Enjoying my Hunting, fishing, and camaraderie with my fellow veterans.
My wife and I founded "Legacies of Honor" in 2006. We concentrate upon selling military medals, ribbons, devices, ribbon racks and compose military Shadow Boxes. You can find us at:
http://www.legaciesofhonor.org
Why not stop by and see what we have to offer?!
Other Comments:
We all did our jobs and we did them well under the circumstances. If we do not keep our naval history alive, then who will?
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase VI Campaign (68-69)
From Month/Year
November / 1968
To Month/Year
February / 1969
Description This Campaign period was from 2 November to 22 February 1969. When Admiral Zumwalt launched SEALORDS in October 1968 with the blessing of the new COMUSMACV, General Creighton Abrams, allied naval forces in South Vietnam were at peak strength. The U.S. Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force operated 81 Swift boats, 24 Coast Guard WPBs, and 39 other vessels. The River Patrol Force deployed 258 patrol and minesweeping boats; the 3,700-man Riverine Assault Force counted 184 monitors, transports, and other armored craft; and Helicopter Attack Squadron Light (HAL) 3 flew 25 armed helicopters.
This air component was soon augmented by the 15 fixed-wing OV-10 Bronco aircraft of Attack Squadron Light (VAL) 4, activated in April 1969. The lethal Bronco flown by the "Black Ponies" of VAL-4 carried 8 to 16 5- inch Zuni rockets, 19 2.75-inch rockets, 4 M-60 machine guns, and a 20-millimeter cannon. In addition, five SEAL platoons supported operations in the delta.
Complementing the American naval contingent were the Vietnamese Navy's 655 ships, assault craft, patrol boats, and other vessels. To focus the allied effort on the SEALORDS campaign, COMNAVFORV appointed his deputy the operational commander, or "First SEALORD," of the newly activated Task Force 194. Although continuing to function, the Game Warden, Market Time, and Riverine Assault Force operations were scaled down and their personnel and material resources increasingly devoted to SEALORDS.
Task Force 115 PCFs mounted lightning raids into enemy- held coastal waterways and took over patrol responsibility for the delta's larger rivers. This freed the PBRs for operations along the previously uncontested smaller rivers and canals. These intrusions into former Viet Cong bastions were possible only with the on-call support of naval aircraft and the heavily armed riverine assault craft.
In the first phase of the SEALORDS campaign allied forces established patrol "barriers," often using electronic sensor devices, along the waterways paralleling the Cambodian border. In early November 1968, PBRs and riverine assault craft opened two canals between the Gulf of Siam at Rach Gia and the Bassac River at Long Xuyen. South Vietnamese paramilitary ground troops helped naval patrol units secure the transportation routes in this operational area, soon named Search Turn.
Later in the month, Swift boats, PBRs, riverine assault craft, and Vietnamese naval vessels penetrated the Giang Thanh-Vinh Te canal system and established patrols along the waterway from Ha Tien on the gulf to Chau Doc on the upper Bassac. As a symbol of the Vietnamese contribution to the combined effort, the allied command changed the name of this operation from Foul Deck to Tran Hung Dao I.
Then in December U.S. naval forces pushed up the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay Rivers west of Saigon, against heavy enemy opposition, to cut infiltration routes from the "Parrot's Beak" area of Cambodia. The Giant Slingshot operation, so named for the configuration of the two rivers, severely hampered Communist resupply in the region near the capital and in the Plain of Reeds.
Completing the first phase of the SEALORDS program, in January 1969 PBRs, assault support patrol boats (ASPB), and other river craft established patrol sectors along canals westward from the Vam Co Tay to the Mekong River in Operation Barrier Reef. Thus, by early 1969 a patrolled waterway interdiction barrier extended almost uninterrupted from Tay Ninh northwest of Saigon to the Gulf of Siam.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
November / 1968
To Month/Year
February / 1969
Last Updated: Apr 15, 2022
Personal Memories
Memories THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WASHINGTON The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending the RACH GIA INTERDICTION GROUP (Task Group 194.6) for service as set forth in the following CITATION: For exceptionally meritorious service from 7 November to 17 December 1968 while engaged in armed conflict against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communist aggressor forces in the Republic of Vietnam. During this period, the various elements of the Rach Gia Interdiction Group pressed an extremely daring and effective campaign against the ingression of communist personnel and war materials from Cambodia into the lower Mekong Delta region. Operating under hazardous and austere conditions, the patrol and air-support units of the Rach Gia Interdiction Group stalked the narrow, enemy-infested canals in an unceasing effort to detect and destroy the communist aggressors. Although the toll of American casualties was high during these days of countless engagements, Task Group personnel consistently displayed a determined and aggressive fighting spirit, braving continual heavy enemy fire at point-blank range. Ultimately, the enemy threat was quelled, a major route of communist resupply was severed, and pacification and Vietnamese resettlement commenced. By their valiant professionalism, courageous sacrifice, and inspiring devotion to duty in the face of grave enemy opposition, the officers and men of the Rach Gia Interdiction Group were singularly responsible for the prodigious successes of the campaign, and reflected great credit upon themselves, their units, and the United States Naval Service. All personnel attached to and serving with the Rach Gia Interdiction Group (Task Group 194.6) during the above-designated period, or any part thereof, are hereby authorized to wear the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon. John W. Warner Secretary of the Navy (Acting)
