Official caption: “Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam. US Navy Gunner’s Mate Third Class Barry Johnson returns enemy fire with the M-60 machine gun on board his US Navy River Patrol Boat (PBR). The enemy opened fire on the PBR as it moved along a canal near Tan Dinh Island during Operation Bold Dragon III, 26 March 1968.”
U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46404
Note the C-ration can used to keep the ammo belt in line without an assistant gunner, a common hack in Vietnam.
There is also another from the same angle.
U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46403
Note the locally-made River Div 532 (Navy River Division Five Three Two) patch, a PBR group of 10 boats that typically worked from moored gator mother ship USS Harnett County (LST-821) in the Mekong Delta.
Marolda and Dunnavent mention 532 at least twice in their work on the Brown Water Navy, most notably in this section, covering operations in Feb. 1969’s Operation Giant Slingshot on the Vam Co Dong River:
River Division 532 commanded by Lieutenant George Stefencavage was one of the most successful units in Giant Slingshot. Between 8 February and 4 April, the PBR unit killed more than 100 of the enemy while suffering the loss of two PBRs and four Sailors. Stefencavage and over half of the men in his command were wounded during the period. On 28 February, in a typical action, the PBRs surprised and dispersed a Viet Cong ambush force but then took heavy fire from another position nearby. Without hesitation, Stefancavage, even though he was already wounded in several places, led his command against the threat and silenced the remaining guerrillas. The Navy awarded him a Silver Star for his bravery.
CDR Stefencavage (Moorhead ROTC ’52) retired from the Navy in 1984, with his last command being the XO at Philadelphia Naval Base. He passed in 1990.
Sailors work on NP-441 (BuNo 147011), a Vought F-8C Crusader (originally F8U), aboard the Essex-class carrier USS Hancock (CVA 19)during the ship’s 1965 West Pac deployment to Vietnam. Note the open panel showing the feed chute for the starboard pair of the F-8’s four Colt-Browning Mark 12 autocannons. Capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute per gun, an F-8 only carried 144 rounds per gun, giving the Crusader just nine seconds worth of joy.
Photo courtesy of Stan Swanigan via U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War
As detailed by Baugher, 147011 entered the fleet in 1963 with the “Fighting Red Checkertails” of Fighter Squadron (VF) 24, first as NE-453, then as NP-441. She was lost 60 years ago today, 13 January 1965, while trying to trap on Hancock when her tailhook broke and the aircraft slid into the sea. The pilot ditched safely and was rescued by a Navy helicopter.
The Checkertails became one of the Navy’s first “Ace” squadrons during Vietnam, with its aviators downing five confirmed enemy MiGs (two on 19 May 1967 and three on 21 July 1967)– using a combination of Sidewinders and 20mm cannons. That’s almost a third of the 18 F-8 air-to-air victories over Southeast Asia.
How about these great shots, taken 7 August 1976 over NAS North Island, California, of the new class-leading big deck phib USS Tarawa (LHA 1), and the carriers USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and USS Constellation (CV-64).
An aerial view of ships moored at Naval Air Station, North Island. They are, from left to right, the amphibious assault ship USS TARAWA (LHA 1), the aircraft carrier US CORAL SEA (CV 43), and the aircraft carrier USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64). (Substandard image)
These show good details– to include a mix of guns– on the Midway-class Coral Sea and Tarawa. Constellation, as a circa 1960s Kitty Hawk class flattop, was the first class of American fleet carriers going back to USS Langley (CV-1) in 1920, to not mount a single 5-incher.
The Midway class was originally designed to carry 18 long-barreled 5″/54 Mk 16 guns— originally designed for the Montana class battleships– along with a slew of 40mm (21 quad) and 20mm (28 twin) guns.
They subsequently downgraded by 1960 to just 10 5″/54s, four on the port side and six on the starboard side, while their smaller guns had been replaced by 11 twin-3-inch mountings in place of the former quadruple 40 mm mountings. This was dropped to just six 5″/54s by January 1960 and only three after 1966. Coral Sea and Midway lost their last 5-inchers in 1979/80 to pick up CIWS while middle sister FDR had already been retired by then.
For the record, the first Langley carried four 5″/51s in open mounts during her “covered wagon” period of carrier ops, the mighty USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) toted eight heavy cruiser-worthy 8″/55 guns along with dozen 5″/25s, Ranger (CV-4) had eight 5″/25s, the three Yorktowns and the one-off USS Wasp (CV-7) had eight 5″/38 DPs, and the 24 Essex class fleet carriers had eight 5″/38s in twin turrets and another four in single open mounts.
USS Lexington (CV-2) showing off just a portion of her impressive gun fit. Both Lex and Sara would land their 8-inchers in 1942, with the Army going on to use them for coastal defense around Hawaii
While the Independence and Saipan-class light carriers had to make do with smaller guns, every one of the assorted escort carrier classes (Long Island, Charger, Bogue, Sangamon, Casablanca, and Commencement Bay) carried at least one or two 5-inch guns, with USS Kalinin Bay and White Plains credited with scoring hits on pursuing Japanese heavy cruisers off Samar in October 1944.
Testing 5-inch guns on the escort carrier USS Manila Bay (CVE 61) 3 November 1943. Note fuzed ready shells. 80-G-372778
So it made sense in the 1950s that the new Forrestal-class supercarriers carried eight new style Mk.42 5″/54 caliber mounts, the same style guns as in the Navy’s new DD and FF classes throughout the Cold War.
McDonnell F3H Demon on Forrestal-class USS Saratoga. Not the Mk 42 5 inch gun and S-2 Tracker.
A-3B Skywarrior coming aboard USS Independence note 5-inch guns on carrier
USS Ranger (CVA-61) test firing two of her eight 5-inch 54 Mark 42 guns during a practice drill in 1961.
Check out these 1960 profiles of Midway and Forrestal:
Of course, the Forrestals later had their troublesome 5-inchers removed in later updates, as did Midway and Coral Sea.
Coupled with the retirement of the Essexes (Oriskany still had two 5″/38s aboard when she was decommissioned in 1976), Tarawa and her sisters, which carried three 5″/54 Mk 45s in bow and starboard aft sponsons, were the last American “flattops” to carry such heavy seagoing artillery.
USS Tarawa with her bow 5-inch MK45 guns.
Even these were removed by 1997 to allow for better topside aircraft operations.
Between December 13 and 31, 1944 – Cognac (Charente). Maintenance and inspection of a Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber belonging to the 4e flottille de bombardement (4e FB) of the French Navy.
Ref.: MARINE 389-7165, ECPAD
Ed Heinemann’s Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber was famous in U.S. Naval service, doing everything from bombing Vichy French tanks during the Torch Landings in Algeria to the day the update went back at Midway to “scratch four flattops” from the Empire of Japan’s lineup.
SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers Marine Scouting Squadron 3 VMS-3 Devilbirds Kodachrome. Note the distinctive grey-blue-white Atlantic Theater camouflage on the aircraft. NHHC 80-G-K-14310
Nearly 6,000 came off the assembly line during WWII and most went to serve in American hands across the Navy and Marines (SBD) and Army (as the A-24 Banshee). However, the Royal New Zealand Air Force fielded a whole squadron (No. 25) of SBDs and post-war Chile, Mexico, and Morrocco would keep the plane flying into the Cold War.
However, it may surprise you that the second most prolific user of the SBD, after Uncle Sam, was the Free French Air Force and Aeronavale.
Nonetheless, between mid-1943 and June 1944, the Free French AF received as many as 50 A-24Bs, flown by I/17 Picardie and GC 1/18, while the Aeronavale picked up 32 SBD-5s. which would be flown by Flotilles 3FB (Lv Felix Ortolan) and 4FB (CC Raymond Béhic).
The French naval SBDs were placed under the initial command of U.S. Navy Fleet Air Wing 15 at NAS Port Lyautey.
French SBD Douglas SBD 5 dauntles de la 4F
SBD 5 of Flotilla 4.FB 166 and 174, GAN 2 Cognac winter 1944-45.
From providing air cover over the Dragoon landings to moving inland to support the Free French forces in the effort to liberate their country, the A-24s and SBDs were well used, with the Naval units, in particular, flying an average of three sorties a day per airframe towards the end of the war.
Battered French Douglas A24 crew pose with locals in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region 1945
Flying together as Groupe d’aéronautique navale n°2, the two French Navy SBD squadrons spent lots of time dopping ordnance on German pockets left along the Atlantic Wall. It sort of made sense as most of these were port units garrisoned by the Kriegsmarine, which made it, in a way, a French Navy-on-German Navy fight, albeit all conducted on land– with donated American dive bombers famous for sinking Japan’s finest.
French Douglas SBD Dauntless 4FB and 3FB at Cognac, late 1944
French Douglas SBD Dauntless 162 of 4FB Cognac, late 1944
French Douglas SBD Dauntless 3FB Cognac, late 1944, Note the star and crescent tail insignia
Crew members of Douglas SDB-5 Dauntless dive bombers, belonging to the 3FB or 4FB flotilla of the No. 2 Naval Aviation Group, returning from a mission as part of the operations to liberate the Atlantic pockets, 1945. Note the Yank and RAF flying gear mix, including British Enfield holsters and USN “Mae Wests”.
Post-war, the French AF relegated their A-24s to use as trainers Meknès, Morocco, a role they retained as late as 1953.
At the same time, the Aeronavale took their SBD act on the road, flying from them via Flotille 4FB from the light carrier Arromanches (HMS Colossus, on loan) and 3FB from the escort carrier Dixmude (HMS Biter), over Indochina in the late 1940s, ironically making the French the last folks to fly the Dauntless in combat. They converted to SB2Cs in 1949.
French Douglas SBD Dauntless of 3FB au dessus du porte-avions Arromanches.
French Douglas SBD Dauntless of 3FB on Dixmude
Dauntless de la 3.F sur le PA Dixmude en Indochine en 1947
Today, Flottille 4F, the most decorated squadron in the Aeronavale, flies Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes from the French Navy’s sole carrier, DeGaulle, and is the only non-USN carrier Hawkeye unit.
Meanwhile, Flottille 3F was dissolved in Hyères on 31 December 1954– 70 years ago today– after flying their SB2Cs danger-close at Dien Bien Phu.
And, keeping the Navy Air-Aeronavale connection in the same space, this is from yesterday’s DOD contracts, emphasis mine:
General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded a $41,572,260 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001925F0028) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001921G0014). This order provides for the advancement of the design of the future French carrier configuration of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and advanced arresting gear through the preliminary design review. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (91%); Lakehurst, New Jersey (5.6%); and Tupelo, Mississippi (3.5%), and is expected to be completed in January 2026. Foreign Military Sales customer funds in the amount of $41,572,260 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This order was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
In a recent Warship Wednesday (Coast Guard Ron Three) we touched on the use of the 81mm mortar in two fixed emplacements behind the main 5-inch gun mount on a series of USCG cutters that deployed to Vietnam between 1967 and 1972.
The 81mm mortar was mounted on either side of the No. 1 (5-inch) mount, seen here on USCGC Campbell in 1967.
Developed by the Navy and Coast Guard in two different models (Mark 2 Mod 0 and Mark 2 Mod 1) in the early 1960s, the thought behind such mounts was that they could be used for illumination quicker and easier than shooting star shells from the main gun (which also could conceivably leave the main gun slow to switch gears from lofting illum shells to hitting surface/shore targets with HE).
Plus, the mortars could be used for near-shore naval gunfire support as well.
Rel. No. 6135: USCGC POINT LOMAS FIRED AT SUSPECTED VIET CONG CAVE HIDEOUT: An 81mm mortar shell fired from the 82-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter POINT LOMAS (WPB-82321) shatters rocks over the entrance to a suspected Viet Cong cave hideout along a beach in a Viet Cong controlled area near Danang. Rounds from a .50 caliber machine gun, mounted piggyback on the mortar gun also were fired into the cave. Commanding the POINT LOMAS is Lieutenant Keith D. Ripley, USCG of Baltimore, Md. The 82-footer was stationed at Port Aransas, Texas, before reporting for duty with Coast Guard Squadron One’s Division 12, based at Danang, Vietnam, in July 1965.
The Navy also heavily used them on just about everything that moved that was smaller than 165 feet in length, as detailed by Bob Stoner GMCM (SW) Ret. over at Warboats.org.
Navy 50-foot coastal patrol craft (PCF); Navy 75-foot fast patrol boats (PTF, “Nasty”-class); Navy 95-foot fast patrol boats (PTF, “Osprey”-class); Navy 164-foot patrol gunboats (PG, “Ashville“-class); miscellaneous riverine craft which were mostly converted LCM-6 landing craft: MON (monitor); CCB (command and control boat); Zippo (flame thrower boat); ASPB (assault support patrol boat); HSSC (heavy SEAL support craft); and advanced tactical support bases such as SEA FLOAT/SOLID ANCHOR (Nam Can) and BREEZY COVE (Song Ong Doc).
Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Vietnam. Gunner’s Mate Second Class Robert Phalen, left, and another crewmember of Fast Coastal Patrol Craft 42 (PCF 42) prepare to fire an 81mm Mortar while on patrol, 18 October 1968. 428-GX-K60314
South Vietnam. Engineman Second Class McCune drops a projectile into a mortar on the deck of the fast coastal patrol craft (PCF-3) of Coast Division 11 as Boatswain’s Mate First Class Byerly stands by to fire on the Viet Cong unit position. Photographed by F. L. Lawson, 17 July 1967. 428GX-K40159
GMCM Stoner:
The mortar itself is mounted on a very robust tripod and uses clamps to control traverse and elevation angles. Unless fitted with NO FIRE zone mechanical stops, the mortar has 360 degrees of traverse and -30 degrees of depression, and +71.5 degrees of elevation. Its rate of fire is 18 rounds/minute at 45 degrees elevation in DROP FIRE mode and 10 rounds/minute in TRIGGER FIRE mode. Sights for the mortar are attached to the left side of the elevation arc. The weight of the Mk 2 Mod 0 was 593 pounds; the weight increased to 677 pounds in the Mk 2 Mod 1 (with machine gun). The range of the 81mm (direct) was 1,000+ yards; (high angle, indirect) was 3,940 yards. The maximum effective range of the .50 Browning machine gun was 2,000 yards; the maximum range was 7,440 yards.
From the 1966 manual, OP 1743, of the Mark 2 Mod 0:
Post-Vietnam, the Navy’s nascent riverine and littoral capability transitioned to Boat Support Units which later changed their name to become Coastal River Squadrons, then later the Special Boat Squadrons and SBTs, with some Mark 2s remaining in service, especially in reserve outfits, into the mid-1980s.
Likewise, the USCG kept their Mark 2s on stateside cutters– both on small 82- and 95-footers as well as high endurance 255-to-378-foot cutters– into the early 1980s.
USCGC Cape Jellison (WPB-95317) getting some time in off Seward Alaska in the early 1980s with their 81/.50 cal mount
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Warship Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024: Ron Three
French Navy image
Above we see the white-hulled U.S. Coast Guard Reliance-class cutter Valiant (WMEC 621), steaming alongside the French Navy’s surveillance frigate FS Ventose (F733) on 29 Sept. 2024, while underway in the Windward Passage. Valiant, built in the 1960s, originally carried a 3″/50 DP gun of the same sort they used to put on submarines in WWII, but since the 1990s has only carried a 25mm chain gun forward. Ventose, which is only marginally larger than the cutter, totes a 3.9″/55 DP gun in a CADAM turret recycled from the old carrier Clemenceau.
The French, in their design concept behind Ventose and her sisters, intended them for solo overseas constabulary service, roughly akin to what the USCG’s large cutters have done for over a century Sadly, the Coast Guard long ago landed their big guns and today just have 57mm pop guns on even their largest cutters.
It wasn’t always like that.
Coast Guard Squadron Three
Immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964, the Navy got heavily involved in Southeast Asia. One rub of the situation was that road-poor Vietnam had a river and stream-dotted 12,000-mile coastline and a myriad of some 60,000 small craft in its littoral. That meant the only way you could halt and screen this shallow-water maritime traffic was by getting your own shallow-water assets and the saga of the “Brown Water Navy” and Operation Market Time was born.
By August 1965, TF 115 comprised eight large U.S. Navy vessels (primarily DERs augmented by MSOs and MSCs), 11 Coast Guard WPBs, 15 VNN Sea Force ships, and 215 junks. These were soon augmented by hundreds of the new 50-foot PCFs (Swiftboats), and the Navy sent more and more old destroyers and escorts into the near-shore zone for interdiction and naval gunfire support.
ADM Roy Johnson, Commander Pacific Fleet, forced in March 1967 to reassign Market Time DERs to a new interdiction campaign, known as Operation Sea Dragon, against lines of communication in North Vietnam, requested five Coast Guard high endurance cutters (WHECs) to replace the DERs in the Market Time barrier. Thus was born Commander, Task Unit (CTU) 70.8.6 (Coast Guard Squadron Three).
The Ships
In early 1967, the Coast Guard had 37 of what they termed at the time “high endurance cutters,” larger ocean-going vessels that were expected to be pressed into service as destroyer escorts/patrol frigates should WWIII start.
Between 4 May 1967 and 31 January 1972, no less than 31 HECs completed lengthy deployments to Vietnam, one of them twice. These weren’t short cruises. All were at least six months long while many were well past that to nine or ten months. Keep in mind this was while the agency was still part of the civilian U.S. Transportation Department (they have been part of Homeland Security since 2003) and not transferred wholesale to the Navy as in WWI and WWII.
These 31 ships included six of six 327-foot Treasury-class cutters that had seen convoy escort and amphibious landing operations in WWII; nine of 18 smaller and almost as well-traveled 311-foot Casco-class cutters (former WWII Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tenders); nine of 13 stubby 255-foot Owasco-class cutters which entered service just after WWII, and the seven of nine brand-new 378-foot Hamilton-class cutters which included such modern features as helicopter hangars and gas turbine powerplants.
Nine of the 18 311-foot Casco class cutters would serve in CGRON3 off Vietnam– and two of them would transfer to the RVNN at the end of their U.S. service (listing via the 1960 ed of Janes)
A big reason these were sent to Vietnam was that they had a relatively shallow draft (12.5 feet on the 311s and 327s, 17 on the 255s, and 15 on the 378s), allowing them to operate close to shore, surface search radar (SPS-23, augmented by SPS-29 air search), had a decent commo suite that allowed interfacing with Big Navy C4I assets, had crews familiar with sometimes sketchy coastwise interdiction in a littoral, and, most importantly, all carried a simple and easily supportable Mark 12 DP 5-inch gun (in enclosed Mk 30 single mountings with local Mk. 26 Fire Control) and knew how to use it.
The Deployments
In all, the 31 cutters sent to Vietnam steamed 1,292,094 combined miles on station, spending some 62.6 percent of their time underway conducting 205 Market Time patrols.
Five Casco class Barnegat class cutters 311 USCG Squadron Three, probably taken in Subic Bay on the way to Vietnam in 1967
CGRON3 headed to Vietnam in a column from Subic Bay
This was enabled by 1,153 underway replenishments and a smaller number of vertical replenishments.
At sea off Vietnam. Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart approaching a Mispillion class replenishment oiler USS Passumpsic (AO-107) as it is tanking a Coast Guard 311-foot HEC, likely CGC Pontchartrain. AWM Photo P01904.005 by Peter Michael Oleson.
The Coast Guard sent eight deployments of HECs to support CGRON3 with the first five each comprised of five high-endurance cutters. The sixth deployment included three high-endurance cutters, with two of the three turned over to the Vietnamese Navy at the end of the tour. The seventh and eighth deployments each consisted of just two cutters.
First Deployment
USCGC Barataria (WHEC 381) 4 May 67 — 25 Dec 67 (Casco) USCGC Half Moon (WHEC 378) 4 May 67 — 29 Dec 67 (Casco) USCGC Yakutat (WHEC 380) 4 May 67 — 1 Jan 68 (Casco) USCGC Gresham (WHEC 387) 4 May 67 — 28 Jan 68 (Casco) USCGC Bering Strait (WHEC 382) 4 May 67 — 18 Feb 68 (Casco)
Naval Base Subic Bay – USCG Squadron 3, first deployment, showing five freshly-painted Casco-class cutters alongside the repair ship USS Jason (AR-8) in late April before heading to Vietnam. Note this is before the Coast Guard adopting their now famous bow “racing stripe” 221206-G-G0000-120
A rusty and hard-serving USCGC Barataria (WHEC 381) off Vietnam in late 1967 showed a less than gleaming appearance. Note she doesn’t have a racing stripe yet and her 26-foot Monomoy is away. 230807-G-M0101-2004
Barataria set a fast pace of effectiveness during her deployment in Vietnam waters. Underway 83 percent of the time, the cutter cruised over 67,000 miles without a major mechanical or electrical failure. Keeping a close watch on all moving craft in her surveillance area, Barataria detected, inspected, or boarded nearly 1,000 steel-hulled vessels traversing her area, any one of which could have been a trawler trying to sneak supplies to the enemy. Barataria was called upon many times to use her main battery against shore-based enemy troops who were aggressively engaged with Allied forces. Representative of the high state of readiness and training of the cutter’s men is the fact that U.S. Army spotter planes reported all rounds on target, never once falling out of the target area. On one mission three direct hits were scored on point targets that had been spotted by aircraft. She returned to the US on 12 January 1968 and was reassigned to San Francisco.
Second Deployment
USCGC Androscoggin (WHEC 68) 4 Dec 67 — 4 Aug 68 (Owasco) USCGC Duane (WHEC 33) 4 Dec 67 — 28 Jul 68 (Treasury) USCGC Campbell (WHEC 32) 14 Dec 67 — 12 Aug 68 (Treasury) USCGC Minnetonka (WHEC 67) 5 Jan 68 — 29 Sep 68 (Owasco) USCGC Winona (WHEC 65) 25 Jan 68 — 17 Oct 68 (Owasco)
255-foot Owasco class USCGC Minnetonka (WHEC 67), Vietnam
Of the above, Winona noted in her history that:
She steamed 50,727 miles, spent 203 days at sea, treated 437 Vietnamese, sunk one enemy trawler, destroyed 50 sampans and damaged 44 more, destroyed 137 structures and damaged 254, destroyed 39 bunkers and damaged 27, destroyed two bridges and damaged another, destroyed 3 gun positions and killed 128 enemy personnel, expending a total of 3,291 five-inch shells.
“W O W . . . . . .The initials of these three high endurance cutters spell out that expression of surprise as they nest alongside Riviera Pier at the U.S. Naval Base, Subic Bay, R.P. The three, Winnebago, Owasco, and Winona, along with a fourth unit of Coast Guard Squadron Three, the Bibb, was in Subic Bay for inchop, outchop, and upkeep, marking the first time that this many ships of the five-cutter squadron had visited there since it was formed 18 months ago. The squadron is a part of the Seventh Fleet’s Cruiser Destroyer Group and the cutters serve on the Coastal Surveillance Force’s Operation Market Time in Vietnam.” COMCOGARDRONTHREE PHOTO NO. 101068-01; 18 October 1968; Dale Cross, JOC, USCG, photographer
Owasco’s history notes that on her Vietnam deployment:
By the end of her tour overseas, she had supplied logistical support to 86 Navy Swift boats and 47 Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boats. She had detected 2,596 junks and conducted 178 “actual boardings and 2,341 inspections,” exceeding the “results of any Squadron Three cutter thus far.” She conducted 17 Naval Gunfire Support Missions, firing 1,330 rounds of 5-inch ammunition.” She was officially credited with killing four enemy soldiers, destroying 18 bunkers, and damaging 10, destroying 11 “military structures” and damaging 17, destroying 550 meters of “Enemy Supply Trails,” destroying 1 sampan, 1 loading pier, and interdicting 3 “Enemy Troop Movements.” She carried out 49 underway replenishments while in theatre and her medical personnel carried out 7 medical and civil action programs (MEDCAP), treating 432 Vietnamese civilians.
Fourth Deployment
USCGC Spencer (WHEC 36) 11 Feb 69 — 30 Sep 69 (Treasury) USCGC Mendota (WHEC 69) 28 Feb 69 — 3 Nov 69 (Owasco) USCGC Sebago (WHEC 42) 2 Mar 69 — 16 Nov 69 (Owasco) USCGC Taney (WHEC 37) 14 May 69 — 31 Jan 70 (Treasury) USCGC Klamath (WHEC 66) 7 Jul 69 — 3 Apr 70 (Owasco)
Both Taney and Spencer had already seen much WWII service, with the former being at Pearl Harbor and the latter a bona fide U-boat slayer. Here, on April 17, 1943, USCGC Spencer sinks U-327. National Archives Identifier: 205574168 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/205574168
Fifth Deployment
USCGC Hamilton (WHEC 715) 1 Nov 69 — 25 May 70 (Hamilton) USCGC Dallas (WHEC 716) 3 Nov 69 — 19 Jun 70 (Hamilton) USCGC Chase (WHEC 718) 6 Dec 69 — 28 May 70 (Hamilton) USCGC Mellon (WHEC 717) 31 Mar 70 — 2 Jul 70 (Hamilton) USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC 70) 2 Apr 1970 — 25 Oct 1970 (Owasco)
Sixth Deployment
USCGC Sherman (WHEC 720) 22 Apr 70 — 25 Dec 70 (Hamilton) USCGC Bering Strait (WHEC 382) 17 May 70 — 31 Dec 70 (Casco) USCGC Yakutat (WHEC 380) 17 May 70 — 31 Dec 70 (Casco)
USCGC Castle Rock (WHEC 383) 9 Jul 71 — 21 Dec 71 (Casco) USCGC Cook Inlet (WHEC 384) 2 Jul 71 — 21 Dec 71 (Casco)
Interdiction
The primary reason for these big cutters to be in Vietnamese waters was to sanitize them by combing out vessel traffic smuggling contraband, primarily small arms and munitions, to Viet Cong guerillas in the south. They did this in spades, closing with some 69,517 vessels in the five years that CGRON3 was part of Market Time. Of these, no less than 50,000 were inspected alongside, while 1,094 were boarded and searched.
