Yachting Magazine December 1966

The same hull in pleasure boat guise, United Boatbuilder's Uniflite 31

In a recent issue of the "New York Times" the distinguished military expert, Hanson W. Baldwin, made the following first hand report on the U. S. Navy's new river patrol operation in Vietnam:

"The Navy's unique river patrol craft in Vietnam are begin-fling to interrupt Vietcong lines of communication and supply in the Mekong delta's maze of waterways. What the Navy calls a PBR (Patrol Boat, River) was a recent hero in an engagement in the river and canal operations in South Vietnam. The boat is the backbone of Operation Game Warden, the Navy's river patrol that was established last spring. The patrol force, also called Task Force 116, supplements the work of the Navy's Coastal Surveillance Force.

"The job of the river patrol force is to prevent the Vietcong from using the waterways as supply routes and lines of communication. United States Navy forces supplement the work of the South Vietnamese navy, the maritime branch of the Vietnamese national police force and the Vietnamese customs service. Each boat is manned by a junior officer and three enlisted men and mounts two heavy machine guns and one light one. The boats have been supported in their river patrols by helicopter gun ships, which base on the LSD (Landing Ship, Dock), or LST (Landing Ship, Tanks) mother ships.

"In addition to patrolling day and night to deny the enemy the use of the waterways, the patrol craft can also support the South Vietnamese river assault groups, or RAG's.

"A whole new science of landlocked, shallow-water operations is being developed in Vietnam, with the Navy, the Marines and the Army all participating. It has been described by the Marines, who have developed a new doctrine for it as 'Riverine' operations-defined as 'those operations necessary to achieve and or maintain control of a waterway system and its contiguous areas or to deny their use to the enemy.'

"The river patrol boats are a combat version of a commercially built, plastic-hulled, high-speed craft originally designed for pleasure craft. About 100 of the 31' boats have been ordered. The river patrol was initiated last spring with 16 of them based at Catlo, and operated from an anchored LSD.

"The plastic hulls of the river patrol boats are immune to the wood-boring teredos or worms that quickly sieve wooden hulls in the tropics.

"The craft are propelled by twin 220-hp. diesel engines, which drive hydro-jets, or water jets-the first vessels in the Navy, except for experimental versions-to use jet propulsion. Thus, the propeller is eliminated and water sprayed under pressure from directional nozzles at the stern gives the river patrol boats great maneuverability and a speed of better than 25 knots.

"Even more important, the propulsion system is ideal for shallow waters. The boats can be driven through most vegetation and mangrove roots without damaging or plugging the propulsion system."

© 1966, by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission