I operated as boat support for three SEAL platoons and one UDT detachment based at Nam Can on the Cau Lon River as part of operation SEA FLOAT (afloat) and later SOLID ANCHOR after we moved ashore. Nam Can was on the north bank of the Cau Lon River. I've been on the Bay Hap River, Cau Lon River, Bo De River, and Dam Doi River about a year after Kerry was there. These were spooky places, even in daylight. Fortunately, our group operations were done on solid tactical intelligence gathered by the SEALs (and their Vietnamese LDNN counterparts).
By the time our detachment arrived, the tactics had shifted away from the PCF incursions with troops embarked. The “heavies” — former MRF boats — were better suited for inserting or extracting infantry. There were a lot of airborne operations staged from both SEA FLOAT and SOLID ANCHOR. [We moved ashore (SA) from the Ammi pontoons moored in the middle of the Cau Lon River (SF)on 5 September 1970.]
Nevertheless, SF/SA was probably one of the “hottest” operational areas in all of the Delta. There were several firefights between the American Patrol Gunboats (PG) that guarded the approaches to SF. USS CANON (PG-90) was ambushed on the Cau Lon while returning to SF after conducting harassment and interdiction (H&I) fire off the mouth of the Bo De River and half her crew of 24 were wounded and three were medevaced, including the captain.
USS KRISHNA (ARL-38) was mined when she came upriver to service the boats at SF/SA. One PCF sailor was killed and KRISHNA had to steam to Saigon for repairs in dry dock.
The VNN landing ship support, large (LSSL) HQ-225 was mined and sunk in a nighttime sapper attack at SF. Back broken, HQ-225 rolled over and sank in less than five minutes with the loss of 28 lives; the hulk remains there to this day.
A sapper attack with water mines on our ex-MRF boats sank two and heavily damaged two others at SOLID ANCHOR. All of this and more happened during our temporary duty tour from May to November 1970. SEA FLOAT/SOLID ANCHOR was like Ft. Apache because it was smack in the midst of Indian country with a 50 kilometer diameter, 360 degree Free Fire Zone.
Thanks for your service and the ability to tell your story.
Thank you for that info, and for your service!
Thank you for that info, and for your service!
Thank you for serving our country!
One of my correspondents is a retired Chief Quartermaster who was on PCF’s in-country at SEA FLOAT and the surrounding area for a year. He still suffers from PTSD as result of the operations he did on the rivers of the Ca Mau Peninsula. He manned the after .50 caliber/81mm mortar on the PCF — probably the most exposed position for a gunner.
During river operations, the helmsman of the PCF would typically man the emergency steering and throttle controls aft on the deck house, portside. The reason why: the PCF wheelhouse was a rocket magnet and VC/NVA gunners always shot at it hoping to knockout the boat's steering and throttle control. I saw three different Swifts hit in roughly the same place by the portside wheelhouse door. The top twin .50 gunners (whose lower legs were exposed) usually covered them with spare flak jackets to protect them from rocket shrapnel.