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by
Robert Stoner, GMCM (SW) (Ret)
It all started innocently
enough. I received a batch of photos from Jim Gray, GMCM (CC)
(Ret). Before he retired, Jim had put together a collection of
slides from various sources to give personnel newly assigned to
Special Boat Unit TWELVE a look at their past history. I had the
photos digitized and sent the slides back to Jim.
One of the photos showed a
pair of UH-1B “Seawolf” gunship helicopters on the deck of a tank
landing ship (LST) with several Navy PCF “Swift” boats tied-up
alongside. Such scenes were common for LSTs supporting Operations
MARKET TIME (CTF-115) and GAME WARDEN (CTF-116). What was not
common was the LSSC parked on the deck of the LST behind a CO2
fire bottle (right, behind the rear UH-1B).
There were a couple of
clues that helped me get started tracking down the story. First,
the UH-1B helicopters had the XM-16 armament suite (four M-60s plus
two rocket pods) instead of the M-21 armament suite (two M-134
Mini-guns plus two rocket pods). That meant the photo was taken
before the spring of 1970 (this from Mike Dobson of HA(L)-3).
Second, the LST was part
of the LST-1156 class built in 1952 and not part of over one
thousand built for World War 2. The LSTs of this class were
assigned to Amphibious Ready Groups ALPHA and BRAVO. Group ALPHA
worked around Da Nang and Group BRAVO supported the Mobile Riverine
Force (CTF-117) in the Mekong River and Operation SEA FLOAT (later
SOLID ANCHOR) on the Ca Mau Peninsula.
Third, the water was blue
and not brown. Since I’d operated with both CTF-116 and CTF-117, I
knew immediately it was not with the Mobile Riverine Force. The
waters of the Mekong were brown and PCFs were not used in this
operations area. Therefore, it had to be connected with early SEA
FLOAT operations. The question was how?
Inquiries were sent to
various parties, but at first there were no results. Then, Jim Gray
was able to give me a lead:
“Bob, just
quickly. [photo] Taken by OIC John Engstrom, Det. ECHO [in the] 1969
move [of] the Det. into the Nam Cam area. They were the first Det.
to operate there. Boats were an LSSC and LCPL. Best Regards, Jim G.”
From that information I was able
to trace the LSTs that might have carried the LSSC. I forwarded all
of this information to Bill Bremer. Bill was able to contact former
members of Detachment ECHO, Bruce Roberts and Dave Dyer. Dave Dyer
was able to provide the rest of the story on the LSSC:
“Bill and
Bruce, Dave Dyer here.
In June of
1969 I was in Binh Thuy getting ready to go to SEA FLOAT. We took
one LCPL (the old “Blackpower”) and one LSSC to Vung Tau.
We towed
the LSSC behind the LCPL from Binh Thuy past Dung Island to the open
sea. (There weren’t any SEALs or MST there at this time.)
When we hit
the sea, we went east until we hit blue water, and then north
towards Vung Tau. The seas were rough, and we could not make any
headway. The Coast Guard cutter POINT GRACE [WPB 82323] took us
in-tow. The cutter towed the “Blackpower” [LCPL] and the
“Blackpower” towed the LSSC. The towline from the cutter got tangled
in her screws.
I was on
the “Blackpower” when the line got cut. I was left out at sea (it
was too rough to try a new line), bouncing between the waves. The
LSSC in tow would disappear between the waves and the line would go
taught and then go slack. The line went slack and then never
tightened-up. The LSSC was M[issing] I[n] A[ction]. I was too young
and dumb to realize that I was MIA also.
The seas
calmed the next day. The “Blackpower” and I were found floating at
sea. It took two days to find the LSSC. After about a week at Vung
Tau, the WINDHAM COUNTY (LST-1170) took the LSSC around the tip of
Vietnam to offload at Square Bay [the western entrance to the Song
Cau Lon and SEA FLOAT]. It took about three weeks before the rest
of Det. ECHO got there with [the LCPL] “Blackpower.” Once we got it
together, it was almost all operations from July [19]69 to CONUS
[December 1969]. The SEALs and MST were not stationed on the
WINDHAM COUNTY.”
Soon after I got Dave’s story of
the LSSC, Bruce Roberts, Det. ECHO’s former OIC provided even more
details on the tale of the LSSC and the LCPL.
