Brown Water Navy
Chandler Knowles
Tonight, a friend of mine was telling me about a preacher he saw on TV with
a mutilated face and head. He claimed he got it from a grenade (of some
kind) he was holding near his head when it went off while he was serving as
a brown water ... (my friend said he thought the preacher said Marine). I
told him Marines don't wear berets and I never heard of a brown water Marine
only brown water sailors.
Anyone have any ideas? My friend said he thought the TV preacher was in
Texas somewhere.
--
Chandler Knowles
Pensacola, Florida
Nigel Brooks
http://www.wolc.org/manna/october2000/vietnamvetdaveroever.html
http://www.tbn.org/about/newsletter/0107/010713.htm
I guess if a wp blowing up in your hand doesn't make yo a believer, nothing
will
Nigel Brooks
"Chandler Knowles" <chandle...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:6M2E7.166890$W8.50...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
john stevens
the mrf (sailors and the 9th infantry)
the pbrs (4 man) BM1 Williams MOH, mostly canals and
smaller rivers
swifts (crew of 6)...larger rivers mostly in the delta
the mrf wore black berets first
and then the rest of us adopted it also
john stevens
"Chandler Knowles" <chandle...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:6M2E7.166890$W8.50...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
pmartin
If I looked like that guy...well, but he has the guts to carry on.
I seen that guy on TV . I like that Higgy guy the best tho...
What a mouth !
Chandler Knowles <chandle...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:6M2E7.166890$W8.50...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Richard Rongstad
>
> there were different groups
>
> the mrf (sailors and the 9th infantry)
>
> the pbrs (4 man) BM1 Williams MOH, mostly canals and
>
> smaller rivers
>
> swifts (crew of 6)...larger rivers mostly in the delta
>
> the mrf wore black berets first
>
> and then the rest of us adopted it also
That sounds about right. I arrived in-country, late February,
early March 1969. I was assigned to CHNAVADGRP SAIGON
(Chief, Naval Advisory Group). The two CPO that picked me
up, ETC Leland K. Richmond, RMC John Wilson wore black berets.
They told me to hustle out and get one. I got one. I didn't
want it to fall off, so I got what seemed like the best fit
at the time.
My black beret doesn't fit anymore even when I get a haircut.
It was always tight.
After return from Medevac, my critical billet had been filled,
so I was out of a job, and reassigned to NAVSUPPACT SAIGON,
at Nha Be. NAVSUPPACTS did not authorize the beret for
their sailors, and for that matter I doubt if Seabees, aviation
units, hospital corpsmen attached to the Marines got to wear
the black beret.
I've got a photo of me someplace, sitting out in front of the
Annapolis BEQ, waiting for a ride, wearing the beret.
Chandler Knowles asked;
> Did brown water sailors have a special beret?
Answer above, plus I mostly saw them wearing soft covers, bush hats,
much of the time hatless.
> john stevens
> "Chandler Knowles" <chandle...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
> news:6M2E7.166890$W8.50...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > Did brown water sailors have a special beret?
> >
> > Tonight, a friend of mine was telling me about a preacher he saw on TV
> with
> > a mutilated face and head. He claimed he got it from a grenade (of some
> > kind) he was holding near his head when it went off while he was serving
> as
I went through CI-SERE training with a PN (personnelman) who was
assigned
at Nha Be. Later, when I was reassigned there I tried to look him up.
He taught me to play gin rummy on the airplane ride Travis to Saigon.
They said he had been medevaced. Blew off his hand with a grenade.
Maybe it's the same guy.
They explained that he had been on a security watch where they tossed
grenades from a bunker near the river for suppression of hostile
swimmers.
Could be. When I got a look at a bend in the river in June 1969 at
Nha Be there was a sunken hulk a few yards offshore, bow sticking out,
and I presume ass-end down in the river bottom mud. I recall somebody
saying that it had been sunk by a mine.