At Sea – USCG Squadron 3, Vietnam. Note the 26-foot Mark V Motor Surf Boat, YAK2, likely from CGC Yakutat, dating the photo to 1970. The nine-man crew includes at least two M16s and five flak jackets, hinting at a five-man boarding team. 221206-G-G0000-119
CGC Winona on Market Time Patrol by JOC Dale E. Cross, USCG. Note the M16-armed Coastie on the lookout to the right while the flak-vest-equipped junior officer goes over a mariner’s papers. 231220-G-G0000-107
CGC Winona on Market Time Patrol by JOC Dale E. Cross, May 16, 1968. Release No. 36-68 231220-G-G0000-106
New armaments were fitted to assist with this type of seagoing asymmetric warfare. Cutters typically picked up at least two (later cutters carried as many as six) .50 caliber air-cooled M2 Brownings on pintel mounts.
Also new were pintel-mounted 81mm mortars which could be used either for launching illumination parachute rounds, in counter-ship operations, or in suppressing fire near-shore (out to 4,500 yards).
At Sea – USCG in Vietnam – Market Time – Squadron Three with a detainee on deck, one of at least 128 detained and handed over to local ARVN assets. Note the loaded M2 .50 cal to the left and the sidearm-equipped CPO on watch. 221206-G-G0000-121
CGC Klamath on Market Time, showing off her new 50 cal and mortar emplacement
The 81mm mortar was mounted on either side of the No. 1 (5-inch) mount
311-foot Casco (Barnegat) class cutter Half Moon firing the 5″/38 on NGFS in Vietnam. Note the two mortars on the base of the superstructure between the ship’s Hedgehog ASW device
Campbell’s mortar team
Campbell’s mortar team “hanging an 81” ashore
The circa early 1960s small arms lockers for HECs included 40 M1 rifles, five M1 carbines, 17 .45 caliber M1911s, two Thompson SMGs, and two M1919 .30-caliber LMGs. With Vietnam on the schedule, this was updated.
Clark’s Commandos: CGC Klamath’s Market Time boarding team. Note the M16s, flak vests, .45s, and shotguns
Campbell’s boarding team, casual in flak vests and cut-off dungaree shorts, complete with M16s
From Shots that Hit, a Study of USCG Marksmanship, 1790-1985 by William Wells:
The cutters exchanged their M1 rifles and Thompson SMGs for the M16 rifle. However, many Coast Guardsmen were exceptionally adept at procuring arms of any nature. The use of revolvers in many calibers and models was common, as were communist weapons of which the AK-47 was the favorite. In addition to the M16, the M79 grenade launcher and the M60 machine gun were added. As far as weapons on board the cutters, it was an anything-goes allowance.
Naval Gunfire Support
The large cutters of CGRON3 conducted no less than 1,368 combined NGFS missions, firing a staggering 77,036 5-inch shells ashore. Keep in mind that most of these cutters only carried about 300 rounds in their magazines, so you can look at that amount of ordnance expended being something like 250 ship-loads.
Minnetonka (WHEC-67) providing fire support during the Vietnam War. Note the loose uniform of the day
Minnetonka’s 5-inch “Iron Hoss” blistered after all-night fires
USCGC Wachusett (WHEC-44) NGFS Vietnam
CGC Waschusett At Sea with USCG Vietnam Squadron 3, logging gunfire missions, with the spades due to “digging dirt.” 221206-G-G0000-118
USCGC Cook Inlet conducts a fire support mission off the coast of Vietnam, in 1971
Color photograph of Cutter Duane performing gunfire support mission with its forward 5-inch gun off the coast of Vietnam. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
5/”38 from USCG Hamilton-class cutter providing NGFS off Vietnam
Powder and shell consumption was so high that some cutters would have to underway replenish or VERTREP 2-3 times a week while doing gun ops.
“Crewmen cart high explosive projectiles across the deck of the 311-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Half Moon for the ship’s five-inch gun to hurl at a Viet Cong emplacement near a U.S. Special Forces Camp in the Song on Doc area, South Vietnam.” Coast Guard Photo Rel. No. 6215; 12/67;
To the casual observer, the all-white hulls of Market Time’s high-endurance cutters looked like angels of mercy, but the 5-inch 38-caliber gun mounts on these ships could let loose significant destructive power upon an unsuspecting enemy up to nine miles away. Nine men worked in the cramped confines of these turrets, enduring extreme heat and the ever-present smell of gun grease and cordite, to place ordnance on targets.
In built-up areas like Song On Doc, where the Viet Cong often sheltered in structures, the methodology for dislodging defenders was to set the initial rounds to burst in the air to kill anyone exposed outdoors. Assuming troops will then run for bunkers and slit trenches soon after a bombardment begins, the next shots would be set to hit the ground and explode. Gunners would then walk the rounds across a target area like a checkerboard so as to cover as much of the kill zone as possible. White phosphorus represented the grand finale. Since many Vietnamese structures were made of bamboo, it did not take many well-placed WP rounds to transform a small village or small settlement into smoldering ashes. Shards of white phosphorus extending outwards from an airburst shot literally created a rain of fire, igniting everything in a wide dispersal area.
Commander Herbert J. Lynch, who commanded Winona (WHEC-65) in early 1968, claims it was “nothing to fire 50 rounds of shoreside support. We did so much shooting we had to re-barrell the gun.”
The shallow draft of the cutters was key.