“As to the tow from
Binh Thuy: When I took over Det. ECHO in late June, [19]69, the [LC]PL
was on a trailer at Binh Thuy. [It was] being repaired after a
serious altercation with the natives down on the Rach Ong Dinh. We
also had a dead LSSC there [Binh Thuy]. About mid-July, LT Tom
Mason, the senior officer in-country, told me to get my boats south
and start operations ASAP. Understandable, but the PL wasn't really
ready. I squawked, but [I] lost.
The plan was that I
would tow the LSSC down the Bassac [River] and rendezvous with a
Coast Guard 82-footer, the POINT
GRACE, at the [river] mouth. We stocked up on everything,
including maxing out our beer rations, since we were headed for the
middle of nowhere. The 82-footer was supposed to "daisy chain" tow
us 150 miles south, and then we were to run in [to SEA FLOAT]
through the [Song] Bo De. Sure enough, we joined up with her [POINT
GRACE] and she took us in-tow.
The PL had her V-drive
locked to keep the shaft from rotating. This was to cause us grief
later. Anyway, the cutter towed the PL and the LSSC (number 13, I
think) was tied on behind us, unmanned.
Things got off to a bad
start. First, the 82-footer turned too close to some fish stakes.
We swung the PL clear, but the LSSC drifted into them. Strike one.
Strike two happened that night, when we ran into a storm.
We were checking the
LSSC every twenty minutes or so with a flashlight. Finally [RM2
Wayne] Baum came forward and reported we'd lost it. I called the
Coast Guard and requested they heave-to while we looked for it.
While we and they were flashing lights around, we began to drift
toward them, and their CO asked me to stand clear. Unfortunately
our shaft was locked, so I suggested he stand clear of us. He
replied that the towline had fouled his screws. The upshot is that
I [LCPL] drifted into him energetically enough to punch five holes
in his [the cutter’s] side. In the meantime, I was about as seasick
as I ever hope to be.
I boarded the cutter
for a "council of war" on finding the LSSC, [and] then [found out I]
couldn't jump back down to the pitching PL. I finally just lay down
by the rail in the rain and continued my experiments into whether it
was possible to die of seasickness. (It isn't . . . I tried.) We
were "rescued" by the USCG cutter SPENCER [WHEC-36], later that
night, although I lost a .50 going alongside her. She took us to
Cat Lo, where we spent a few days, while the coasties decided
whether to keelhaul me or just settle for a nice hanging. The LSSC
was found a day or so later by a merchantman.”
[The LSSC wound-up
getting to SEA FLOAT on the USS WINDHAM COUNTY. However, the LCPL
would make the trip to SEA FLOAT under tow. This time it was by a
PCF “Swift” boat.]
“We finally headed
south again in-tow, and were proceeding nicely, in beautiful
weather, when I glanced up and saw water coming over our bow. We
were sinking! I called the Swift and asked [her] to heave-to (this
was getting to be awfully repetitious) and [to] send us a P-250
pump. I went down into the compartment forward of the conn – [there
was] no water. Then, I noticed that the manhole cover over the peak
tank was ajar. Sure enough, we'd been taking water over the bow for
some time, and it had gradually filled the compartment. I went in
with a helmet to bail, until we got a pump aboard. With that
squared away, we then went on our way, around the tip of the Ca Mau
[Peninsula] and up the Gulf of Thailand to Square Bay.
[We sailed] up the
[Song] Cua Lon to base [SEA FLOAT], where we were promptly chewed
out for: (1) causing a major panic by coming-in unannounced -- got
to watch those infiltrating VC LCPL's -- and (2) we tied-up in the
wrong spot. Oh, well, you can't win 'em all . . .
Well, Bob, you now know
the full story of our excursion to SEAFLOAT.”
Epilogue. When I started
researching the story behind the LSSC, I had no idea of the problems
Det. ECHO had in getting its two boats to support SEAL operations at
SEA FLOAT. Much of the Navy’s operations in Viet Nam resembled the
campaigns fought along the coasts and inland waterways of the United
States during the Civil War years of 1861 to 1865. Much had been
forgotten in the intervening century. Much of the Navy’s (and Coast
Guard’s) role was done on an ad hoc basis and there was a
great deal of trail and error involved to get all the pieces of the
puzzle in place. The problems faced by LT Bruce Roberts and the
members of Det. ECHO are typical of the challenges the MST
detachments met and overcame to accomplish their mission of
supporting the Navy’s SEAL teams.
