Operation Market Time, The Early Years, 1965-66

Operation Market Time, The Early Years, 1965-66

Copyright 2011 by: James Steffes

Written By: James Steffes

Smashwords Edition

FORWARD

This is a story of Operation Market Time, a joint mission designed to seal off the coastline of South Vietnam and prevent infiltration of troops and supplies from North Vietnam by sea. It included elements of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and the U.S. Air Force. I wanted to tell the story of these brave men in a format that would be informative and interesting to the Veteran and non-veteran alike. I chose to write fiction-based on fact for several reasons.

I have been reading the books of Jack Higgins, the author of The Eagle Has Landed and many other books about WWII and the struggle of the Irish People. In many of his books he takes a real life event and weaves a fictional story about it, keeping the story intact but using fictional characters to make the story come alive. I have read all of his books but one and it is unavailable in print. Every one of his books were page turners and I have become a real fan of this author. Although I will be using the basic format i.e. telling a fictional story based on a true incident, I am not copying his work rather using his style of writing. The names of the crews and sometimes the boats are fictional but the actual events really happened. In my research for this book, I extensively used the Commander Naval Forces Vietnam monthly summaries to tell the true part of my story. My purpose is to tell the story of Operation Market Time because this was the original mission of Swift Boats and the Coast Guard in Vietnam. Because of its effectiveness, the enemy was forced to move his troops and supplies inland thus creating the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This resulted in the battle for the Mekong Delta region taking place in the winding waterways of this area. It also moved the war further inland because the enemy was now reaching for Saigon using trails through sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia. Swift Boats joined in that battle as well as part of Operation Giant Slingshot with the specific mission known as Sea Lords. Swift Boats were assigned to the major rivers of the Mekong Delta and while patrolling these rivers would make lightening raids up the narrow canals and waterways deep into Viet Cong territory disrupting his flow of supplies and material.

This story has been told many ways by many authors because it involved firefights and ambushes on a daily basis. Market Time Operations however, consisted of coastal patrols that were for the most part very dull and boring with occasional firefights and ambushes. But it was only when the Market Time units moved in close to shore and came within range of the enemy, that the firefights erupted. With the open sea behind them, the Swift Boats could easily use their speed to move out of range of the enemy and to assess the situation before attacking the target.

At a gathering of Swifties in Washington D.C. in 1995, Senator John Kerry a Swiftie himself would describe a Market Time Patrol as Twenty three plus hours of boredom interrupted by a few minutes of sheer terror.

Sit back and enjoy the story of Market Time Sailors as they form a bond that only a small crew in combat can do.

Chapter One

Our story begins in late 1964 at the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, Ca at the newly formed training school for sailors bound for in country assignments. Yes, I said in country. But this is a ground war, we are told, the enemy has no Navy or Air Force. It is a rag tag guerilla army primarily engaged in sabotage and hit and run tactics against the forces of South Vietnam.

Ltjg Sidney Watson was the Damage Control Assistant aboard USS Higbee DD-806 home ported in Long Beach, California. The call to the Ships Office while operating off the California Coastline came as a surprise. He entered the office with hat in hand.

Mr. Watson, you have orders to Vietnam, said the Personnel Officer.

Me, he replied, how can this be? he said.

Well, apparently, in OCS, you volunteered for combat duty on your dream sheet. Here they are in black and white, handing the papers over to the young Lieutenant.

Sure enough, they read Transfer to Naval Amphibious Training Command for eight weeks of training and further transfer to Naval Advisory Group, Naval Support Activity, Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. The thoughts that ran through Mr. Watson’s head were of excitement and also dread. The war was in its infancy, not many troops there yet but the word was out, the war was here and it was the place to be for opportunities and advancement. After all, he was single and did not have many worries at all. The orders gave him until the end of the month to depart Higbee and with two weeks leave, he would report aboard in November for school. What kind of assignment would this be, he wondered as he walked back to his stateroom, orders in hand. He remembered volunteering in Officer Candidate School but got USS Higbee instead. He stopped off at the Executive Officer’s cabin and knocked on the door.

Come in, Mr. Watson, take a seat. The XO was a kind man with many years at sea behind those eyes and his door was always open. How can I help you, he said as the young officer sat down.