Again, Sherwood:
Although many of these rounds consisted of unspotted harassment and interdiction missions that did little more than tear up ground and knock down palm trees, when Coast Guard vessels were allowed to fire at actual targets, the results could be devastating. For instance, on 27 August, Half Moon conducted a gunfire mission against Viet Cong troops operating on the Ca Mau Peninsula in An Xuyen Province. Subsequent intelligence reports stated that 5-inch fire destroyed three enemy buildings and killed 11 Viet Cong.
On 26 September 1967, Yakutat (WHEC-380) destroyed or damaged 27 fortified enemy positions, four sampans, and an enemy canal blockade in a single gunfire support mission off the coast of An Xuyen Province.
The high endurance cutters, with their relatively shallow 22-foot draft, were the only ships with 5-inch guns capable of operating in the shallow waters of An Xuyen Province and much of the rest of the IV Corps area.
“Sometimes we would go into areas with only one or two feet clearance between the hull and sea floor,” recalled Captain Robert W. Durfey, who commanded Rush (WHEC-723) in 1970, but “fortunately the bottom was mostly mud.”
The Cutter Rush, working with an Australian destroyer, brought its guns to the aid of a small Special Forces camp in the village of Song Ong Doc. The village, located in the middle of Viet Cong-held territory, was being overrun. Gunfire from the two ships drove off the attackers and left 64 Viet Cong dead.
The results, as reported back by ground and air observers, included 2,612 structures destroyed, another 2,676 damaged, and body counts (Vietnam was big on body counts) including 529 enemy KIA and 243 enemy WIA.
Surface engagements
When it came to fighting often heavily-armed enemy cargo trawlers, several pitched sea fights, typically at night, are all but lost to history.
One such fight in March 1968, as told by Sherwood:
The Coast Guard cutter Androscoggin (WHEC-68) made radar contact with the infiltrator at 2047 local time and began maintaining covert surveillance. Early in the morning of 1 March, the trawler crossed into the 12-mile contiguous zone 22 miles from Cape Batangan, and Androscoggin soon challenged it by firing an illumination round. The trawler responded with machine gun fire, and Androscoggin returned fire with her 5-inch 38-caliber guns, hitting the trawler in the starboard quarter. Army helicopter gunships, Point Welcome, Point Grey, and PCFs -18 and -20 joined the attack as the trawler headed toward the beach. At 0210, the trawler beached itself and blew itself up in two attempts. During the battle, machine-gun rounds hit Androscoggin and other units but caused no casualties. Salvage crews later recovered a variety of military cargo from the scene, including 600 rifles, 41 submachine guns, and 11 light machine guns along with ammunition. Of the North Vietnamese crew, all that was recovered was a head and a full set of teeth.
Another fight on the same night saw Winona close to within 550 yards of an armed trawler that lit up the cutter with a mix of .50 caliber and .30 caliber machine guns, hitting the little 255-foot cutter at least 13 times and wounding three of her crew. Once Winona got her 5-incher into play, however, the trawler “disintegrated” with the entire fight lasting just two minutes.
From her history:
“We shadowed the trawler for six long hours into the night before it finally turned for the beach, our cue to intercept. Closing to 700 yards we illuminated and challenged them to stop when a running gun battle ensued. The effect in the night outfourthed the 4th of July. .50 cal. tracers, fiery red in the black, streaked both ways, punctuated by 5″ gun flashes, white with the intensity of burning magnesium. The ricochets whined off into the distance, or metal piercing rounds thwacked through steel. For seven minutes we fought until a 5” round found home at the base of the trawler’s deckhouse, and the night was day, and our ship rocked from the explosion that rained debris on our decks. For meritorious achievement that night, Captain Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star. Lt. Commander [J.A.] Atkinson, conning officer, Lt. [M.J.] Bujarski, gunnery officer, and BM3 “Audie” Slawson, director operator were awarded Navy Accommodation Medals. All four were authorized a Combat “V”.”
There were no enemy survivors. Enemy fire pierced Winona’s hull and deckhouse six times and also left several dents but she sustained no personnel casualties.
Capt. Paul Lutz describing the battle between the cutter Sherman and the large armed trawler SL3 at the mouth of the Mekong on the night of 21 November 1970:
“Sherman sinks armed enemy vessel, SL3, at Mekong River mouth, 21 November 1970” by John Wilinski
After the first round in direct fire with point detonating rounds, I saw an explosion and a bright illumination of the enemy vessel. I knew that prior enemy vessels had usually destroyed themselves when caught by allied forces and accordingly I thought it must be a self-destruct explosion. However, as our succeeding rounds showed as they hit there was the same marked explosion and a vivid illumination of the enemy vessel. Sherman was firing her forward 5″ 38 caliber gun at a maximum rate of fire (as I remember 18 rounds/minute) and every round hit and brilliantly illuminated the enemy. The rhythmic hit, hit, hit, etc. were synchronized with the firing of Sherman’s 5-inch gun and were awesome to observe. After about 8 to 10 rounds (and hits), taking about one half a minute the enemy ship was stopped and brightly burning.
Navy divers later found the trawler full of .60 caliber machine guns and recoilless rifles along “with enough ammunition and weapons to arm a division.”
Motherships
Operating between two and 20 miles offshore, these big cutters were often the closest thing to “The Fleet” that was available to the truly small boats that were running missions inshore.
They proved a home away from home for the growing fleet of CGRON1’s 82-foot patrol boats, of which ultimately 26 were deployed to Vietnam.
Point class cutter refueling from USCGC Dallas in Vietnam
Point class refueling from USCGC Dallas in Vietnam.
USCGC Point Lomas (WPB-82321) alongside the 327-foot USCGC Duane WHEC 33 1968 Vietnam
They also proved of vital support to Navy PCFs, with the small 50-foot Swiftboats typically having to swap out crews every 24 hours to remain on station. This meant lots of hot meals provided for these Brown Water sailors in the cutters’ mess, cold seawater showers, and a place to drop off mail and grab an (often warm) bunk. Then of course the boats would top off their fuel and water, and grab some snacks and ammo as a parting gift before motoring off with a rotated crew.
CGC Bibb in Vietnamese waters with a six-pack of nursing Swiftboats 200227-G-G0000-1003
The cutters also served as a floating hospital, with the ship’s corpsmen and public health service doctors ready to do what they could.
