in Vietnam and the Naval Advisory Group, Vietnam, was so impressed with SEAL successes that he wanted "hundreds" of SEALs in Vietnam. Contact with a generally elusive enemy was established on seven occasions. These were given the nicknames Friendship and Platypus. Some of the unsung heroes of this war are the captains who guided low-powered and frequently age-weakened ships and craft through the treacherous white water of the Cua Viet inlet, and other equally hazardous channels in northern I Corps. The Roman Catholic Church advised its adherents to abandon ancestral homes and fields and seek sanctuary in the South. History [ edit] A logistics establishment already existed at Saigon when major U.S. forces came ashore in South Vietnam in 1965. Ships were loaned to CFF 115 by the Seventh Fleet. Allied sweeps along the Long Tau in this period were also occasionally uncovering 107 mm. Joint-service command of the US Dept. The ships and barges that made up the floating support assets were also to a great extent pulled from our aging mothball fleet. 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. Huge construction projects were started at Cam Ranh Bay, Da Nang, and elsewhere. It is a bitter pill for a whole generation of American "nation builders to swallow, but the brutal fact is that no Vietnamese Government until possibly the present one inspired in its people the loyalty, the unhesitating support, the patriotism and spirit of self-sacrifice essential to the welding of an effective defense force. The Navy's fixed wing OV-10 light attack aircraft (Black Ponies) would not arrive in Vietnam until the following April. The impact these naval patrols had on the enemy infiltration effort was soon measured in terms of heavy fire fight activity, the seizure of large arms caches, and reports of enemy war material backing up in the north. "The Service Force, Pacific Fleet in Action, by Rear Admiral Edwin B. Hooper, U. S. Navy, in Naval Review 1968. This, so it seemed to the Navy, ignored the potential of the region and the history of its use by the Viet Cong. Over the years the finest officers and men our Navy could muster were sent to live, to work, and some, eventually, to die alongside their Vietnamese counterparts. Until 1960 the Vietnamese Navy experienced a period of modest growth and modernization, assisted by a Navy Section of the U. S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), which, in July of that year, had increased to 60 officers and men. In October 1968, a program was initiated to gradually rotate all Cua Viet personnel back to Da Nang or Tan My, to ensure that no one would be required to spend more than six months at the advanced base. 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. These trawlers were believed to originate in North Vietnam and Communist China. 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. In the summer of 1969 a few charcoal kilns were still standing in the midst of the ruins of Old Nam Can. The motivation of the men concerned was expected to be high. The Vietnamese supply system seemingly could not or would not work, though many studies had demonstrated its theoretical excellence. Find Naval Advisory Group Vietnam, HQ, Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. Naval Advisory Group Naval Forces Vietnam Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer National Police Field Force North Vietnamese Army Patrol Boat, River vii . In that event, the Military Assistance Advisory Group would be restored to its former position as the principal U.S. headquarters in South Vietnam. Under Vietnamese protection this war-ravaged region might be coaxed back to life. 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. The Coastal Surveillance Force enjoyed its finest hour as it thwarted a desperate attempt by the Communists to resupply the offensive by the simultaneous infiltration of four steel-hulled vessels of the fishing trawler type laden with arms. A location on one of the two rivers mentioned above was considered ideal, since it would permit egress to the South China Sea in the east and to the Gulf of Thailand in the west. In the summer and fall of 1966, the establishment of a "Mekong Delta Mobile Afloat Force (MDMAF) was the subject of discussions between ComUSMACV and ComNavForV. The Vietnamese Navy itself was not formally established until 1954, and our early advisors worked almost exclusively with French counterparts. Statistical studies, however, showed that detection probabilities at the level of forces then assigned were still quite low. Enlarge. 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. "Marine Corps Operations in Vietnam 1965-1968, by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, U. S. Marine Corps, in Naval Reviews 1968, 1969, 1970. 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. ComNavForV directed all commands to make a maximum effort to mobilize local construction equipment and to obtain excess materials in support of the Self-Help shelter program. These in turn were tied in with the U. S. Task Force 115 operations through the various Coastal Surveillance Centers. 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. The NavForV program did not stop with the construction of shelters. In January 1964, a team of eight naval officers, headed by Captain Phillip H. Bucklew, met in Saigon to study the infiltration problem. By end of year, 254 Sailors were assigned to MACV and NAG. 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. 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. When the Navy became involved in port security (basically an Army responsibility), the incidence of minings at anchor fell off. It was assumed that infiltration into South Vietnam by sea fell into two categories: (1) coastwise junk traffic mingling with the more than 50,000 registered civilian craft which plied the coastal waters of South Vietnam; and (2) vessels of trawler size or larger which approached the coast on a generally perpendicular line. In October 1962, the President's Special Military Advisor, General Maxwell Taylor, arrived in Vietnam to assess the situation. An observation plane reported lights and activity near the stricken ship, and on the adjacent beach. 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. 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. Furthermore, ground commanders generally tended to discount the economic and strategic importance of the Nam Can. The author estimates the sampans travel at about six to eight knots depending on the tide. Under their combined pressure, K gave way. In April 1966, all Army communications-electronics resources in South Vietnam were combined in a single formation, the 1st Signal Brigade. The irregulars were ordinarily recruited from the population in the vicinity of each coastal group. In 1955 after the French defeat in Indochina the Navy Section became part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam. Unquestionably, the Navys ACTOV program was in the van of the general movement to Vietnamize the war. In April 1967, General Westmoreland, who had arrived in June 1964 as Commander of MACV, organized a division-sized blocking force along the border between North and South Vietnam.

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