It’s about these orders, Commander, what can you tell me about them?

The XO began to explain, I received a message a month or so ago asking for a motivated junior officer to take on a new assignment. I sent in your name with a good recommendation. You were selected from a large group to be in this class to be sent to be advisors to the South Vietnam Navy.

What do I know about advising someone in a foreign Navy, he asked.

Well, the war is building up rapidly since the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy were attacked off the coast of North Vietnam. The Government of South Vietnam formally asked for our help in repelling what is certainly an insurgency supplied and trained by the government in the North. The U.S. Military is supplying the South with arms and equipment, air support, and now advisors to work with the South Vietnamese Navy and our forces. It is more of an intermediary than an advisor per se, but I believe you are the man for this job.

Back in the wardroom, news traveled fast and his fellow officers expressed their congratulations on his new station. He went to his stateroom and pondered this new turn in his life.

Ltjg Sidney Watson was a native of Waterloo, Iowa and went to Iowa State University before entering the Navy. After OCS, he went to Engineering School enroute to USS Higbee where he served until this time as Damage Control Assistant. As he stared at the orders, he began to look forward to this assignment. It would be dangerous of course, he thought, but life in the Navy aboard ship was dangerous as well.

Soon it was the end of the month and he was all packed and said his goodbyes, walking down the gangway with his head held high. His leave went quickly and soon he arrived in Coronado at the Naval Amphibious Base. He got a room at the Bachelor Officers Quarters and went to the club for a drink. There he met several other young officers reporting for the same duty. He found out that they would be serving aboard Vietnamese Junks, an armed wooden boat and he would have to learn to speak and read Vietnamese. School started the next morning at the auditorium with a week of orientation of the culture and the war situation to date. In this week he learned how the war was going so far, not like the news media said although there were correspondents in-country already. The South Vietnamese were holding their own with help from our air power and limited helicopter support for moving troops around and medical evacuation of wounded. The enemy was elusive using hit and run tactics and terror to try to bring the government down. Where do I come in, he thought and he soon found out. They were called advisors and consisted of Army, Navy and Marines in positions with the South Vietnamese, helping to train them and coordinate the air power and helicopter assets already there. Communication was a real problem in country at this time and as America was being drawn closer into this conflict, something had to be done. The enemy was using the coastline and waterways to move its men and supplies to the battlefields and had to be stopped somehow.

The second week started at North Island with classes on survival and an overnight mission on the beach where he learned to find and catch food from the sea. Some of the classes dealt with evading the enemy and some about what to do if captured. There was an instructor who had been a POW in Korea and he gave us some insight into how the oriental forces treat their POW’s. The week finished up with a bus ride up to Warner Springs Survival School. There his class set up camp the first night and located food from the desert area. This was getting serious, he thought as he ate a lizard mixed with greens from the ground.

There was a night problem where the students tried to evade the enemy forces by hiding and moving toward a light mounted on a pole. With all of the yelling and shooting going on, no one made it to the pole. When the whistle was blown the class was gathered up and sent back to their camp. By this time, the lack of sleep and food was telling on everyone.

Early in the morning, the class began the day evasion course and soon all were captured and formed into a column. Tied up and blindfolded they were questioned and knocked around by what was supposed to be combat troops.

Escape is futile and those who try will be shot! screamed the leader as he fired shots into the air.

Guess what, no one tried to escape, they were taught to go along with the enemy soldiers and not try to escape because they would be shot. Better to wait for an opportunity to organize and plan an escape. One man running away now would be shot and several more shot in reprisal. Soon they were herded into a barbed wire compound where the POW camp phase of the problem began.

Here the men were singled out and interrogated, asked questions and beaten with open hands in an attempt to get them to give more than their Name, Rank, and Serial Number known as the big three. They were put into small boxes, fed a watery soup and forced to do manual labor around the camp. Sometime during that night bugles were blown and the American Flag was raised over the camp, problem over but the students had found out first hand what it was like to be captured and beaten by an enemy. It was very realistic and everyone learned skills that may or may not have to be used. For Sidney Watson, Ltjg, USN, it was a very enlightening experience that he hoped he would not have to use.

For many of the students, there would be weapons training at Camp Pendleton. For Mr. Watson and his fellow classmates headed for Advisor Duty, it was back to Coronado and a well earned weekend liberty.

Monday morning muster led to the beginning of Vietnamese Language School. Instead of some grumpy old Boatswains Mate, the instructors were beautiful Vietnamese girls. The next four weeks passed quickly as the language and the customs now made more sense with learning the language. Mr. Watson paid close attention because he expected to use the language a lot where he was going.

Soon it was finished and the group now headed to Camp Pendleton for a week of weapons training. They learned how to strip and clean all sorts of small arms, machine guns, and then fired them on the range only to strip and clean them again. Contests were set up to see who could strip and reassemble the machine guns and the .45 caliber pistols the fastest with a slight twist. All contestants were blindfolded. It was fun and added some excitement to the training. The loser among the officers had to buy the drinks at the club. Mr. Watson did well, he did not have to buy the drinks any of the nights he was there.

On Friday, the bus returned the men to the base at Coronado early in the morning and they picked up their orders. At 1300, all fell in formation in Dress Blues for graduation and prepared to leave. When they compared notes on their orders, all were found to read Commander, Patrol Forces, Seventh Fleet (Task Force 71) Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. Their flight would leave at Midnight from Norton Air Force Base, San Bernadino, California. The group totaled 20 men, both officer and enlisted, and after shaking hands all around they headed for the club for one last drink and chow before boarding a bus for Norton AFB.

The bus departed Coronado for Norton AFB at 1800 and took about three hours to travel the distance giving them plenty of time to make their flight. They checked in at the terminal, dropped off their sea bags and gear and settled in the lounge to wait for the flight. It was a comfortable passenger lounge with a television and comfortable seating. There were men and women from other branches of the services making the same flight. A somber mood prevailed as the people gathered in small groups to chat or share a story or two.

Mr. Watson found a corner and sat down to reflect on his next year of duty in far off Vietnam. He pulled out a packet of information given to him before he left that updated the in country status of his command which was changing all the time. In January 1965, the Seventh Fleet controlled the operations of the Vietnam Patrol Force (Task Force 71) and the Naval Advisory Group in Saigon served as the liaison between Commander Seventh Fleet, COMUSMACV, and the South Vietnamese Navy. There were five U.S. and Vietnamese coastal surveillance centers set up at DaNang, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, and An Thoi in order to coordinate actual operations. The advisors were both U.S. and Vietnamese Naval officers and they sailed in the vessels of the other service. The enemy was using steel hulled, 100-ton trawlers and seagoing junks to infiltrate the south. The Viet Cong operated smaller junks, sampans and other craft to move the supplies and men within South Vietnamese coastal waters. At this time, much of the inshore boat traffic was monitored by Vietnamese Junks called Yabuta’s. Advisors such as Mr. Watson would serve aboard these junks to coordinate the American and South Vietnamese assets in this effort.

The coastal surveillance operation was organized around eight, later nine, patrol sectors covering the 1,200 mile South Vietnamese coast from the 17th parallel north of DaNang to the Cambodian border in the south. These patrol areas extended 40 miles out to sea. This operation would become known as Operation Market Time.

Soon it was time to board the aircraft for the long flight over the Pacific Ocean to Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. There in Saigon was an air base known as Ton Son Nhut, a very large military base at this time. It was a commercial aircraft, a Boeing 707 operated by American Airlines. Being a charter flight, they were served box lunches and no alcohol was allowed on the flight. Other than that, it was like a regular commercial flight with stewardesses included. Mr. Watson and the rest of the servicemen and women, tried to get some sleep as the lights were turned down shortly after takeoff. The flight took about 14 hours with a stop for fuel in Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

Ltjg Sidney Watson, a midwestern boy from Iowa was about to embark on the adventure of his life, in a new world, with new challenges, and with his head held high. The Navy just wouldn’t be the same for him after this tour, if he survived, and he had received the best training for this assignment the Navy could offer. He felt, deep down, that he was ready.

Chapter Two

The aircraft came in for a landing about an hour after the land mass of South Vietnam had been sighted and crossed. All hands watched