Wounded Swiftboat personnel being transferred to USCGC Campbell
As told by Mendota, who was only a 255-footer herself, a good 30 feet smaller than any cramped destroyer escort fielded in WWII!:
Mendota was not only home to the 160 men who were permanently assigned as her crew. She also served as a mother ship to U.S. Navy Swift boats and their crews, and to a lesser degree the Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boats, which operated in the inner barrier closer to shore. Mendota serviced the 82-footers 40 times during her stay while the Swift boats received logistic support daily, and the crews alternated being on board Mendota every other day. The medical staff also aided 51 men who had been wounded in action.
In all, CGRON3 logged 1,516 small craft replenishments over its five-year history.
Medcaps
As part of the “winning hearts and minds” concept, these big cutters were also active in humanitarian initiatives during lulls in combat. Ongoing Medical Civil Action Program, or MEDCAP, services saw the cutters land their medical personnel ashore to provide public health aid to locals.
This is well-told by Chief Hospital Corpsman Joseph “Doc” White, who served on CGC Bering Strait in 1970 and had to race ashore to respond to an attack on Song Ong Doc village.
Chief Joe White providing medical care to local Vietnamese and their children during a visit to a village in South Vietnam. (Via Mrs. Misa White, USCG photo 201218-G-G0000-1003)
“Doc” White providing medical care to wounded Vietnamese villagers. (Via Mrs. Misa White, USCG photo 201218-G-G0000-1005)
Besides the MEDCAPs, the cutter’s crews were also involved in assorted Civic Action Projects that ranged from installing playground equipment at a village school to passing the hat for enough donations for a refrigerator for the Saigon School for Blind Girls.
She was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, Vietnam, serving in theatre from 2 March to 16 November 1969, while under the command of CDR Dudley C. Goodwin, USCG. She was assigned to support Operation Market Time, including the interdiction of enemy supplies heading south by water and naval gunfire support [NGS] of units ashore. By July 1968, she had conducted 12 NGS missions, destroying 31 structures, 15 bunkers, 2 sampans, and 3 enemy “huts.”
Combat duties were not all the cutter did. The Sebago’s medical staff, including the cutter’s doctor, Public Health Service LT Lewis J. Wyatt, conducted humanitarian missions in Vietnam, treating over 400 villagers “for a variety of ills.” The crew visited the village of Co Luy, 80 miles south of Da Nang, and built an 18-foot extension to a waterfront pier for the villagers. She also served as a supply ship for Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats serving in Vietnamese coastal waters.
The crew of Mendota also participated in humanitarian missions while serving in Vietnam. These missions were concentrated on the village of Song Ong Doc, on the Gulf of Thailand. The medical team conducted MEDCAPS (Medical Care of the Civilian Population), treating over 800 Vietnamese for every variety of medical malady during 14 visits to the village. The crew also helped rebuild a small dispensary. In addition, assistance was rendered to Vietnamese and Thai fishermen who were injured while fishing. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were also treated by the medical personnel.
Being the Coast Guard, the big cutters took a break from walking their Market Time beat to respond to numerous calls for assistance from mariners in distress.
This included Bibb responding to the Thai M/V Daktachi and her shop crafting her a new drive shaft for her broken fuel pump, Campbell aiding the Filipino vessel Carmelita which had a broken propeller shaft and was drifting in the San Bernadino Strait, Morgenthau rescuing 23 survivors from the sinking merchant ship Joy Taylor, and Owasco pulling off the crew of the SS Foh Hong and towing the flooded vessel to safety. One cutter, Winnebago, chalked up three different maritime rescues, going to the assistance of the swamped Vietnamese coastal freighter Thuan Hing, pulling 35 people from the distressed M/V Fair Philippine Anchorage, and responding to an SOS from SS Aginar.
Endgame
As part of Vietnamization, the Coast Guard did a lot of out-building for the South Vietnamese Navy. The 26 Point class cutters of CGRON1 were all handed over in warm transfers by 1971. Of the 18 311-foot Casco-class cutters operated by the USCG, seven– Absecon, Chincoteague, Castle Rock, Cook Inlet, Yakutat, and Bering Strait — were transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972.
The last two, Bering Strait and Yakutat, were selected to be used by the Vietnamese Navy as offshore patrol units and operated hybrid mixed crews for the last half of 1970. This earned Bering Strait a haze-grey scheme.
Profile photograph of High-Endurance Cutter Bering Strait in a rare paint scheme of haze gray with Coast Guard “Racing Stripe.” Mackinaw. (Mrs. Misa White)
As detailed by Tulich:
They arrived in Subic Bay in June 1970 with a small cadre of Vietnamese on board, which was supplemented by another contingent at Subic. The VNN personnel were taught the operations of the ship and soon took over important positions in CIC boarding parties, NGFS details, and repair crews. The VNN also performed the external functions of the ship, especially boardings. The VNN officers soon became underway and in-port OODs. Teams assumed engineering watches, navigated, piloted, and provided all the control and most other positions in the NGFS teams. Their training became apparent when a combined USCG/VNN rescue and assistance party from Yakutat extinguished a serious fire and performed damage control on a USN landing ship.
The transfer of Bering Strait and Yakutat at the end of their 1970 deployment, in full color (but silent):
CGRON3 was formally disestablished on 31 January 1972, leaving three shore establishments– the Con Son and Tan My LORAN stations and the USCG Merchant Marine Detachment in Saigon– as the last remnants of the service’s efforts in Vietnam. Even those would be gone by 5 May 1973 when the final Coast Guard personnel departed the country.
Ingham returning from Vietnam in 1969
USCGC Duane (WHEC-33) returning from Vietnam, 1968
Between 1965 and 1973, the USCG sent some 8,000 men to Vietnam– nearly a quarter of its active force– with the bulk of these, more than 6,000, being those afloat with CGRON3.
Of the seven large cutters handed over to the VNN in 1971-72, six escaped to the Philippines after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and went on to be used to varying degrees by the Filipino Navy for another decade. The seventh ship, the former CGC Absecon, was captured and bore a red flag as part of the Vietnam People’s Navy into the 1990s.
The Coast Guard eventually whittled down its remaining Vietnam Veteran cutters with two, Taney and Ingham, preserved as floating museums in Maryland and Florida, respectively.
USCGC Ingham, both a WWII and Vietnam Vet, retired in 1988, is well-preserved in Key West (Photo: Chris Eger)
The last cutter in service that had fired shots into Vietnam in anger, CGC Mellon, only decommissioned on 20 August 2020, capping a 54-year career.
