Its destroyers and other warships being too large, the U.S. Navy developed the Swift Boat … With renovations complete we got underway at a less than blistering 9 knots. First Patrol Boat in Vietnam The Swift Boat Sailors Association is a veteran’s organization created by and for the personnel who manned or supported U.S. Navy PCFs (Patrol Craft Fast or Swift Boats) assigned to Coastal Squadron One during the United States involvement in Vietnam between 1965 and 1973. Click here for tickets and more information. Virg and his crew wanted to transport her to a hospital but her father resisted. Entries are listed below in alphanumeric order (1-to-Z). I still remember a Swift Boat coming back from a patrol and some of the battery posts were in, shall we say, less than new condition. A Swift Boat would be coming home to San Diego! It is an engaging fast-paced nonfiction story that switches gears between character development intertwined with the rawness of combat, the vagaries of the landscape, with equal measures of romance and humor, all equally demanding yet accurate". For the sailors aboard the USS Krishna our job was to keep Swift Boats up and running. The Swift Boats were transported to the Philippines; An Thoi and Da Nang were selected as the two areas most critical to the needs the new craft could address. 36 returned with heavy damage to the radar and electrical systems. There were only about 3,500 of us involved as crew members or support personnel. In order to access, service and replace them you had to navigate over and around two 480 HP Detroit Marine Diesels. On December 5, 1968 (my memory isn't this good; I kept a log book) former Vaudeville performer Georgie Jessel was in An Thoi for a USO show. Consequently, keeping Swift Boats up and running was vital to the new 'Small Boat Brown-Water Navy'. He criticizes Kerry for his 1970’s statements charging that U.S. military troops committed widespread war crimes. Much of his time was spent on swift boats in the “Brown Water Navy” accompanying Navy Seals on assignment. The authors will donate all proceeds from book sales to support the Museum’s PCF 816. For the Krishna electricians it was all hands on deck. Shortly before completing basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center I received my first set of orders. I still remember the Captain of the Krishna seeing that, laughing and saying "Well, that's one way to do it". 3 - The first Swift Boat in Vietnam. Vietnamese Fishing Boat. 36 returned with heavy damage to the radar and electrical systems. Under military regulations, the Purple Heart can also be awarded for "friendly fire" wounds in the "heat of battle," so long as the fire is targeted "under full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment." In looking at photos of them taken during the restoration the one thing that stood out for me was the amount of smiles I saw in those photos. For nearly 40 years they functioned as coast guard vessels involved in rescue work of those fleeing North Africa and enforcing fishing rights. Well said. I noticed a few now-empty 50 caliber machine gun shells were on the deck and saw them as the answer to the battery post problem. They served as the primary source of power for engine starting, navigation lights, radar and general purpose lighting. Flag images indicative of … This was called by some a monitor boat. Upon boarding it he, his translator and a crew member see a young girl that has been badly burned. In his award winning book Virg describes an encounter with a large junk. Always found it interesting that 80 % of the war more than 350 wounded... And elbow grease but as I saw on my time in an Thoi, Vietnam of country! 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