Article about Operation Game Warden

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363-06827 to 363-06839.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-06827 to 363-06839

Title

Article about Operation Game Warden

Description

Original title: "warden", Article draft about the riverine Operation Game Warden in the Mekong Delta, for the Christian Science Monitor

AI Usage Disclosure

Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

--------------------
- Page 1
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Beverly Ann Deepe
38, Vo Tanh
Saigon, Vietnam
January 31, 1968
warden--page 1
[1]
[1968]
(The U. S. Navy is again involved in river warfare--
This
for the first time since the American Civil War. This three-part
report examines America's Rice Paddy Navy in South Vietnam.
last article describes the unparalled unparalleled patrolling operation,
called Game Warden, conductedxx by the crews of the "Unsinkable
River Dragones) Dragons").
Binh Thuy,
South Vietnam
The remarkably successful operation Game W
American "little boat" patrolling along the major fingers
of the Mekong River is unprecedented in the annals of U. S. Navy Naval
history.
its 193-year
123
For the first time in the
41 year it
American Naval forces are conducting inland "muddy-water"
history,
patrolling in nose-to-nose combat with its enemy forces.
The operation, codenamed Game Warden, is designed
to block Viet Cong movement of men and supplies across the major
Rond the
branches of the Mekong Re River. The operation conduced conducted Clock.
A
for the past / montes by 120 vercroft for been
deemed Facessful cough to expandit ze total
24
--------------------
- Page 2
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deepe
warden--page 2
[2]
the operation Same Conde is conducted.
Z.S., Navy's task
1500-man TASK Forre
196 with Hind quarters at
Bent they on
& the.
by
the outskirts I get condo glow t
mekong Delta And
Tro, The Capital
Even America's last river war, in the conflict between the States
conflict, during the Civil War a century ago, did not see river patrolli
inland+ patrolling of such magnitude and energy. The battle of the Mississippi
River involved conventional naval tactics of overpowering Confederate
forts and defeating Confederate forts alo and installations along the
river banks, and once this these were defeated, to control thew die
wide es expanses of the river until the next fort could be over-run.
comparable to the tactical innovation
This
Mississippi River operation,
of the Mobile Riverine Force in Vietnam,
Operation Game Warden, is, however,
thus conventional in nature
more counter-insurgency in nature,
with emphasis on "un-spinning" Viet Cong supplies for the local population.
from the local population.
--------------------
- Page 3
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Deepe
Wonder
River-page
[3]
Sw
66-7
The story of America's muddy water war in Vietnam began
in 1965. When American ground troops marched into the jungled areas
north of Saigon, the Navy was ordered to survey the problems of
operating in the riverine environment south of Saigon--the second
battleground. Here, in the famed Mekong Delta, was a new world
for the Navy as well as for American ground-pounding Army troops.
But, there was more water than ground in the Delta.
There
flounders
The mighty Mekong River, one of the longest rivers in the world,
rises 2800 miles away along the mountain slopes of Tibet,
through or between the countries of South Asia, until, in South
Vietnam, it fans out into a lacework of tributaries, estuaries
riverlets and empties into the South China Sea.
one of the richest ricebowls in the world, producing livelihood for
half of South Vietnam's population.
And
It forms en route
American sailors call this
brown lifeline "the Mississippi of South East Asia;"
the Vietnamese
call it Cuu Longthe nine-headed dragon. Waterways rather than roads
are the chief means of transport; 5000 miles of navigable inland
waterways
finger through the area, compared to 1200 miles of
once-upon-a-time roads,
now mostly cut, mined or excavated by the
Viet Cong
репр
(More)
the suction
--------------------
- Page 4
--------------------
[4]
04
Deepe
River-page 10
The Delta was a nightmare for military tacticians. Trucking
troops to battle was rarely possible. The high rice dikes hindered the
use of the "
'swimming tank"--the black, squat M-113 armored personnel
carriers. Helicopters could ferry troops to the battlefield, but could
not provide day-and-night heavy fire support. Artillery had to be placed
on solid high ground-often too far away to cover troops on the march.
some military camps simply floated away during the flood