Ironically, Mellon is slated to be transferred to the Vietnam People’s Coast Guard at some point in the future, where she will join former CGRON3 sister Morgenthau, which has been flying a red flag since 2017.
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
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Coinciding with the drawdown of U.S. ground troops from South Vietnam in 1969, the Nixon administration, with Kissinger in the seat, introduced the policy of “Vietnamization,” a program designed to shift the responsibility of the war from the U.S. to the RVN.
As noted by the State Department, “Although this process was not successful, the United States negotiated a peace agreement in 1973 and withdrew from South Vietnam, which soon fell to the communist regime in the north.”
The hardware transferred in 1972 alone included 234 F-5A and A-37 jet fighter planes, 32 C-130 transports, 277 UH-1H Hueys, 72 M48A3 tanks, 117 M113 armored personnel carriers, and 1,726 trucks in addition to boatloads of artillery pieces, small arms, radios, etc– most of which would be sampled by Moscow post-1975 after the Saigon government fell.
Carrying red and gold Vietnam People’s Air Force roundels and standard 4-digit MiG style numbers, many of these aircraft saw lots of service with the VPAF over Cambodia and against the Chinese in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Because nobody ever reads the history books, “Afghanization” likewise copied the same play with the same outcome in 2020, because possibly, just possibly, propping up corrupt regimes during a civil war in which 90 percent of the population has checked out from either side, just doesn’t work no matter how much cash and guns you leave behind.
But history is cyclical, of course, and everything comes back around.
The delivery signifies a milestone for the U.S. Air Force and the Vietnam ADAF, with the full complement of 12 T-6Cs scheduled for delivery by 2025.
The released photos make pains to have folks standing in front of the red and gold communist national flashes on the aircraft.
U.S. PACAF Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider and a T6-C pilot disembark a T6-C training aircraft in Phan Thiet, Vietnam, on Nov. 20, 2024. General Schneider landed the first of five T6-C aircraft. Seven more training aircraft will be delivered to the Vietnamese Air Defence Air Force by 2025.
U.S. PACAF Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider, Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Hien, Commander of the Vietnam Air Defence Air Force, and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper stand by a T6-C training aircraft in Phan Thiet, Vietnam, on Nov. 20, 2024. The Vietnamese Air Defence Air Force will use these training aircraft for pilot training.
Ex-U.S. Coast Guard Cutter John Midgett leaving Puget Sound as Vietnam Coast Guard 8021, June 5 2021
I say, since we are passing on scratch and dent gear to the Vietnamese once again, that they give back some of the old stuff we gave them in the 1960s and 70s for use as gate guards, museum pieces, and CMP surplus rifle assets.
All these seen in Vietnamese stores in the past few years:
Some 57 years ago this week. 21 November 1967, near Cat Lai, Republic of Vietnam. Official caption: PFC Fred L. Greenleaf, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade (The Redcatchers), crosses a deep irrigation canal along with other members of the company. After making a helicopter assault, the company moved towards a Viet Cong-controlled village. This was a search-and-destroy mission within Operation Rang Dong.
VIRIN: 671121-O-ZZ999-101Y, via National Archives Identifier 100310302 111-CCV-603A-CC44815
Note the pack of camels in PFC Greenleaf’s helmet cover ban as well as the thin antenna and ruck straps of the Prick 10 (AN/PRC-10) vacuum-tube radio set he is carrying, meaning he is likely a platoon or company-level RTO.
Also, he curiously has a camera guy following along behind.
This guy:
On 21 November 1967, PFC Daniel R. Bauer (Los Angeles, CA) crosses a deep irrigation canal. PFC Bauer is a cinematographer with the Department of the Army Special Photo Office (DASPO). PFC Bauer was photographing members of Co “C”, 3rd Bn, 7th Inf, 199th Light Inf Bde,. 111-CCV-478-CC44816
The 3-7th had been lifted into the area by Hueys earlier that day from their base in nearby Ben Chon to take place in the yearlong pacification effort in the Gia Dinh Province in conjunction with the 5th ARVN Ranger Group.
Operation “Rang Dong.” A column of UH-1D helicopters leave Ben Chon, the 3rd Bn’s rear area base camp, and fly to Co “C”‘s position to pick them up and carry them on a combat assault. 111-CCV-97-CC44801
Operation “Rang Dong.” A column of UH-1D helicopters prepare to disembark members of Co “C”, 3rd Bn’s, 7th Inf, 199th Light Inf Bde, for a combat assault. 111-CCV-97-CC44803
Operation “Rang Dong.” Members of Co “C”, 3rd Bn, 7th Inf, 199th Light Inf Bde, move in a skirmish line through rice paddies en route to their first objective, a Viet Cong-controlled village. 111-CCV-603a-44809
Across its four years of combat in Southeast Asia, the 199th brigade took part in 11 campaigns and received five unit decorations: Valorous Unit Award, Meritorious Unit Commendation, two Republic of Vietnam (RVN) Crosses of Gallantry with Palm, and an RVN Civil Action Honor Medal First Class. One company (D, 4-12 Infantry) received a Presidential Unit Citation. Four soldiers earned the Medal of Honor and 15 received the Distinguished Service Cross.
Overall casualties for the Redcatchers in Vietnam were 755 killed, 4,679 wounded, and nine missing, or roughly 95 percent of its TOE-authorized strength.
The Associated Press continues to put up archived footage from yesteryear online and some of it is striking. These recently caught my eye.
An 11-minute German training video from 1940 showing V1 and V2 rockets at Peenemunde.
A 20-minute 1976 report from Angola including some interesting footage of both CIA/South African-backed UNITA rebels and Cuban-backed MPLA in training– with lots of sweet FALs, HKG3s, and brand-new AKMs with bright orange Bakelite mags.
A 20-minute, sadly silent but in color, reel of AC-47D gunships out of Bien Thuy AB during the Vietnam War, October 1966.
A 16-minute, again silent but in color, reel of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger being rolled out.
A captured 1944 German small arms instruction training film— in color– showing the basic use of everything from an MP40 to a Luger and MG 42.
A highly entertaining 16-minute color 1952 film on the failed Lockheed XFV-1, an early VTOL fighter envisioned for WWIII convoy defense that never quite got the bugs worked out.
And a 52-second newsreel of Billy Mitchell’s Martin MB-2s flying out of Langley Field in the 1920s to drop bombs on the captured German battlewagon SMS Ost Friesland, complete with foley sounds added in the 1970s.
