My old man, boatswains mate 1st class, USN, USS Hornet, 1965-66, operation JACKSTAY, commandeered a boat without sonar, armed with a single .50 cal aft, and .60 mm mortar foreward...maneuvered around the mekon delta to draw enemy fire and return fire upon said enemy positions so other boats could recover so-called navy seals...his co shot in the head and died in his arms...my dad and the rest of his crew came home physically unscathed and all awarded the silver star in the best interests of USN standards. He was not a hero, just a survivor...in his own words on his death bed at 75 yo...."i remember coming out of the jungle with my friends dripping wet in orange juice"...and when that PBY rose off the water to take me home...everything hit me at once...the loss of friends, the anger, my love and my fear and I sobbed like a baby." MY OLD MAN IS THE STRONGEST MAN I KNOW...NO-ONE CAN CHEW MY ASS LIKE HE DID, NO-ONE MEASURES UP TO HIS MORALS OR STRENGTHS...HE WAS MY MENTOR, MY GUIDE, MY DAD...ABOVE ALL...MY BEST FRIEND!!! I HEAR HIS VOICE ALL THE TIME, ADIOS TIGER....I MISS HIM VERY MUCH...

@user-nc3pt7zc3c

2 ай бұрын

Your Dad was a Hero. May He RIP ❤

@homiehomerson2705

Ай бұрын

Amen

My dad was a river rat and fought 1970-71. He is still alive. He has dealt with a lot of PTSD. Lots of nightmares but doing better

@kelvin5005

2 жыл бұрын

please foward my thanks for him as a veteran

@leonleon2276

2 жыл бұрын

Nightmares from murdering women and kids I bet

@FoundingYouTuber-2005

Жыл бұрын

I was there too, in those same years. There were a lot of us river rats, but odds are 1 in 9 I probably crossed paths with him since the whole of South Vietnam was mapped into only 9 areas.

@JoeLove-od3gv

4 ай бұрын

Tell him I said thanks

@vnvet2282

3 ай бұрын

Was there also 1970-1971. We could have met. Hard to believe half a century has passed. My boat was an armored troop carrier (ATC-53). Our water supply was fouled by fuel oil. No bottled water back then. We hydrated on soda and beer and ate WW II vintage K-rations. After returning at age 20, I was thrown out of bar while ordering a beer with friends for being a minor. Humiliating. Old enough for combat, but not for having a beer with friends in my home town. After the war and that experience, I knew the world was f nuts. @@FoundingKZreadr-2005

My father was in River Division 192 0n a LST. He received 2 purple hearts from rocket attacks. He was sent to Okuska, Japan for the first one and was sent home after the second. He is alive and well enjoying his retirement in Tennessee after working at Boeing for 30 years in Everett, Washington

This film misidentifies the USS Harnett County (LST 821) as a Task Force 117 Mobile River Assault craft. The Harnett County was not attached to TF-117, but rather to TF-116 "Operation Game Warden." There were four Game Warden LSTs supporting the PBRs and Seawolf helicopters as shown in this film, three continuously on one of three of the major Mekong Delta rivers, and one being repaired and refitted in Subic Bay at any one moment in time. The three others were: the USS Hunterdon County (LST 838), USS Jennings County (LST-846), and the USS Garrett County (LST 786). I was a very junior ensign on the Hunterdon County for twelve months 1967-1968.

I only had to watch 4 minutes to wonder what war this guy is talking about. These posts wake memories I though I had buried. Tough war, tough times, Great guys.

@benbailey2037

4 ай бұрын

I agree his view is swayed. My dad was on a boat in the delta He told me there were areas that basically were free fire areas. If we felt we were threatened we lit them up. He didnt have a. Very globilst view . lol

Red River Valley Fighters Pilots Association “The River Rats” today Honored our Gold Star Mom’s - Thank You !!

Please rewind the tape when you're done watching it.

@CombatDoc54

2 жыл бұрын

LMAO ... You old f*ck. I'm right there with you. I remember going to a video store and renting not only the tapes but the VHS player as well. I had forgotten all about that shit. Those VHS players back then was worth a week or two paychecks.

I was 21 when I got on the that dam that river and for two years everyday we were under fire. It sucked and I went home and with the welcome I got there is why I left to come back to the river. Otherwise it would not be good for me at home. When I was discharged I went to Australia for two years and then came home.

@rdejesus6597

2 жыл бұрын

Welcome home Sir!

@vnvet2282

2 ай бұрын

I did a tour on an ATC in 1970, returning home at age 20 in 1970. What really pissed me off was getting asked to leave a bar in my home town because I was not yet 21, the legal age. There are many ironies here, the greatest being that the water on my boat was contaminated with fuel oil. We were delivered soda and beer to hydrate. The soda went first then we all just drank beer all day, every day. At 20, I was considered old enough to kill and forced to drink beer.

You have not lived until you have driven a PBR. Once you have done that, then you have to water=ski behind one. I wonder what happened to my old boat.

I was in the delta on the Tom Green County LST 1159 and the Terreĺ County LST 1157 in 1967 thru 1969.

Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job making it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Special thanks to the veteran river 🐀 rat patrols. Sharing personal information/combat experiences. Making this documentary more authentic and possible. Fighting/perishing/surviving knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often possible. Yet still advanced forward regardless of the consequences. That's true grit style determination to succeed. Either way it takes Brass Testicles to engage the enemy as a river/tunnel 🐀rat!!!

Thank you for your help to fight for freedom of S.VietNam I was a Vietnamization of that war in 1970. PBR 6863 PD 535 MocHoa with Boat Capt. RD' Robert W. Cole

The brown water navy did it all.

"ALL gave some, Some gave ALL". We will never forget. 🤨.. SM2 L. Garcia USN. Tin-Can-Sailor... 😊

Has anyone heard of the "Swamp Rats" 15th div. ? They served in the MeCong delta.

Was there 1966-Oct 11, 1967😊

Yes

Good vid. We remember those marines who fought and died.

@CombatDoc54

2 жыл бұрын

Yes!! Remember the Marines. All these guys are Navy.

@Mk18_40mm

Жыл бұрын

Navy did All of this, not the Marines.

Was river rat too 65 67 he'll on river Wesley b

@melodyprice4757

2 жыл бұрын

My papaw was a river rat. He was in Vietnam from 1966-69

Why don't we have boats somewhat like these only upgraded with modern weapons a main gun like an Abrams and mini guns like a 10 and so on might be nice to have.

My daddy was a river rat

@USN308

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucemullen3889 The STABs? (SEAL Team Assault Boat)

@melodyprice4757

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucemullen3889 My papaw was a river rat. He was in Vietnam from 1966-69. I never knew how badass he was until I was bartending on veterans day. Made some small talk about him with some vets I was serving, once i found out they were Vietnam vets I told them he was a river rat their eyes got big and one guy proceeded to tell me exactly how dangerous that job was.

@melodyprice4757

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucemullen3889 I'm not sure what division but I remember him telling me he was on the Mekong delta. His name is Bill Lane from VA.

@melodyprice4757

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucemullen3889 he also did a tour on the USS Benowah. He was on a machine gun until he burst an ear drum so they put him as a clerk. His 1st day there his office got blown away, if i remember correctly I believe he told me it was hit by a torpedo.

@CombatDoc54

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucemullen3889 Hey Bruce, where at in NW Arkansas? I lived in Springdale, now live outside of Branson, Missouri in Kimberling City.

Only. senior. GORENA. BLESS. WHIT ..ALL HONORS. MEDALS. NAVY

Lots of misinformation in this; PBRs are all fiberglass, no aluminum, that would be a Swift boat ,Command boat, or a monitor boat ("Zippo") 31 ' LOA, not 32 ft., & they draw a helluva lot more than 1 ft. of water (draft) also, no .30 cal. anywhere on these; twin .50 fwd., single .50 aft & 2 Honeywell 40mm hand cranked belt-fed grenade launchers, 1 per side. (Not always fitted.) ATSB 1, at yer service. ("Advanced Tactical Support Base" = 2 big steel barges lashed together, anchored in the middle of the river at Tan Chau.)

@pattdaniel1073

2 жыл бұрын

I was a river rat 68-69. MRF MOBILE RIVERINE FORCE. Our boats where all aluminum. Each squadron was made up of 4 different type of boats.

@CombatDoc54

2 жыл бұрын

There maybe a bit of misinformation here and you are correct in most aspects of your comment. With that being said, the "draft" of the boat is based on a non-loaded boat" No fuel, nothing. The un-loaded "draft is 18". of a fiberglass PBR. The fiberglass hulled PBR's weren't being constructed until 1968. So forget about the Navy's designation, "PBR", there were so many variations of these boats, so many designations, so many different armaments that people just came to rely on the familiar designation of "PBR". The actual fiberglass version of the PBR was crafted after a civilian style pleasure boat hull. The thing that made these different with such a low draft was the fact they were not propeller driven. They were equipped with water jets just like a jet ski. They didn't have a propeller or rudder sticking down. In order to steer the boat, the jets moved starboard and port. That way they can truly say these boats had a "low" draft because they didn't have these downward protrusions. If you remove the rudder and propeller, you would remove about a foot under the craft. Prior to the fiberglass hulls, some of these (for the sake of argument we'll loosely use the term PBR because there were so many variations of them) the Navy did use aluminum, The Navy contract also used wooden hulled PBR (again, I use the terminology "PBR" loosely for the sake of argument) boats made from a marine type of plywood in the early days. The real reason that the Navy quit using the plywood and went to aluminum was the fact that VC forces began using rudimentary attacks against these patrol boats by actually using "flaming arrows". YES, Bows and Arrows. I don't know if any of these "flaming arrows" ever caused much destruction on the patrol boats, but the were definitely a diversion tactic causing much distraction on a boat.

@michaelpayne423

2 жыл бұрын

was aboard the YRBM-16 at Tan Chau 70 / 71

@vnvet2282

2 ай бұрын

@@michaelpayne423 After our boat (ATC-53) was turned over to the South Vietnamese during the monsoon season in 1970, I spent the last few months in country at a a small ARVN base at Tan Chau where an Admiral and staff coordinated the movement of relief supplies into Cambodia during Pol Pot. I was a radioman, working in the comms shack. Small world. Welcome back.

Oooo

What’s a river rat? I heard of a tunnel rat just not a river one

RATTS - SWDEN -- Sioux - for: Left overs. Mid Ratts... How many, MDs are left? Hospitals in - Warfares! Not food - per se.

22:16 wtf is this called

US army give themselves great nick names, a bit like sports teams do, but they never win anything😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣

@swaghauler8334

Жыл бұрын

The US Army had NOTHING to do with the PBRs. Those are Navy and Marine personel.

@declanmurphy6427

Жыл бұрын

@@swaghauler8334 they all work for the same company!

@Mk18_40mm

Жыл бұрын

🤡

This is propaganda. My Buddy was blown out of his boat AND THE rivers they to traverse was so small.

@Mk18_40mm

Жыл бұрын

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