times,
when the snows of Tibet melted and gushed southward. American
Special Forces and their Vietnamese counterparts had to perform drastic
engineering feats to save their base camps sprinkled throughout the
Even worse,
Delta.
Thousands of empty oil drums were dumped from low-flying aircraft
and the Special Forces built their radio shacks and barracks to float
on the bobbing containers. In some camps, the buildings floated, SO
that as the water rose, so did the buildings. But, this required too many
oil drums. In other camps, they constructed their buildings so that only
the floors floated; as the water rose, the furniture, men and rats all
moved closer and closer to the ceiling.
Their mortar pits and artillery
needed more stable platforms, so these were placed inside giant upright
coment cylinders One Green Beret team built two-story thatch homes for the
dependents of their Vietnamese irregulars. But, because Vietnamesen
babies do not wear diapers, the families living on the first floor
became increasingly damp and angry. So, the Americans built more
houses, letting one family live on the first floor most of the year,
moving them up to the second floor when the floods arrived.
but
(More)
--------------------
- Page 5
--------------------
Deepe
condus.
TOATH
page 15
[5]
"I was born in the Louisiana bayoux," one Special Forces
commander, a Negro captain, told me as he stared at his triangular
"But I left there twelve years
island-camp surrounded by marshland.
ago. I had to come to Vietnam to find Louisiana again."
Partially
By April, 1966, the Navy had answered part of this
PBR nightmare in new dres
offertionitale
Theanswer was the PBR
Jost, the Siilor
patrol boat, river.
#
enomous Delta problem.
cale the "Unsinkable River Diagon: "tress are the
The 31-foot fiberglass boat, heavily armed and carrying a four-man crew,
is a souped-up carbon copy of the $16,000 cabin cruisers which have
delighted water skiing enthusiasts in Puget Sound and Miami Bay. But,
the vessel costs the Navy $85,000, with twin 220-horsepower diesel
engines, armor along the steering apparatus and special twin water
jet pumps, replacing a propeller which would get tangled in river
As the American Civil War startled naval warriors with the
advent of ironolads, tin-clads and even cotton-clads, the PBR
revolutionized today's muddy water Navy with two common household
products: fiberglass and styrofoam.
debris.
as steel
The fiberglass makes the boat half as heavy and expensive
and the sailors are delighted there is no rust to scrape off.
The honeycombed styrofoam, commonly used for Christmas decorations,
acts as flotation inside the boat. Both ingredients mean the boat
is difficult to sink.
(More)
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- Page 6
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[6]
#6
Deepe
River-page 22
"Here's the world's most powerful Navy fighting a war
with 31-foot fiberglass boats," one sailor mused,
astonished even him. "But, I love this boat.
it to shreds, but the pieces will still float.
ball."
as though the fact
The Viet Cong can shoot
It's a giant ping pong
Other sailors frequently recalled, "In the days of
John Paul Jones, we said the Navy was made of wooden ships and iron
mon.
Then we got iron ships and iron men.
boats and steel men."
Now we've added plastic
almost two gus Ago #
initiated
The 120 PBR s, like Indians on a cloverleaf warpath,
The
started 24-hour patrolling along 250 miles of the four main Mekong
Bassac and My Tho.
Co Chien,
channel the Hen duo
operation is officially named Game Warden,
it as real-life Terry and the Pirates.
but some sailors refer to
The operation was designed to
stabilize the four major fingers of the ke Mekong,
to erase Viet Cong
tax collection and smuggling of war goods and to re-establish Vietnamese
government control. Navy officials believe they are succeeding and
its
first
plan to increase soon the number of patrol boats to 200. In/19 months
of operation, the Game Warden crews have inspected 250,408 watercraft,
detained 9,460 persons for improper identification!
Viet Cong
have suffered 1,226 boats destroyed or captured, 1254 guerrillas
killed and 308 fortifications dange damaged or destroyed.
(More)
And
--------------------
- Page 7
--------------------
[7]
Deepe
River-page 137.
Initially,
the Navy crews suffered nautical headaches
galore. Viet Cong river barricades, made of coconut tree logs and
mud, had to be blown up. The crews inherited old French charts
that
and Army ground maps,
neither of which showed sandbards
could mysteriously appear in the middle of the main channel one day
but be gone the next. One officer grounded his boat--"there was enough
