David L. Altheide and John M. Johnson, "Bureaucratic Propaganda: The Case of Battle Efficiency Reports", in Robert Jackall, ed., Propaganda (New York: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 229-328(?). Procedure by which reports of naval gunfire support missions by a US destroyer in Vietnam were "gundecked".
Larry Berman, Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt, Jr. New York: HarperCollins, 2012. 508 pp. pb Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2014. 544 pp. Zumwalt was Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam, from 1968 to 1970, and Chief of Naval Operations 1970 to 1974. (See also under Zumwalt and Cullen, below.)
Cdr. David D. Bruhn, USN (Retired) and STGCS Richard S. Mathews, USN (Retired), On the Gunline: U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy Warships off Vietnam, 1965-1973. Heritage Books, 2019. 374 pp.
Ray L. Burdeos, Filipinos in the U.S. Navy & Coast Guard During the Vietnam War. AuthorHouse, 2008. 192 pp. Burdeos, who himself served in the Coast Guard, presents the stories of six men who served in the Coast Guard, and six who served in the Navy.
Mike Carlin, Trial: Ordeal of the USS Enterprise. West Grove, PA: Tuscarora, (1993?). 256 pp. About a disastrous series of munitions explosions on the deck of the carrier, which killed 28 men on January 14, 1969. Carlin was a flight-deck fuels crew leader.
Joseph Cirquone (interviewer), "Viet Vet David Martin's War of Words". Martin served in the Navy off the coast of Vietnam, then went into the media, became CBS Pentagon correspondent for an extended period that included the Gulf War. VVA Veteran, June 1991.
Randall Cook, Blue Water, Brown Water: Stories of life in the Navy and in Vietnam. CreateSpace, 2011. 392 pp. Cook was a junior officer during the later part of the Vietnam War.
Thomas J. Cutler, ed., The U.S. Naval Institute on Vietnam: A Retrospective. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016. 192 pp. A collection of articles originally published in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and excerpts from other Naval Institute publications. None of the items were originally published earlier than 1973.
James Duermeyer, Heroes in Obscurity: A Vietnam Era Junior Officer's Stories of Unsung Heroes and of Life on Small Navy Auxiliary Ships. Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 2011. 199 pp. Duermeyer served on two minesweepers and a fleet salvage tug. It was while he was aboard the tug, USS Ute (ATF-76) that he was in Vietnamese waters. Somewhat fictionalized.
Denis Fairfax, Navy in Vietnam: A Record of the Royal Australian Navy in the Vietnam War 1962-1972. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1980.
Gregory A. Freeman, Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. xviii, 246 pp. The race riot, which Freeman argues was in fact a mutiny, on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, October 12-13, 1972 (see also below under Truhe).
Lara Godbille, "Following the Money: The U.S. Navy Seabee Teams and Military Civic Action in South Vietnam, 1963-1972." Ph.D. dissertation, Claremont Graduate University, 2013. DA 3590481.
Christopher E. Goscha, "The Maritime Nature of the Wars for Vietnam (1945-1975): A Geo-Historical Reflection." War & Society, November 2005, pp. 53-92.
Jeffrey Grey, Up Top: The Royal Australian Navy and Southeast Asian Conflicts, 1955-1972. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1998. xx, 380 pp.
Michel R. Halldorson, Navy Daze: Coming of Age in the 1960s Aboard a Navy Destroyer. Heritage Books, 2019. 144 pp. Halldorson was assigned as a seaman to USS Hopewell (DD-681) in 1964, and soon the ship was serving on the gunline along the coast of Vietnam.
Don L. Hart, "Holding the Line in the Tonkin Gulf." Vietnam, August 2000, pp. 46-52. Guided Missile Frigate USS Biddle (DLG-34) in the Gulf of Tonkin June-September 1972, doing SAR, controlling air strikes against North Vietnam. Once attacked by MiGs.
Kerry S. Hart, "As If We Had Never Been There", Proceedings, January 1991, pp. 52-56. USS Preble, DLG-15, doing shore bombardment, SAR, air control, rice destruction off NVN and northern SVN, August 1972 to January 1973.
