If the war, or domestic political considerations, made it necessary to turn over less American equipment fractional Vietnamese crews could be collected from our boats and brought together to form crews for a lesser number of boats. Naval Forces, Vietnam Monthly Historical Summary for July 1969 Accession Number: ADA953992 Title: U.S. More than 5000 landings were recorded in the first year of operations from the single-spot helo deck of the USS Benewah alone. In July 1965, in response to the growing size of U.S. Army forces in the country, United States Army Vietnam was established, and both the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division as well as the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, deployed from the United States. At 1030 on 16 February 1965, Lieutenant James S- Bowers, U. S. Army, while piloting a UH-1B helicopter on a medical rescue mission from Qui Nhon, sighted a camouflaged ship lying in Vung Ro Bay on South Vietnams central coast. Almost from the very beginning, the weather was an inhibiting factor. The fishermen in the Nam Can harvest several varieties of shrimp and small fish. The economy of the Nam Can grew dramatically, the population mushroomed, and the pace of the pacification effort was quickened to keep in step. USSAG was activated on 11 February 1973 under the command of commander of MACV. Vast numbers of people live on or near the rivers, canals, and seacoasts. What had been conceived and organized as an advisers job, no longer fit the changing nature of growing operational command. The irregulars were ordinarily recruited from the population in the vicinity of each coastal group. Naval Forces, Vietnam Monthly Historical Summary for July 1969 Descriptive Note: Corporate Author: NAVAL FORCES VIETNAM FPO SAN FRANCISCO 96626 Personal Author (s): Report Date: 1969-10-01 Pagination or Media Count: 117.0 Abstract: Until March 1965 and the beginning of direct U. S. participation in the Vietnam War, the Navy served in an advisory capacity. As in the past, we will honour those who served in the RCN, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Merchant Navy during the Second World War's Battle of the Atlantic, as well as the Korean War. These messages have been further broken down by subject (i.e., Coastal Patrol, River Patrol, Intelligence, etc.). They are attached to nearly every Vietnamese naval unit. Establishment of Seabee teams which were made available to instruct and provide technical assistance in construction of shelters. John George Graf | American Battle Monuments Commission NAG - Naval Advisory Group. The men at Cua Viet lived little better than moles in heavily bunkered huts burrowed down among the sand dunes. In September 1965, Rear Admiral Ward raised the question of naval command relationships in Vietnam with CNO and with General Westmoreland. The most significant Navy pacification effort, however, grew out of the Market Time raider incursions into the Cua Lon and Bo De Rivers in the Ca Mau peninsula. 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. Naval advisors complained that their advice was frequently not taken, that new equipment and military supplies were not being used effectively. The latter unit formed the naval component of the joint Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force. There is little good land in the area and it has value, as mentioned earlier, only because of the vital Long Tau shipping channel, and because of its nearness to the capital. A sapper group, Doan-10, had been identified. 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). The number of people then living under Vietnamese control in the area was estimated to be about 9,000. They were accompanied by the USS Mercer (APB-39) and the USS Satyr (ARL-23). His forces were divided into three area commands; North, Central, and South Vietnam. The ships and barges that made up the floating support assets were also to a great extent pulled from our aging mothball fleet. The first of these was to bring the naval forces under his command together in coordinated operations to stop enemy infiltration into the Delta and to further the cause of pacification. Additional patrol aircraft were provided by the Commander of the Seventh Fleet. A great deal of attention was of course paid to weather forecasting, and the transit was accomplished in the Gulf of Thailand's "good weather" part of the year. Such was the situation at Dien Bien Phu. In addition to the headquarters offices, the complex included a barracks, a mess hall, a refrigerated storage building and its own power plant and telephone exchange. A joint organization, it contained an Army, Navy, and Air Force section, each responsible for advising its counterpart in the Vietnamese armed forces and for As a result, on 1 April 1966, Naval Forces, Vietnam, was established to control the Navy's units in the II, III and IV Corps Tactical Zones. American aid to the French in Indochina burgeoned, and part of this aid took the form of naval ships and craft, mostly small amphibious types, but including one aircraft carrier (the ex-USS Belleau Wood).