land on all sides of the vessel to play football"--one enlisted man
laughed; the boat had to wait ten hours for the tide to carry it out
again. Many of the smaller streams of the Mekong had never been
charted, or even named. So Island No. 10
Juliet Canal, Route
Hrd Island No. 10.
66, Highway 101, Purple Heart Alley, and Meiss's Mire) were plotted
on official charts, named after major firefights, humorous
incidents, radio call signs or the first patrol officer to transit
the stream.
be something bad,
g
Americans intinnen often petthet Vrtnumbersonic The tops.
which
In this case,
Island No. 10 is the nickname of Dung Island at the
mouth of the Bassac River, where the PBR's have had numerous firefights
with the Viet Cong. The nickname is unrelated to the American Civil
War island-battleground of the same name, which was a key Confederate
defense in the Mississippi River. After weeks of siege and bombardment,
Island No. 10 fell on April 7, 1962, and lead to the fall of New Orleans
18 days later. The Mississippi River has since washed Island No. 10
into oblivion.).
--------------------
- Page 8
--------------------
Deepe
8
River
e14
At first, the Vietnamese river people were terrified of the
PBR's, calling them "Little Green Monsters," or the "River Dragon."
Intelligence information glan gleaned from the people was scarce. But
the 1500 sailors, who proudly wear the black berets, had been taught
two weeks of Vietnamese language before leaving the United States.
Gradually, they struck up "how's the fishing" conversations with
the river villagers.
"We started handing out little plastic buckets painted
in the yellow-and-red Vietnamese government colors," EN2 Charles
Cox, ST., of Los Angeles recalled. "Each bucket contained soap,
twel towels, fish hooks, needles, thread and aspirins. Sen Suddenly,
the sampans came running up and down the river swarming all over to
get the buckets.".
explained,
EN2 Cox, a 42-year-old veteran of World War II and Korea,
"Soon we were making friends on the river. I could pick
the day the old gray-bearded farmer from the island would be going
to market. In four months, we knew most of the water taxi drivers
on the river. I remember one guy we kept asking if he'd seen any V. C.;
we knew his neighborhood was loaded with them, but he'd say nothing.
Then, one day he took his wife to the hospital with grenade fragments
sprayed over her back. The V. C. had stored a hand grenade in their
garden and as his wife was hoeing, the grenade exploded. Not only did
it injury his wife--but the V. C. wanted to charge him 700 piastres
($7) for the grenade. He was furious and after that, he started to tell
us alot."
(More)
--------------------
- Page 9
--------------------
Deepe
River-page.
As the FBR's were often the only contact with the outside
world for many river hamlets, the sailors began taking flares, grenades
and ammo to the isolated outposts and to rush to their rescue when undr
under Viet Cong attack. (A favorite Communist ttactic was not only to
stomp a defeated outpost into the ground, but also to add insult to
injury by digging up the outpost and dumpting the dirt into the
river, leaving only a water-filled crater. Sometimes the Viet Cong
would string the heads of government soldiers on the barbed wire
perimeter in full view of all boat-passers.) Then, the river
people began to ask the PBR's for medical evacuations (one baby was
born on one boat) and the sailors started to transport a medical
corpsman to the villages.
They also supplied blackboards, books
and cement for schools that had fallen into disrepair. Some "adopted"
children in outposts, giving them dolls sent by families in the
United States. Children with hairlips were sent to American
plastic surgeons and were mended. C-rations (called Sea-Rats by the
sailors) were liberally distributed to mal-nourished fishermen.
Within months, the PBR's had made friends along the Mekong.
(More)
--------------------
- Page 10
--------------------
Deepe
[10]
Canber
-page 6/8.
Systematically,
the combat sailors, aided by Vietnamese
One
policemen, began searching for Viet Cong contraband and smuggled war
materials. Under the false floor boards of sampans, they found weapons
and large quantities of rice. (One sailor also found a shark). Under
the U-shaped, palm-leaf roofs of samps sampans they found rifles.
woman was found sterri steering a bargo-ful of 1000 nuoc mam jars;
975 were filled with the evil-smelling fish sauce; 25 contained
Other medicines were found in babies diapers
assorted antibiotics.
#
or inside loaves of broad. Hand grenades in waterproofed sacks wore
found attached to the underside of barges; the sailors began using
effective metal detectors. They requested a Vietnamese police-woman