Glenn E. Helm, "Surprised at Tet: U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam, 1968." Pull Together, vol. 36, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1997), pp. 1-5. Text also on a Naval Historical Center website.
Lt. CMDR Wesley A. Hoch U.S.N., Dai Uy Hoch: "A Legend in Remote Seas": U.S.N. Military Advisor to the Junk Force. Xulon Press, 2009. 444 pp. Hoch was in Vietnam in the early 1960s--1964 or earlier--advising slow wooden patrol vessels of the Vietnamese Navy, based on Phu Quoc Island. My impression is that the book stresses the author's Christian faith.
Admiral James L. Holloway III, "The Big E Goes Where the Action Is," Naval History, 14:4 (August 2000).
Alex Larzelere, The Coast Guard at War: Vietnam, 1965-1975. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997. xxv, 345 pp.\
Edward J. Marolda, Admirals Under Fire: The US Navy and the Vietnam War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2021. xxiii, 496 pp.
Edward J. Marolda and Dean C. Allard, The U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War: An Illustrated History. Washington: Brassey's, 2002. 416 pp.
Edward J. Marolda, ed., Combat at Close Quarters: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2018. 360 pp.
Lieutenant Commander Todd Moe, USCG, "Coast Guard at War: The Cutter Sherman in Vietnam," Naval History 31:6 (December 2017), pp. 38-42. Includes details of the Sherman's sinking November 21, 1970, of North Vietnamese trawler SL-3-70, which was delivering munitions to the Mekong Delta; and figures on the number of known missions to South Vietnam by such trawlers and the number of them that were intercepted by US forces.
John Fass Morton, Mustin: A Naval Family of the 20th Century. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003. Lloyd Mustin, Hank Mustin, and Tom Mustin (see below) were involved in one way or another were the Vietnam War.
Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. This monthly magazine, nominally
private, is for practical purposes the professional journal of the U.S. Navy's officer
corps.
Call number in Clemson University Library: V1 .U8
CDR R. L. Schreadley, From the Rivers to the Sea: The U.S. Navy in Vietnam. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1992. xxii, 418 pp.
Paul C. Scotti, Coast Guard Action in Vietnam: Stories of those who Served. Central Point, Oregon: Hellgate, 2000. ix, 236 pp.
Neil Sheehan, The Arnheiter Affair. New York: Random House, 1971. LCDR Marcus A. Arnheiter was relieved of command of USS Vance, which had been serving off the coast of Vietnam, in 1966.
John Darrell Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet During the Vietnam War Era. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 344 pp.
A. P. Slaff, "Naval Advisor Vietnam," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, April 1969, pp. 38-44.
George Trowbridge, Striking Eight Bells: An Uneasy Time for America (title on cover Striking Eight Bells: A Vietnam Memoir). Tampa, FL: Richter Publishing, 2018. 308 pp. Trowbridge served on a destroyer, I think USS Rich, DD-820, shelling targets in Vietnam in late 1972 and early 1973.
Marvin D. Truhe, Against All Tides: The Untold Story of the USS Kitty Hawk Race Riot. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2023. 370 pp. Truhe was a JAG lawyer involved in the defense of black sailors court martialed after the October 1972 race riot on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (see also above under Freeman).
Lt. Eugene N. Tulich, USCG, The United States Coast Guard in South East Asia During the Vietnam Conflict. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Division, United States Coast Guard, 1975. iii, 65 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-40, front matter and pp. 41-65.
Frank Uhlig, Jr., ed., Vietnam: The Naval Story. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986. viii, 515 pp.
Master Chief William R. Wells, USCG (ret.), "Friendly Target." Naval History, June 1998, pp. 33-36. The friendly fire attack on the Coast Guard cutter Point Welcome August 11, 1966. the text has been place online at a web site of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Jack Whitehouse, From Vietnam to the Arctic Circle: Memoir of a Naval Officer in the Cold War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2022. xi, 255 pp. Whitehouse was in the war zone May to September 1969 (pp. 62-95) and August to December 1970 (pp. 110-127) as a junior officer—initially ensign, later lieutenant (jg)—on USS Buck (DD-761). There is an interesting comment (pp. 91-92) on radar ghosts in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Lt.(j.g.) Craig R. Whitney, U.S.N., "Naval Gunfire in Vietnam," Ordnance, no. 294 (May-June 1969), pp. 602-606.
Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr., "Paradox of Power: Infiltration, Coastal Surveillance, and the United States Navy in Vietnam, 1965-68." Journal of Military History, 53:3 (July 1989), pp. 275-290. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Journal of Military History browse page.
Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, On Watch. New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Books, 1976. xv, 568 pp. Admiral Zumwalt was Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam, from 1968 to 1970, and Chief of Naval Operations 1970 to 1974. (See also under Berman above, and Cullen below.)
Admiral Elmo Zumwalt [Chief of Naval Operations] and Admiral Thomas Moorer [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], secure voice calls. Memoranda for the record, summarizing several of the conversations between these admirals, have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University:
The Vietnam-era deck logs of many US Navy ships have been placed online by the National Archives.
Captain Joseph B. Drachnik was Chief of the Navy Section, Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam (chief adviser to the Vietnamese Navy, with responsibility also for the advisers to the Vietnamese Marine Corps), from December 1961 to January 1964. The Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University has begun to place online, in the Joseph Drachnik Collection, some documents from his files. I don't know how large this body of material will eventually become, but I am optimistic. The following is a partial list of the items placed online so far:
Headquarters, Military Assistance Advisory Group Vietnam, Navy Section, weekly progress reports (these include discussion of the Vietnamese Marine Corps, not just the Vietnamese Navy):
River Boat Incident Log (renamed River Boat Incident Report in November 1963). Lists incidents of enemy attack againt VNN river vessels, or accidental damage to vessels.
Incidents 1-19, March to October 1962. No title on original (a handwritten addition lablels it "Summary of River Boat Incidents, 1992").
Incidents 20-37, October to December 1962.
Logs, untitled, listing incidents in which Vietnamese Navy patrol vessels (it was clear that these were mostly in the junk forces in 1963 and 1964; the same was probably the case in 1962) seized small vessels or cargo, or detained people, when stopping and searching small vessels.
Incidents 1-113, January-December 1962. Last page is in two versions that differ in a puzzling manner.
Incidents 1-208, January to July 13, 1963,
Navy Section MAAG, Vietnam Advisory Plan 001-62, Front matter, Basic Plan, and Annexes A-F and Annexes G-L. Made up of a lot of documents dated separately, with dates ranging from September 1962 to April 1963.
Navy Section MAAG, Vietnam Advisory Plan 001-63, Front matter, Basic Plan, and Annexes A-k and Annexes L-M, Y. Made up of a lot of documents dated separately, with dates ranging from September to December 1963.
Recapitulative List of the Facts and Information Regarding VC Infiltration by Sea. February 1962.
Comments on VC Activities in the Bay of Thailand (probably February 1962)
Status Report VNN Intelligence Organization, 6 March 1962.
"Briefing Information". May 1962. No indication of who was to present the briefing (I can only guess it was Drachnik), or to whom, but some of the sections are signed by individual officers. Quite interesting as a view of the status of the VNN, as seen by US advisers, in May 1962.
Chief Navy Section [Drachnik] to Forces Advisor, "Urgent Matters in the Junk Force", 23 May 1962.
Chart (marked by hand "Spring '62"), showing what tactical zones are in which corps areas, and for III Corps, which provinces are in which tactical zones, with personal names and ranks of province chiefs.
LTCOL R. E. Brown, USMC, Operations by the VN Marine Corps since 1 June 1962, 21 August 1962. 2 pp.
Drachnik to MAJGEN Charles J. Timmes, Talking Paper: Navy topics for GEN WHEELER briefing by CHMAAG. I don't see a date on the document, but the Virtual Archive index gives a date of 22 January 1963. Summary of accomplishments, and of how many people the Navy Section had assigned to what functions, with plea for additional personnel.
