1968 USS Satyr (ARL-23) History Update
Courtesy of Richard Pettit GMG3  (69-71)

October 68 U.S. Navy Swift boats began regular raids into the rivers of the Nam Can, threatening the enemy's "sovereignty" in the area he had come to call his own. The objectives of the raiders was "to stir up the enemy and keep him off-balance," but other dividends were soon realized in terms of enemy equipment destroyed, and in the increased commitments he was forced to make in defense of his well-entrenched position in the Nam Can. Numerous bunkers and fortifications were thrown up, and solidly constructed barriers appeared across the more important waterways in an all-out Viet Cong effort and end the Swift boat Raids.

In December Admiral Zumwalt dispatched Market Time Raiders along the Caulon and Bo De Rivers on the Ca Mau while Swift Boats shot up the Nam Cam Districts.

He appointed Captain J. G. Now to the command of a Mobile Riverine Force for Operation Silver Mace I, involving the first open sea transit of heavy riverine assault craft. This force included elements of Task Group 117.2, the Mercer (APB-39), Satyr ARL-23, 3 ATC's, Monitors and ASPB's, these vessels steamed along the coast from Rach Gia to Song Cua Lon in the first open sea transit of heavy riverine assult craft and on the 19th his men formed the barriers and 3 days later they were all cut and removed. After the operation they returned to Rach Gia by the same coastal route.

From U.S. Navy History Volume 2 pg 590-591
The Naval War in Vietnam pg 297 by Frank Uhlig Jr. ISBN 0-87021-014-9

Back to ARL-23 Home Page            Back to ARL-23 History