to accompany them to search the x female passengers,
medicines in their blouses. Viet Cong tax receipts, reading,
who hid
were found in youss
"Your
money is helping to kill Americans,"
coloring books. The sailors destroyed and disproved cong signs
VICO
along the river banks reading, "The Viet Cong cross the river here
and the patrol boats can not stop us."
(More)
--------------------
- Page 11
--------------------
Deepe
wonden
River page //
[11]
Each bloody firefight with the Viet Cong gradually shrank
collectors. Along the Ham Luong River,
the coffers of Communist tax
villagers no longer had tola pay 2 100,000-pite piastres ($1000) in
Viet Cong taxes, but as one sailor observed, "we had a firefight
In appreciation, the
every day for four months to stop that."
river people began to stop the PBR's and give the sailors bananas,
pineapples and other exotic tropical fruit.
Motorized sampan owners
wrote the U. S. Naval commander a letter saying, "Since the day the
the heartless V. C.
PBR's arrived on the Ham Luong river River,
actions were put to an end. For example, before the PBR's arrived,
the owner of the Hung Phat motorized sampan was captured and liquidae
liquidated by the V. C. and a number of other owners were forced to
witness the execution. Now these ateeie atrocities have ceased."
Firefights between PBR's and Viet Cong hidden on the
river banks were common; often, initially, one occured every hour.
18
During month period, one sailor was 289 firefights.
Last year the
some sailors were wounded
In the
boat crews suffered 23 per cent casualties;
three times, but refused to leave the war zone as they could have.
trees, the Viet Cong hung claymore mines, which splattered the
One resill recoiless rifle round
crews with king-size shotgun pellets.
squarely hit one boat in the engine, killing two crem crew members and v
flipping the remaining two into the air. Intelligence reports indicate
the two landed in the water, swam ashore and were captured by the Viet
who paraded them around the remote villages like cattle.
Conf,
(More)
--------------------
- Page 12
--------------------
Deepe
River--page 18/2
EN2 Cox,
who has extended in Vietnam to serve 18 months,
explained the increasing measure of success of the black-beret sailors:
"When our patrols first started in 1966, the Viet Cong had
wide open control of the main rivors. At first they would fight us from
their sampans, but they soon found the PBR's could run and shoot faster.
Then they started to signal across the rivers with lights when the
PBR's weren't around, but we picked up the movement on our radar. After
that, they moved in a security company on each side of the river to
protect their crossings and to divert the PBR's attention with a
firefight. That also failed. Now they just sneak across in one or
two sampans and move like the underground railroad did in the Civil
War. That's the stage things are now. We're just patrolmen on a highway."
During the past 18 months,
the boat captained by EN2 Cox,
a husky Negro, took 60 hits--a near-record in the Delta. He captained
PBR-109
Historic M
turft Wan.
fonon
"bt
be used in
a little but number, whitt
dar
John F.
Kennedy.
become
Paisident &
--------------------
- Page 13
--------------------
Grite trish
brouettes & the Story River
Now tents More And More
use them Center
, the
Unsinkable
mire
River Dragons
to aperit
"
are beginnin
And
Canals. This i
the Selling
his Succe
for more cult Hrd.
Rongerous
deth quation
will in Out dething
Cuillin Port
తెలుగు
the South Vectrane
résé estables #control
over.
it citzenry in the melong
Rain,
where Half de
Jégulate
lives.
war,
As more and more American troops enter Vietnam's Delta
they will follow the river-borne concept laid down by America's
Rice Paddy Navy. This mini-Navy, alongside the world's gigantic
Reminiscent
nuclear-powered ships, has already proved worthy of the words written
America's
by President Lincoln during the last river war:
watery margins they have been present.
"Nor must Uncle Sam's web feet be forgotten. At all the
Not only on the deep sea,
the broad bay, the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and
wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their

Date

1968, Jan. 31

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975; United States. Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force; Operation Game Warden, 1965-1973

Location

Binh Thuy Air Base, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.0852; 105.712

Size

20 x 26 cm

Container

B8, F7

Format

dispatches

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Collector

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English