"U.S. NAVY OPERATIONS IN VIETNAM" 1966 U.S. NAVY RIVERINE PATROL BOATS OPERATION MARKET TIME 29754

About

This film, "U.S. Navy Riverine Operations," (1966) provides a look at the various roles of the U.S. Navy and Marines in the Vietnam War, focusing heavily on civic action, offshore blockade, carrier operations, and the intense riverine combat in the Mekong Delta. This includes coverage of Operation Market Time, a U.S. Navy, Republic of Vietnam Navy and Royal Australian Navy operation begun in 1965 to stop the flow of troops, war material, and supplies by sea, coast, and rivers, from North Vietnam into parts of South Vietnam.

0:00 The film opens by showing Marines and Navy personnel engaging in civic action , working with villagers to construct churches, hospitals, and schools. A Navy corpsman with medical supplies is shown as a "symbol of America's helping hand."

1:56 The film introduces the "unusual new kind of shallow water warfare" where Navy men operate small boats and transports to hunt and destroy the waterborne Viet Cong and advise the Vietnamese Navy.

2:34 Just off the coast, the Navy and Coast Guard are shown conducting Operation Market Time, constantly patrolling a thousand miles of coastline to search ships and junks for supplies intended for the Viet Cong.

3:15 Well offshore, the film highlights the aircraft carrier as the "backbone of our Navy surface forces," operating as a mobile airbase with over 4,000 men. The workdays average 12 to 18 hours to keep combat sorties flying over North Vietnam.

4:21 A search and rescue helicopter is deployed in response to a "Mayday" distress call. The film shows a rescue mission where a pilot who ejected near a rocky coastline is recovered by a Navy swimmer because the helicopter could not get close enough.

6:45 The film cuts back to civic action, showing a corpsman setting up a clinic in the playground of a school in the isolated village of Hung Me on the Cochin River to help locals battling disease and infection.

8:33 The film transitions to the difficult realities of monsoon season in the Mekong Delta, where torrential rains cause flooding, clog motors, and lead to ammunition corrosion and gun rust, but the work of war "goes on."

9:52 Officers are shown planning a mission because the enemy ("Charlie") has used the rains to their advantage, digging bunkers for an ambush on the Barley Canal. Patrol boats (PBRs) are planned as decoys.

10:36 The boats patrol the narrow, shallow canals—the haven of the Viet Cong—moving slowly and becoming easy targets. The patrol is forced to turn back because the water is too shallow, requiring a change of route.

12:16 A live firefight breaks out on the open water. American troops take and return fire, calling in for support. The enemy is unseen on land, but the well-orchestrated roles of the soldiers are evident as they scramble to get to the site in helicopters.

15:24 Helicopters coordinate with the ships via radio as they begin their assault, identifying the enemy through smoke as they are forced to engage the beached Viet Cong.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in Ephemeral films

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Language

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed