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To do the right thing.

It is November 1968.

North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive, launched in January against one hundred cities and villages in South Vietnam, has ended in military failure.

US soldiers at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, a major US airfield, during the Tet Offensive, January 1968.

They conquered no South Vietnamese territory and their losses, including those of their Viet Cong allies, number in the tens of thousands.

US Marine injured during the battle of Hue, January 1968.

The North Vietnamese Army has retreated to Cambodia, a neutral country, which it uses as a safe haven and logistical hub.

And the US Navy commander in South Vietnam, Bud Zumwalt, wants this to end.

Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt (third from left) speaks with Navy personnel at Yokosuka, Japan.

So, Zumwalt launches a new operation to conduct fast raids into South Vietnam’s coastal waterways and patrol its large rivers.

His objective is to cut off the flow of enemy supplies and reinforcements coming from Cambodia by river and attack Viet Cong bases in South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

He would use Swift Boats for the operation.

A Swift Boat in operation, 1969. The 51-foot aluminum boat’s high speed and shallow draft made it highly effective for coastal and river patrols.

Those boats then in operation on South Vietnam’s rivers, called ‘PBR’s,’ would limit their patrols to canals and smaller rivers.¹

Under Zumwalt’s operation, Swift Boats blockaded rivers flowing from Cambodia and attacked river craft smuggling enemy supplies.

A river patrol boat crew searches a sampan for enemy materiel on the Perfume River on August 20, 1968.

Sailors and Marines involved in the operation were housed on floating bases constructed of pontoon barges which were anchored in rivers.

Tank landing ships [LST's] anchored in rivers served as floating bases for river patrol boats. Floating bases were more easily defended than shore bases. Supplies were brought in by helicopter.

Zumwalt’s Swift Boat operation continued until 1971, when its responsibilities were handed-off to the South Vietnamese Navy.

South Vietnamese troops wade through mud to reach a US Swift Boat.

More than three thousand Americans served on Swift Boats in South Vietnam.

A Swift Boat passes the city of Ca Mau in 1969.

Fifty of these men were killed in action and another four hundred were wounded, including John Kerry.

John Kerry and William B. Rood at the Swift Boat base at An Thoi after the action in which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star and Rood the Bronze Star, 1969.

Memories of this time have faded.

And the end result in Vietnam has been allowed to overshadow the efforts of men who tried hard to do the right thing, despite having limited information and operating in a politically charged environment.

It shouldn’t be this way.

But I don’t know how to fix it.

******************************

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

1. PBR: Patrol Boat, Riverine.