R. Chesebrough, Senior River Force Advisor, Problem Areas of the VNN River Force, 21 December 1962.
History of VN Marine Brigade, date marked in by hand 5-16-63. Just one page.
J. B. Drachnik, "Criteria for Release of Navy Advisors", 5 October 1963. Why are Navy advisors needed in Vietnam, and when will it be possible to phase them out?
Index to Navy Section Fact Sheets, 6 January 1964.
LTJG Harold V. Smith, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 31 Dec 1962. Senior Naval Advisor, 32nd Tactical Zone, and Operational and Readiness Advisor, 21st River Assault Group. In one or both of these positions he was at My Tho. He was quite critical of VNN leadership.
[LCDR] K.M. Robinson, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 7 Jan 1963. The Senior Supply Advisor. He said about half the time of supply advisors was spent simply running aspects of the work in which the Vietnamese were not involved; the other half was advisory.
LCDR Richard Chesebrough, USN, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 3 April 1963. Senior River Force Advisor.
LTJG Robert W. Chapin, Jr., USNR, Completion of Tour Report, 20 April 1963. The assistant N-2 intelligence advisor. "Although a knowledge of French has proved very useful to this officer, a knowledge of Vietnamese would have been invaluable." "It is difficult to train analysts if the instructor has never been an analyst himself."
LT R. A. Frank, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 31 May 1963.
LT Daniel B. Barnum, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 10 June 1963.
LT J. C. Waldrup, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 10 June 1963.
LTJG Malcolm J. McAuley, SC, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 4 July 1963. Assistant Military Assistance Programs Officer, Navy Section Property Book Officer, Activity Supply Officer, and Navy Section Pay Agent.
LT B. H. Palmer, USNR, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 6 July 1963.
LT D. R. Cowan [or Conan? The name is not very legible], USN, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 15 July 1963. He arrived 4 June 1962, and initially was Operational and Readiness Advisor, 25th River Assault Group at Can Tho. Later Senior Naval Advisor, 42nd (formerly 33rd) Tactical Zone, Bac Lieu.
LCDR J. E. Baker, Jr., After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 18 July 1963.
LT Reginal P.W. Murphy, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 27 July 1963.
Joseph H. Luallen, Jr., USN, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 5 August 1963. VNN communications.
LCDR F.J. Thomas, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 17 Dec 1963. Thomas became Senior Naval Schools Advisor 27 November 1962, Operating Forces Advisor 27 July 1963, and Operations and CIC Advisor 18 August 1963.
C. A. Harless, After Action Report on Completion of Tour, 24 December 1963. The Senior Supply Advisor.
U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam, Monthly Historical Summary. The first month
of publication under this title seems to have been April 1966, the month in which U.S. Naval Forces,
Vietnam, was formally established. There may have been a predecessor title beginning in 1965. Early
issues were made up of numerous sub-sections
paginated separately; later there was a gradual shift toward continuous page numbering. The
Monthly Historical Summary became the Quarterly Historical Summary as of the first
quarter of 1972. Please note that U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam, was a command in and for South Vietnam;
it did not control naval operations against North Vietnam, or even the aircraft carriers off the
coast conducting air strikes against targets in South Vietnam.
The whole series, from 1965 to 1973, is to be published on CD-ROM by
Carr's Compendiums, but so far as I know
the date of publication has not yet been set. A near-complete set has
been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the
Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in the collection
"United States Naval Forces, Vietnam Monthly Historical Summaries, 1966-1972, 1973". A near-complete set has
also been placed online by the
Operational Archives of the U.S. Navy's
Naval Historical Center. If you have a slow Internet connection, you may be better off using the
collection at Texas Tech, which has broken up long reports into chunks. The Navy site has each
monthly report as one large (sometimes over 40MB) .pdf file, which may be slow to download. In the listing that
follows, if the date is highlighted for the link, the link goes to the version on the Navy web site. If the
date is in black text and the link follows it, the link is to Texas Tech.
December 1966: One, two, three.
January 1967: One, two, three.
February 1967: One, two, three.
March 1967: One, two, three, four.
April 1967: One, two, three, four.
May 1967: One, two, three, four.
August 1967 Historical Supplement: Front matter and pp. 1-39, pp. 40-89, pp. 90-98, and appendices (of which the main one is on the Vietnamese Naval Academy).
September 1967: Summary; Historical Supplement, front matter and pp. 1-28, Supplement, pp. 29-78, Supplement, pp. 79-118, and appendices I-III, Appendix III, continued.
October 1967: Summary; Historical Supplement, front matter and pp. 1-24, Supplement, pp. 25-74, Supplement, pp. 75-124, p. 125; Appendix I, Religious Activities; Appendix II, Glossary.
November 1967: One, two, three, four.
December 1967: One, two, three, four.
January 1968: One, two, three, four.
February 1968: One, two, three, four, five.
March 1968: One, two, three, four.
April 1968: One, two, three, four.
May 1968: One, two, three, four, five.
June 1968: One, two, three, four.
July 1968: One, two, three, four.
July 1969: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-89, pp. 90-109.
August 1969: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-91, pp. 92-126.
September 1969: Front matter and pp. 1-41, pp. 42-90, pp. 91-126.
October 1969: Front matter and pp. 1-42, two, three, four.
November 1969: One, two, three, four.
December 1969: One, two, three, four.
January 1970: One, two, three, four.
February 1970: One, two, three, four.
March 1970: One, two, three, four.
April 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-39, pp. 40-90, pp. 91-125 and Glossary.
July 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-65 and Glossary.
August 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-82 and Glossary.
September 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-76 and Glossary.
October 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-72 and Glossary.
November 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-84 and Glossary.
December 1970: Front matter and pp. 1-42, pp. 43-87 and Glossary.
January 1971: One, two, pp. 92-137.
February 1971: One, two, three.
April 1971: One, two, pp. 92-137.
May 1971: Front matter and pp. 1-40, pp. 41-90, pp. 91-140, pp. 141-154.
June 1971: Front matter and pp. 1-39, pp. 40-89, pp. 90-138.
July 1971: One, two, three, four.
September 1971: One, pp. 41-90, pp. 90-a to 96.
November 1971: One, pp. 42-69.
January-March 1972: Text.
April-June 1972: Text.
July-September 1972: Text.
January-March 1973: Text.
U.S. Seventh Fleet News Releases. San Francisco: Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Office. Even the very short news releases--the monthly summaries I have seen have only about two pages of actual text--contain some useful information, such as lists of which ships had provided naval gunfire support during the month, and which carriers had flown air strikes.
Seventh Fleet Daily Summary, 20 March 1966
"Highlights of Rescue Efforts During Oriskany Fire". October 28, 1966. The fire occurred on October 26.
U.S. Seventh Fleet Monthly Summary, August 1969
Each month during the middle portion of the war, the Navy's Operational Archives Branch produced a fairly detailed summary of U.S. Navy activities in Vietnam for the month. The reports for a few months in 1966 have been placed, declassified, on a Navy web site, United States Naval Operations Vietnam, Highlights, and it is hoped that more will be soon.
"Report of Night Action of DESOTO PATROL." 20 Dec 1967. After-action report, originally dated 22 September 1964, on the Tonkin Gulf incident of 18-19 September 1964, in which the destroyers Morton and Edwards believed they were under PT boat attack off the coast of North Vietnam. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Rear Admiral H.L. Miller, "History of Task Force 77, 2 September 1964-17 March 1965." The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter, Enclosure 1 (narrative history), Enclosure 2 (chronologies), Enclosure 3 (operations against North Vietnam--mostly Flaming Dart but there are a few paragraphs on the very beginning of Rolling Thunder), Enclosure 4 (the header says this is about Yankee Team, but in fact the first 16 pages are further details about Flaming Dart and Rolling Thunder; pp. 17-21 are Yankee Team); and a single page of Enclosure 5 (Barrel Roll), Enclosure 5 (Barrel Roll), pp. 2-34.
