SwiftVets.com

[jwbarden]

As a former destroyerman, I am sure that had I, on a duty day as Boat Officer in some liberty port, ordered my coxswain intentionally to ground our 26' MWB, I would have been relieved and reprimanded.

Could someone with personal experience in this matter please comment on the wisdom of plowing one's bow into unknown dirt while in the presence of the enemy? (See the Silver Star commendation.) Even LCUs and LCMs aren't allowed to beach until the SEALS have measured the beach gradient and cleared alll underwater obstacles.

Under this doctrine, one's Swiftboat becomes instantly UNswift, perhaps for good. And the aft weapon mount is masked with respect to the enemy fire that invited our attention in the first place. And the twin .50s in the tub can't engage close aboard targets because it is pointed at the sky.

And what about hopping off the boat in foot pursuit of wounded, fleeing enemy personel? What happens if you get into trouble behind the hooch? Is your enlisted craftmaster justified in pulling off and leaving you there, or is he obliged to come to your aid?

My impression is that this sort of performance ought to be a shortcut to Flag Mast and involuntary transfer to the IRR, but then I have no Swiftboat experience.

[BuffaloJack]

jwbarden:
Hi, I rode swifts as an advisor to the VN Navy after the swifts were turned over to the Vietnamese during the Vietnamization of the war in '69 and '70. Beaching a 50 ft boat is indeed a knucklehead maneuver. It removes the most important feature of the PCF, maneuverability. It was done frequently though, in situations where it was needed to offload supplies, insert ground troops or perform some other action that couldn't be pulled off without it. One usually tried to avoid doing it under fire or in areas that were hostile. Occasionally a PCF managed to get grounded unintentionally, as sandbars weren't always on the charts and if you happened to be up a canal when the tide went out, you basically got to sit there until the tide returned and lifted you up again. In these cases, it usually meant that the boat skipper had to have a discussion with his CO afterwards and explain himself.

[Wing Wiper]

Beaching a Swiftboat into an ambush sounds like a real good way to get yourself (and the guys who try and rescue you) killed. I can guarantee, if that tactic had been tried a few more times, the VC would have set a trap and wiped out a whole bunch of boats. I know exactly how I would do it, too. Kerry's lucky the Navy didn't adopt that brilliant tactic, or he would now have his name on a black wall in D.C. with the rest of his crew. I'd bet that "tactic" quit as soon as Kerry left the AO.

[rbshirley]

[LimaCharlie]

I was a crew member on an LCVP "Pappa Boat" in 1966 landing Marines up the Dong Ha River near the DMZ. The boat was to the point of overload with Marine communications equipment. Our coxswain pulled up to the floating dock and the beachmaster told him to beach the boat just down the river so he could unload other boats first. We complied and waited until the beachmaster was ready for us. When the coxswain backed off of the bank, we seemed fine. When he started forward, we sank and had to swim for it. There was a large rock just under the mud that had made a large hole in the bottom of the LCVP. I think I got a scratch or two, but I didn't get a Purple Heart.
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I was going to become an anarchist, but they had too many rules.

[jwbarden]

After a FUBAR evolution, where one feared reprimand, was it plausible to submit recommendations for valor as a squid-like ink of obfuscation and have them approved?