There are lots of reasons why
the Navy had a hard time shifting gears when it went to a “haze gray
and underway” deep water Navy to a “green and shallow” brown water
force. First, the Navy’s focus had been the fleet and power
projection from the sea since the end of World War 2 and the start
of the Cold War. Second, command of a ship at sea or squadron had
been the advancement path for officers. Third, the limited war
represented by the coasts, rivers, and canals of Viet Nam were 180
degrees from the first two.
In Viet Nam, enlisted petty
officers – sometimes second class, but usually first class and
chiefs – skippered the small craft on the rivers and canals. Junior
officers ran the coast patrols on the PCF’s, cutters, and junks. It
wasn’t like commanding a destroyer, a cruiser, or a carrier. It was
better than that; it was hands-on seamanship at its most basic and
rewarding. It was small boats, with small crews, and lots of
responsibility.
Until the training caught up to
the reality, much of the training was done on the job, in the Viet
Nam combat zone. LT Bruce Roberts remarked about this reality when
he was reviewing my article:
“Thanks for your note. . . I'm frankly a bit
embarrassed at the way that whole mess must look, especially those
parts that I was responsible for, but that's pretty much the way it
was.
By the way, you might be interested to know
that prior to deployment, I had driven small craft exactly once (a
Mk I Swift in San Diego harbor) and ridden two other boats once each
on the basis of "look but don't touch anything"! So much for
training.”
My response paralleled Bruce’s experience:
“Actually, your experiences are pretty
typical. The Navy is no different that any other large organization
-- it tends to succeed in spite of itself. My small boat experience
was pretty much as yours was -- on the job training [in February to
May of 1970].
I did some PTF training on the -13 boat in
Coronado (I even got to drive once or twice). No training at all on
the LSSC other than: "This is an LSSC. Look at it. Remember it.
Next boat."
We got LCPL training (backing out from the pier
and landing at the pier). We did some training on the MSSC and we
got some experience driving an LCM-6 that belonged to ACU-1.
The LCM training was a hoot -- I don't know how
we didn't manage to broach the boat in the surf because somebody had
mixed-up the props and had installed two of the same kind. She
turned great in one direction only! Backing up (and not broaching)
was a VERY interesting feat.
As it turned out, we had a couple of good boat
drivers attached with us -- BM2 Moore, BM1 Butler, RM2 Wallace, and
RD2 Wells -- so the rest of us did the other jobs on the boats and
helped out on long transits.”
Below are representative pictures of the Coast
Guard vessels and PCF involved during the attempts to reach SEA
FLOAT under tow.
The 82-foot cutter POINT
YOUNG (WPB 82303) was a sister craft to the POINT GRACE (WPB
82323). These and other 82-foot USCG units were assigned to Coastal
Divisions 11, 12, and 13 of Coastal Squadron ONE as part of
Operation MARKET TIME (CTF-115). Both POINT GRACE and POINT YOUNG
were part of the 26 cutters turned over to the Vietnamese by
December 1970. (Photo: USCG)
Coast Guard high endurance
cutter TANEY (WHEC-37) off the California coast about 1963. The
USCG cutter SPENCER (WHEC-36) was a sister ship to TANEY. These
327-foot cutters were part of a class of seven built in 1936. The
USCG cutter HAMILTON was torpedoed by a U-boat and lost in World War
2. The remaining sisters had long, distinguished service lives and
all served one deployment to Viet Nam as part of Operation MARKET
TIME (CTF-115). Of the class, cutters TANEY (WHEC-37) and INGHAM
(WHEC-35) survive today as museum ships. (Photo: USCG)
A Navy “Swift” boat (PCF) on
patrol off the Ca Mau Peninsula near SEA FLOAT. A boat like this
finished the tow of LT Robert’s LCPL to SEA FLOAT. Note the cargo
net on the bow of the boat. When the PCF carried troops and SEALs,
the crew rigged a cargo net over the bow to help extract them at the
end of the operation. The high profile of the PCF made it a poor
choice for the SEA FLOAT/SOLID ANCHOR operations area. When the
crew was expecting combat action, the pilot house was vacated, the
gunner put flak jackets over his legs to protect them from shrapnel,
and the boat was conned from the emergency steering wheel on the
port side of the deckhouse (below the US flag). The VC/NVA could
[and did] accurately place a B-40 rocket into the area around the
insignia on the pilot house door. If someone did not close the door
to hide it, the insignia would serve as a great aiming reference.
(Photo: US Navy)
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