[U.S. NAVY RIVERINE OPERATIONS IN VIETNAM WAR]

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] With this security, fear is replaced by hope and the desire to build for the future. Marines work side by side with the village people, constructing churches, hospitals, and schools. American generosity provides the building tools, even the very bricks and mortar. Through many civic action funds, and the Marine Corps Reserve Care Program is one of them, Americans are giving unstingly to help in this rebuilding of a nation and its people. In classrooms such as this, children and adults, too, are learning for the first time of the vast potentials of our free and democratic system. It is on this other front in the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people that will be determined the kind of world their children and our children too will come to inherit. The Navy corman with his bar of soap and his bag of medical gear already is well loved by the Vietnamese people. Symbol of America's helping hand. But he is only one of 100,000 Navy men committed to the war in Vietnam. [Music] For many of the Blue Jackets, it's an unusual new kind of shallow water warfare. Operating fast, small boats, ground effects machines, and shallow draft transports. They hunt down and destroy the waterbornne Vietkong and act as advisers to the Vietnamese Navy as they move their troops along the water high roads for an attack on a Riverside VC encampment. [Music] Just off the coast, other men of the Navy and Coast Guard are on constant patrol to stop and search thousands of small ships and junks. Many are carrying supplies intended for the Vietkong. This blockade is known as Operation Market Time. It involves the surveillance of a thousand mi of coast from the 17th parallel to the Gulf of Syiam. Tough duty, but it's drying up one arterial lifeline from North Vietnam. [Music] Well offshore in the deep blue of the China Sea is the backbone of our Navy's surface forces, the aircraft carrier. It's a floating mobile air base complex. Over 4,000 men live and work on this seagoing city. To keep the ship in operation and its pilots in the air requires the effort of a community of freemen, engineers, clerks, doctors, mechanics, pipe fitters, radar men, cooks, and bakers. Their working day averages 12 hours. It can be 18 or even longer when air operations are underway and planes are being sent a lot at 30-second intervals. [Music] About half of all the combat sorties over North Vietnam have been flown by Navy and Marine pilots. It's a dangerous job and sometimes not all the planes come safely back. A search and rescue helicopter hurries on its way when that radio distress call mayday signals a pilot in trouble. He could be down in the open sea or deep in the jungle. Their job is to find him and bring him back. On this mission photographed by a Navy cameraman, the pilot was forced to eject beside a rocky cliff along the forbidding coastline a few miles south of Hyong. The helicopter cannot get close enough for a direct lift, so a swimmer hits the water. [Music] [Music] Find clues and try to put them together. Time by [Music] down. La. [Music] [Music] [Music] The men have come 30 miles to the village of Hungmi on the Cochen River. Most Vietnamese live in a village like this one. A community of 2,000 who work the land, raise livestock, and fly their local trades. But their otherwise simple lives are complicated by disease and infection. The corman has set up a clinic in the playground of the local school where patients have already gathered. This is the soap and rain water. Then you have him spread this on the areas that are itchy. Yeah. So he how many times? About twice a day. [Music] Yeah. Anytime. two every four hours or something for her. Oment does she have a bottle? Did she have a bottle of ointment? There are no monuments to what is accomplished here. There is no glory. But in this war, the work done here has become as important as any battle. Days become weeks. Weeks give way to long months on the river. A new season comes to the Meong Delta. Monsoons begin in the east, move westward, and cloak the land in torrential rains. [Music] Wind and rain intrude into the life of every man, soaking everything, wearing away at the nerves. Pumps clog, motors fail, ammunition corrods, and guns rust. For days, there is no pause, only the constant sound of rain against metal. [Applause] But the work of war goes on. The enemy has used the reigns to his advantage. Two companies of Vietkong have been discovered on the shores of the Balai Canal, digging bunkers for an ambush. A plan is made. Patrol boats will transit the canal and act as decoys to force an encounter with the enemy. The ship's helicopters will remain on board, fueled and armed, ready for action. Charlie will expend a little more energy than he has been. So I want you people to be extremely cautious on the rivers. The risks of entering a narrow canal are great. These shallow zones of water are the haven of the Vietkong. Boats are forced to move slowly, becoming easy targets for enemy fire. Unforeseen circumstances often dictate strategy. Despite all their preparation and planning, the men must turn back. The water has become too shallow. They are forced to find another route. [Music] [Music] Turn 180. [Music] [Music] Iron half 2. Iron half 2. This is Jingle Juliet. Jingle Juliet. Over. Jingle Juliet. Jingle Juliet. This is iron hat 2. Go ahead. Over. Iron hat 2. Jingle Juliet. We're drawing fire from the beach. Coordinates X-ray Sierra 540 2110. Over [Music] Juliet, this is Iron Hat 2. Roger. Al, this is radio. Scramble the Hilo. You got to go the other way. That's good. Want to go the other way. want to go the other way. Not on this end. Okay, Bill. Check the fuel boost pump. Are we clear? Coming hot. [Music] Turn forward 180. 43. Uh, this is 43. What's your story? No. Uh, this is 43. Uh interact of your intentions this time. We're still receiving automatic weapons fire from the beach there. Uh this is 43. Do you have the uh smoke on the beach? Kilo. That's affirmative. Roger. That's the uh target area there. Kilo. Roger. Now this is Kilo. We'll make a firing run. Uh, Kino, this is 43. Yeah, let me know when you commence your run and uh we'll come in behind you there 43. Wild 43. I just want to know you guys had a pretty good pinpoint location as to where this fire was coming from. Uh this is 43. Roger. Uh we had my smoke in sight there. Uh we received automatic weapons fire from the east side and also from the tree line on either side of the smoke running from north to south overhead. Also, this is 43 be advised. Uh they have a one 57 recoilless in there over. The ordeal of this battle is over, but the victory has not yet been won. There is no rest now for these men. The enemy has shown himself. They must act quickly, decisively to deny him his sanctuary. Few targets out of reach of the PBRS have been located by the Vietnamese command center. Enemy gun implants, bunkers, and supply. 81. I see what's happen. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. In this engagement, one of the helicopters was shot down by a sniper in a sam pan. This is the price a few will pay in any war, the cost of involvement. And for the remainder of their tour in Vietnam, these men will pay this price time and again. They have faced the enemy. [Music] They have endured the ordeal of battle. [Music] They have won their badge of courage. [Music] A wounded man comes in on a stretcher. Another call to battle. [Music] tracers cutting the stillness of a twilight sky, stabbing at the fleeting shadow of a faceless enemy. The smoke and flame of burning cordite and the darkness of men at war. [Music] The fight will go on. But these sailors, these worn and weary men have kept the faith. [Music]