This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Carol Casey (Call), AK3-Deceased
to remember
Casey, John (Leprecondo), DK3.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Connecticut Patriot Guard Board of Directors
American Warrior Connecticut Honor Flight Project - Guardian, Board of Directors, Logistics Support, and Trip Co-Coordinator
Volunteer - WWII database registry
Volunteer - U.S. Navy Memorial and Registry Log
Volunteer - U.S. Army Memorial
Associate Member - United States Submarine Veterans Inc.
Life Member - VFW, Allston, Massachusetts
Life Member - American Legion Post, Lortan, VA
Life Member - Vietnam Veterans of America
Charter Member - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Member - Vietnam Era Seabees, INC.
Connecticut Patriot Guard support Vehicle
My days are spent registering World War II veterans and civilians on the homefront on the WWII Memorial database. source:
My labor of love is to make sure as many veterans and civilians on the homefront are registered on the WW II Memorial database. My labor of love to honor all World War II veterans and civilian who contributed to the war time effort. These people are responsible for the intrastructure of our country that we have today.
I am a second generation Irishman whose ancestors came from County Cork, Ireland. I was born and raised in Allston, Massachusetts. Since 1968 my home has been Groton, Connecticut. I am retired from Pfizer, Inc. working 33 years as a chemical operator. I now fill my days with community service by volunteering in any events related to the military community.
I am married to the unpredictable, strong, confident, gracious, caring, never doing what was expected, "not going along with the crowd just to get along" woman, Carol. She rides a motorcycle, but I am not interested in riding. Through her riding we have become involved with the Patriot Guard Riders. I am a proud member of the Patriot Guard Riders, however, I participate on four wheels versus two wheels.
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.