River sailors used to order their drinks by the tray, the Viet barmaids
would bring a tray filled with shot glasses, I guess they were having
contests seeing who could down the most shots. Mostly they swept the
tray clean with an arm as they passed out.
KyPhong
Vietnamese
Naval Special Force (Biet Hai, or Hai Thuyen). These were
guys with the words Sat Cong (Kill Communists) tattooed on
their chests. They wore black berets.
Originally, Hai Thuyen was a coastal surveillance force.
When Task Forces
115, 116, 117 were formed, some of the Hai Thuyens were
converted into Riverine
Assault Group (Giang Doan Xung Phong).
Some of the American advisors love Vietnamese BDUs: Those
served with the Vietnamese
paratroops loved the red hats and French color-scheme BDUs.
Advisors with the
Vietnamese Marines loved the green berets and the
tiger-stripes uniforms. Those in the
Mekong Delta loved the black pajama and the black hats
(berets).
There's a picture of a bare-chested Hai Thuyen in a 1965
issue of National Geography.
Wearing a black beret, with the words "Kill Communists)
tattooed on his chest.
KyPhong
**************
Richard Rongstad wrote in message
<3BE2387D...@vikingphoenix.com>...
Tri...@pacbell.net
KyPhong wrote:
> The tradition of wearing black berets goes back to the
> Vietnamese
> Naval Special Force (Biet Hai, or Hai Thuyen). These were
> guys with the words Sat Cong (Kill Communists) tattooed on
> their chests. They wore black berets.
> Originally, Hai Thuyen was a coastal surveillance force.
This 'coastal surveillance force' was the junk force, usually six to
eight junks -- originally with sails and no engines -- at 26 bases
scattered along the coast from the DMZ to the delta and beyond to
Cambodia. The _only_ article of uniform clothing issued was a black
beret. Navy advisors assigned to this group were the first to wear the
black beret. Other Navy units assigned in country began to wear 'em and
sometime in 1965 or '66 there was an official authorization for Navy
units working the coast and rivers (the in country task forces
referenced by KyPhong). By the time I left in 1969, stock clerks in
Danang that didn't see three Vietnamese in a one year tour were wearing
berets.
> There's a picture of a bare-chested Hai Thuyen in a 1965
> issue of National Geography.
> Wearing a black beret, with the words "Kill Communists)
> tattooed on his chest.
> KyPhong
The picture and story were the work of Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle and
is recounted in "Brown Water, Black Beret" pages 29 through 43 in a
chapter titled "Genesis".
Tri...@pacbell.net
"P.T.Hughes" wrote:
> On Thu, 01 Nov 2001 21:39:08 GMT, Tri...@pacbell.net wrote:
>
> She got it on an Operation with the 7th Marines outside Chu Lai..
> Can't remember which one, would have to look up the date
From "Women War Correspondents in the Vietnam War": On the morning of
November 4, 1965, the second day of Operation Black Ferret, Chapelle
left
with a Marine patrol near Chu Lai. . . . . As she and several Marines
moved through the low brush, someone's foot brushed a concealed wire,
triggering a booby trap made of a grenade wired to an 81mm mortar round.
Struck by shrapnel in the throat, Dickey Chapelle died within minutes.
She
was forty seven years old.
pmartin
I have a Ranger type scroll, LLDB CA'M TU USSF
Dak Pek. Black with Red outline.
I was last Ship out. We took Dak Seang back. It
all got a bit fuzzy after 15 April 70. No one left in my Platoon,
but me.
KyPhong <KyP...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:9rs5n3$igb$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
pmartin
I have a Ranger type scroll, LLDB CA'M TU USSF
Dak Pek. Black with Red outline.
I was last Ship out. We took Dak Seang back. It
all got a bit fuzzy after 15 April 70. No one left in my Platoon,
but me.
KyPhong <KyP...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:9rs5n3$igb$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
KyPhong
The scroll must belonged to the Vietnamese Airborne-Ranger
Group.
Keep it, bud! It shows that you were there.
Warmest Regards,
KyPhong
*******************************
pmartin wrote in message ...
Buck
> Vietnamese
> Naval Special Force (Biet Hai, or Hai Thuyen). These were
> guys with the words Sat Cong (Kill Communists) tattooed on
> their chests. They wore black berets.
> Originally, Hai Thuyen was a coastal surveillance force.
> When Task Forces
> 115, 116, 117 were formed, some of the Hai Thuyens were
> converted into Riverine
> Assault Group (Giang Doan Xung Phong).
> Some of the American advisors love Vietnamese BDUs: Those
> served with the Vietnamese
> paratroops loved the red hats and French color-scheme BDUs.
> Advisors with the
> Vietnamese Marines loved the green berets and the
> tiger-stripes uniforms. Those in the
> Mekong Delta loved the black pajama and the black hats
> (berets).
> There's a picture of a bare-chested Hai Thuyen in a 1965
> issue of National Geography.
> Wearing a black beret, with the words "Kill Communists)
> tattooed on his chest.
I remember it as LIFE Magazine, and it was on his shoulder.
But that's where I first saw the black beret.
Buck
Buck
"john stevens" <river...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:6GcE7.7428$hZ.6...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> there were different groups
>
> the mrf (sailors and the 9th infantry)
I never thought of myself as part of the "Brown Water Navy".
We were a well-regarded army battalion, and liked it that way.
>
> the pbrs (4 man) BM1 Williams MOH, mostly canals and
>
> smaller rivers
>
> swifts (crew of 6)...larger rivers mostly in the delta
>
> the mrf wore black berets first
I first saw a Black Beret on a U.S.N. type at Bear Cat. He was doing some
liaision work with somebody. He was a RAG JG, from Harvard, no less! This
was in mid '68. I never saw a Black beret (or any beret on any Navy MRF guy)
before I left in late '68.
The 9th Med Battalion of the division occasionally wore maroon berets. The
same color the Airborne uses now.
Buck
KyPhong
member.
The picture I have is in National Geography, Feb 1966,
accompanied
by an article written by Dickey Chappelle. A note by the
editor credited
the pictures to Ms Chappelle as well.
From this 1966 article the readers learn that after she
finished the article in December
1964, she went the the I Corps and got killed there in 1965
by a VC booby trap.
KyPhong
I do apologize for the wrong date I listed on the previous
post. I had to check on
my library for a correct date.
**********************
Buck wrote in message ...
pmartin
What does CA'M TU mean ?
It was a place one never asked questions, looked at a
guys eyes or heaven above step on anothers boots.
I know LLDB.
KyPhong <KyP...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:9rsmrs$q2b$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
KyPhong
KyPhong
*****************
pmartin wrote in message ...
Herb F.
Vietnamese in a patrol boat (SP- 2223), and I see that they are all
wearing police-style hats, not berets.
KyPhong
remember, the berets are
for "dress uniforms." They don't want to get that berets wet
and muddy.
After a tough patrol ... and went back to town, chasing the
mama sans with a
dirty beret? No way, sir!
:):):)
KyPhong
************
Herb F. wrote in message
<19497-3BE...@storefull-121.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
pmartin
The 'Yards would shoot your Cigarette in half with a Crossbow
while it still was in your mouth. They got a good laugh out of it.
It made me almost stop smoking.
Everybody was a Cowboy.....everybody was hyper there.
Suicide.....jeeeeeezzzzzzzzz.
There is like a wing on the "M and the U has an apostrophe
on the right side of the U inside of it. Writing is red on a black
scroll.
Why didn't you guys tell us this stuff when you handed them out ?
I'm not a Macho man.
100% pure coward here. 103% even !
Its Friday, I'm going out for a drink or ten.
KyPhong <KyP...@erols.com> wrote in message
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