"Narrative '1968' History of the USS New Jersey BB-62." ii, 80 pp. Online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-39, pp. 41-80.
An unidentified document (I am not even sure it is from the U.S. Navy) giving relatively detailed descriptions of the various port facilities in South Vietnam, as of September 1969 has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
"Carrier Deployments During the Vietnam Conflict." Naval Aviation History Branch, Naval Historical Center, 2003. Gives overall beginning and end dates of deployments, and within those spans, the dates of port visits. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
"Order of Battle for Carrier Forces in WestPac/Vietnam (1964-1975)." Gives deployment dates, and the squadron number and aircraft type for each squadron aboard each carrier. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Navy Helicopter Unit Documents
Wendell Affield, Muddy Jungle Rivers: A River Assault Boat Cox'ns Memory Journey of His War in Vietnam and Return Home. Bejidji, MN: Hawthorn Petal Press, 2012/ xxoo. 319 pp.
Lt. Col. John W. Baker, USA, and Lt Col. Lee C. Dickson, USA, "Army Forces in Riverine Operations" Military Review, August 1967 (vol. XLVII, no. 8), pp. 64-74.
Mickey Block and William Kimball, Before the Dawn. Canton, OH: Daring Books. Paperback New York: Pocket Books, 1989. Both the front and back covers of the paperback say that Block was a Navy SEAL, but he was never in fact a SEAL, nor does the text of the book really claim he was. He was in Special Boat Unit 524, a PBR unit based at Sa Dec, 1968 to 1969.
Douglas M. Branson, Three Tastes of Nuoc Mam: The Brown Water Navy & Visits to Vietnam. Ashland, OR: Hellgate Press, 2012. 312 pp. Roughly the first third of this book deals with Branson's service as a junior officer in the Brown Water Navy, 1966-67.
SMC Jimmy R. Bryant, USN, Man of the River: Memoir of a Brown Water Sailor in Vietnam, 1968-1969. Fredericksburg, VA: Sergeant Kirkland's Press, 1998. 195 pp. Bryant served with the PBRs of River Division 591, Task Force 116 (River Patrol Force, Operation GAME WARDEN), from October 1968 until he was badly injured in an accident.
John M. Carrico, Vietnam Ironclads: U.S. Navy River Assault Craft, 1966-1970. (Morrisville, NC?): J.M. Carrico, 2007. 134 pp.
Col. Victor J. Croizat, The Brown Water Navy: The River and Coastal War in Indo-China and Vietnam, 1948-1972. Dorset, UK: Blandford Press, 1984. 160 pp.
Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., with David Chanoff, Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, the Politics and Battles of the New Military. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. 367 pp. of which pp. 75-85 are devoted to Crowe's tour in 1970 (probably stretching into 1971) as an adviser to RVN riverine forces in the Mekong Delta.
Leslie Julian Cullen, "Brown Water Admiral: Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. and United States Naval Forces, Vietnam, 1968-1970." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Texas Tech University, 1998. 351 pp. DA 9826449.
Lcdr. Thomas J. Cutler, Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1988.
Thomas J. Cutler, ed., The U.S. Naval Institute on Vietnam: Coastal and Riverine Warfare. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016. xiii, 167 pp. Mostly items originally published in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.
Thomas J. Cutler and Edward J. Marolda, eds., The Brown Water War at 50: A Retrospective on the Coastal and Riverine Conflict in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2023. 272 pp.
Thomas J. Cutler, "No Exit Ramps," Naval History 38:1 (February 2024), pp. 60-61. Boatswain's Mate First Class James E. "Willy" Willliams arrived in Vietnam in April 1966 and was assigned to the River Patrol Force. He could not pass the exam for promotion to chief petty officer, but he did so well commanding a PBR that he was made a patrol officer commanding a pair of PBRs, a job that would normally have gone to a chief petty officer. He ended up with three Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, the Navy Cross, and the Medal of Honor.
Dan Daly, White Water, Red Hot Lead: On Board U.S. Navy Swift Boats in Vietnam. Casemate, 2017. 360 pp.
Victory Daniels and Judith C. Erdheim, Game Warden. Arlington, VA: Center for Naval Analyses, 1976. iii, 42 pp., plus about 60 pp. of appendices. Appendix A has a lot of detail about Communist logistics, including munitions arrivals at Sihanoukville. Appendix B gives maps of Communist base areas in South Vietnam at various dates in the mid 1960s. Appendix I is a 14-page Chronology covering the years 1965-1968. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in three parts: Front matter and main text, Appendices A-E, and Appendices F-I.
R. Blake Dunnavent, Brown Water Warfare: The U.S. Navy in Riverine Warfare and the Emergence of a Tactical Doctrine, 1775-1970. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. xviii, 185 pp.
Bill Ferguson, Laughter on the Rivers of Death: One Sailor's Humorous Experiences in Vietnam. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2007. xii, 147 pp.
Ron Fitts, Not A Hero. Brentwood Christian Press, (2001?). 136 pp. Fitts was a lieutenant in Brown Water forces 1969-1970. A substantial portion of the book deals with Fitts' postwar PTSD problems.
John Forbes and Robert Williams, Riverine Force. Illustrated History of the Vietnam War, no. 8. New York: Bantam, 1987. 158 pp.
Bruce Fordham, Cherry Snow Cone. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2004. x, 257 pp.
Godfrey Garner, Brothers in the Mekong Delta: A Memoir of PBR Section 513 in the Vietnam War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020. Garner arrived in Vietnam in ths spring of 1967 and was sent to Sa Dec province, near the middle of the Mekong Delta.
Wynn Goldsmith, Papa Bravo Romeo: U.S. Navy Patrol Boats at War in Vietnam. New York: Ballantine, 2001. xvi, 285 pp. Goldsmith arrived in Vietnam in September 1967, a Navy LTJG, and was assigned to River Section 534, a new outfit just being created to run ten new MK II PBR's that were about to arrive in country. Operating in the eastern Mekong Delta, vicinity of Kien Hoa province.
Barry Gregory, Vietnam Coastal and Riverine Forces Handbook. Northamptonshire, England: P. Stephens/New York: Sterling, 1988. 135 pp.
Guy Gugliotta, John Yeoman, and Neva Sullaway, eds., Swift Boats at War in Vietnam. Lanham, MD: Stackpole Books (Rowman & Littlefield), 2017. xv, 328 pp. Oral history covering the period 1965 to 1970, plus aftermath.
Anthony Harrigan, "River and Shallow-Water Warfare." Military Review, XLV:10 (October 1965), pp. 77-83. Only in part about Vietnam.
Michael Harris, "Interview with Michael Harris." Oral history interview, conducted by Stephen Maxner, August 22, 2000. 42 pp. Harris arrived in Vietnam in 1968 and was assigned to an armored troop carrier, Tango 152-1 (Boat 1, Division 152, River Assault Squadron 15, Task Force 117). The text is copyright by, and has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of, the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
USS Harnett County (LST-821), operations report and lessons learned for 1968. A PBR/helo support LST, involved in Operation Game Warden, and toward the end of the year, Operation Giant Slingshot. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Marshall Huffman, The Muddy Waters of Vietnam. CreateSpace, 2017. 418 pp. Apparently covers Huffman's first tour with the Brown Water Navy..
Marshall Huffman, Return to the Muddy Waters of Vietnam. Independently published, 2018. 308 pp. Huffman found civilian life unpleasant, so he rejoined the Navy and went back to Vietnam for a second tour.
David Lane Jones, "United States Riverine Warfare in Vietnam: A Critical Analysis of Strategy." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science(?), Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), 1999. 311 pp. AAT 9988013.
John Kerry. As a naval officer, Kerry served in Vietnam from November 1968 to March 1969. He commanded PCFs (Swift boats), initially with Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14, at Cam Ranh Bay; later Task Force 115; then Coastal Division 11 and Coastal Division 13. Later in his life he was a leader of the anti-war movement, a US senator, and Secretary of State.
Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War. New York: Morrow, 2004. 546 pp. Pages 129-328 cover Kerry's November 1968 to March 1969 tour in Vietnam. After his return to the United States, he became a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). The book is primarily devoted to Kerry's actions during the years of the war; only a brief section at the end (pp. 427-457) deals with events after the Paris Agreements of 1972, including the initial stages of his 2004 presidential campaign. For Kerry's postwar career, see the biography by Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton (below).
John Kerry, Every Day Is Extra. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. 622 pp. Chapter 4 (pp. 67-109) covers Kerry's 1968-69 Vietnam service.
Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton, John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. xxviii, 448 pp. There are two chapters (pp. 71-109) on Kerry's service on Swift Boats in Vietnam, but this is an overall biography, devoted mostly to events after the end of the Vietnam War (unlike Brinkley's biography, above, devoted mostly to the war years).
Robert H. Kirshen, Vietnam War River Patrol: A U.S. Gunboat Captain Returns to the Mekong Delta. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. 260 pp. Kirshen arrived in Vietnam in February 1969. I think he commanded a PBR in the Mobile Riverine Force.
LCDR William C. McQuilkin, "Operation SEALORDS: A Front in a Frontless War, an Analysis of the Brown-Water Navy in Vietnam." Master's thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1997. vii, 86 pp. The text has been placed online by STINET.
Edward J. Marolda, "Orphan of the Mekong Delta: The Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force," Journal of Military History 80:4 (October 2016), pp. 1149-81.
Jim Mesko, Riverine: A Pictorial History of the Brown Water War in Vietnam. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1985. 64 pp.
Major Richard M. Meyer, USA, "The Ground-Sea Team in River Warfare" Military Review, September 1966 (vol. XLVI, no. 9), pp. 54-61. Looks at the French Dinassauts of the First Indochina War, as well as recent operations in South Vietnam.
Mobile Riverine Force: America's Mobile Riverine Force, Vietnam. 2 vols. Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing, 1997-2005.
Lt. Thomas M. Mustin, U.S.N., "The River War," Ordnance, no. 290 (September-October 1968), pp. 176-178.
John Prados, "Brown Water, Red Blood: The Story of U.S. Riverine Forces in Vietnam." VVA Veteran, 19:2/3 (February/March 1999), pp. 24-25, 43.
River Patrol Force TF-116. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing, 1996. 104 pp. 2d ed. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner, 2000. 160 pp.
Gordon L. Rottman, Vietnam Riverine Craft, 1962-75. Oxford: Osprey, 2006. 48 pp.
Don Sheppard, Riverine: A Brown-Water Sailor in the Delta, 1967. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1992. viii, 326 pp.
Weymouth D. Symmes, War on the Rivers: A Swift Boat Sailor's Chronicle of the Battle for the Mekong Delta. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories, 2004. ix, 260 pp.
Captain Clarence J. "Jerry" Wages, "Riverine Operations, Rung Sat, Republic of Vietnam, 1969-1970." Naval Historical Foundation, Oral History Program, 2002. 49 pp. Interviewed December 16, 30, 2001. Captain Wages served a 14-month tour beginning March 1969, as senior adviser for the Rung Sat Special Zone (RSSZ) and concurrently the commander of the RSSZ River Patrol Group (CTG 116.9). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-30, and pp. 31-49.
W. C. Wells, "The Riverine Force in Action, 1966–1967," United States Naval Institute Preceedings, May 1969.
Thomas J. Wonsiewicz, Reflections on Serving in Vietnam, 1969-1970. CreateSpace, 2017. 96 pp. Wonsiewicz, an Army lieutenant, served in Vietnam from May 1969 to May 1970 in the 458th Transportation Company—Patrol Boat River (PBR), attached to the 92nd MP Battalion, based at Vung Tau.
Some documents from riverine units can be found both under Navy Documents (immediately above) and under Tet and the Battle of Khe Sanh.
For an Army unit serving in the Mobile Riverine Force, see Andrew Wiest in U.S. Soldiers on the Ground.
Riverine and Naval Aspects of the First Indochina War
Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only by permission. Revised August 17, 2024.