Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ralph Christopher served in the U.S. Navy in 1967 aboard USS Vega and completed three WESPACs off the coast of Vietnam in support of Operation Market Time and Yankee Statiion. In 1970 he volunteered and served with the River Patrol Force aboard YRBM 21 and at ATSB Phouc Xuyen. as well as ATSB Ben Keo. After returning home to Richmond, he attended classes at VCU in Virgina and later graduated the Musician's Instute of Technology in Hollywood. He is now a veteran performer and recording artist of over thirty years and lives in Las Vegas with his family where he writes and speaks of the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam.

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Iron Butterfly

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Chapter One

United States Naval Forces, Vietnam, had been patrolling the Rung Sat Special Zone south of Saigon for over two years by May 1968 and had extended operations even further south into the Mekong Delta. Code named Operation Game Warden, river patrol boats patrolled the strategic Long Tau Shipping Channel and engaged in a large variety of actions which included river ambushes, gunfire support, amphibious landings, and salvage operations. Acts of valor by brown water sailors were numerous with allied forces fighting fiercely to take back Viet Cong-controlled waterways.

The South Vietnamese Navy, accompanied by American advisors, continued to grow and demonstrate a willingness and ability to meet and defeat the enemy. Game Warden operations also continued to expand as more patrol boats arrived from the States, with new units being formed. River Section 544 "the Iron Butterfly" was one of them.

On May 1st, 1968, Navy Lieutenant William David "Bill" Straight, a 1961 Naval Academy graduate, was stationed at Nha Be Naval Support Activity Base when the soft spoken man of Fairmont, West Virginia, received a message from the Commander of Naval Forces, Vietnam, Rear Admiral Kenneth L. Veth, to officially activate River Section 544. Although Lieutenant Straight had no river patrol boats whatsoever at the time, he went ahead with the formal task of giving birth to a new river combat unit.

When twenty-nine year old Lieutenant Straight first arrived at Nha Be, he was assigned to train with River Section 542. On a night training patrol that included going into a very narrow canal, without permission, west of the Soi Rap River, the boat became grounded. Bill, the patrol officer, and the crew had to get out and wade through the water while physically pushing the boat backward out into the river. What with the tide going out, the canal had become too shallow and the boat had gotten caught in a peculiar position. The crew didn't seem too concerned. But Bill was.

I was scared shitless. I also noticed that I was the only one with a helmet and a flak jacket on at the time. Bill Straight

The Patrol Boat River, called PBRs by the men that served on them, had already gained much fame shortly after the first 120 Mark I patrol boats arrived in 1966 and had become the great nemesis of the Viet Cong, depriving them of the waterways they had once controlled. Designated Task Force 116, the river patrol boats first operated in the southern part of South Vietnam in the Rung Sat Special Zone river system between Saigon and the South China Sea. They then pushed further south into the Mekong Delta region, as far as the Cambodian Border. The missions of Game Warden were to interdict communist infiltration, enforce curfews, prevent taxation of water traffic by the Viet Cong, counter enemy movement and resupply efforts, use loudspeakers to promote the amnesty "Chieu Hoi" program for enemy deserters, and gain the support of the Vietnamese people through Civic Action Programs providing medical care and by giving away such items as soap, fishing gear, and school supplies. Operation Game Warden also patrolled and swept mines from the shipping channel into Saigon and other coastal cities and was almost entirely made up of PBRs, with some modified landing craft and minesweeper boats called MSBs.

It was a young officer's war where lieutenants had a lot of responsibility and did a hell of a job. Chiefs and first class petty officers were out on their own in most cases, leading patrols made up of young enlisted men who manned machineguns and time after time bravely rose to the occasion and distinguished themselves in battle. It was a proud time for the U.S. Navy, but most back in the States did not see or know of it.

In the early months of operations while River Section 544 was based at Nha Be, they had been assigned the task of patrolling the muddy rivers and waterways of the Rung Sat Special Zone. Because of attacks by the Viet Cong on merchant shipping, the region had become a Navy area of responsibility between III and IV Corp tactical zones. Though airlifting supplies had achieved remarkable results, ninety-eight percent of all allied war materials entered Vietnam by sea, and a third of this total was unloaded in Saigon by ships that steamed up a dredged connection of three rivers, the Long Tau, the Nha Be and the Saigon, which was the only deep-draft route from the South China Sea to Saigon.

There were few roads in the Rung Sat, with the major mode of transportation done by twenty-foot sampans with small two-cycle Briggs and Stratton engines driving propellers on long poles. The sampans were shallow draft and could be swamped easily, so they did not typically travel on main streams with strong currents, but rather on small waterways and canals, moving with the tide and mostly after dark, if they were the enemy. Therefore, the best ambushes were set downstream from suspected enemy base camps or well-used side streams.

On May 4th, 1968, the first three new improved Mark II, PBRs, hull numbers 752, 753 and 754, arrived in Saigon, with River Section 544 crews taking possession and preparing them for operations then sailing them to the pier at Nha Be. Two days later, they had completed sea and weapons trials, test firing all weapons, and on the third day, all three boats went for a familiarization run on the Soi Rap River.

The PBR had twin GM 6V53 Detroit diesel engines driving Jacuzzi water jet pumps that sucked water in through the bottom of the boat, compressed it, and shot it out the rear, projecting the boat at high speeds without use of propellers or rudders. This was the first time the U.S. Navy had used jet pumps for propulsion in Naval combat, and it would prove to be very effective. The thirty-one foot speed boats had twin .50 caliber Browning machineguns in an open turret forward, an M60 light machinegun and a 40mm grenade launcher amidships, and a single .50 caliber machinegun aft.

It was a matter of pride in the unit to get the last round of the forty-six-grenade belt of 40mm ammo in the air before the first round had hit, providing a continuous burst of shrapnel on top of the enemy. The PBRs would also carry 60mm mortar tubes mounted on helicopter tires for illumination rounds and for harassment and interdiction fire, but pinpoint accuracy with high explosive rounds was difficult on fast-moving boats. Patrolmen also carried M16 and M14 rifles, M79 grenade launchers and whatever else they could find for personnel weapons including communist AK47s. Every PBR also came with a machete attached to the inside wall of the splinter shield in the boat's coxswain's flat.

On May 9th, 1968, Patrol Officer Lieutenant Harry J. Feeney III, a Naval Academy graduate, with Boat Captains and both Boatswain's Mates First Class, Thomas L. Malone from Louisiana and William L. "Bill" Bailey, made the first River Section 544 patrol on the Soi Rap River when they received a radio message to proceed to the mouth of the river to intercept a sampan coming out of the restricted area trying to cross to Vam Lang Village on the west bank of the Soi Rap in Go Cong Province. The patrol sped to the scene and intercepted the sampan, searched it, and then turned it over to a nearby outpost. Then the patrol rushed to aid a Navy Seawolf helicopter gunship from Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron...