Vung Ro Incident
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY
16 FEBRUARY 1965
VUNG RO INCIDENT
In 1965, the US was becoming more heavily involved in Vietnam with each passing day. Though war had not been declared and we were officially only “advising” the South Vietnamese, there were already over 23,000 US troops “in country.” In spite of our presence, well-supplied Viet Cong infiltrators had executed a series of attacks within South Vietnam; on the Ben Hoa airbase, on the Brink BOQ in Saigon and on a military barracks at Pleiku. American deaths in these attacks worried US planners because little progress had been made in identifying the VC’s clandestine supply lines from North Vietnam. It was suspected, in the absence of hard evidence, that the bulk of these supplies were moving down the South Vietnamese coast in the thousands of junks, trawlers, and sampans that plied those waters.
Then this morning, Army 1st LT James S. Bowers flew a medical mission in his UH-1B “Huey” southward along the coast of central South Vietnam. Around 1030 he banked to pass the lush green shores of Vung Ro Bay, dotted with picturesque islets, when his eye caught the unmistakable trace of motion. One of the tiny islands was moving! Closer inspection revealed it to be hardly an island at all, but a trawler whose deck was camouflaged with potted plants. Bowers notified the 2nd Coast Zone naval advisor, LCDR Harvey P. Rodgers, who alerted his counterpart in the South Vietnamese Navy, LCDR Ho Van Ky Thoai. Three airstrikes by South Vietnamese AD-1 Skyraiders beached the trawler. On a fourth strike small arms fire was returned, and crates were observed being stacked on the shore.
American advisors pressed hard for an investigation of the site. However, over the next two days, the South Vietnamese Navy stumbled in several attempts to land troops near the trawler, turned away each time by small arms fire. Frustrated advisors sent Navy SEAL LT Franklin W. Anderson to lead South Vietnamese special forces in a shore assault. They secured the area on the 19th. Though much of the trawler’s cargo had already been removed a five-day search of the area yielded caches of arms, ammunition and medical supplies totaling over 100 tons. Documents recovered from the trawler included a Haiphong newspaper, letters addressed to North Vietnam, and military records of NVA soldiers. The vessel was identified as Unit K.35 of the North Vietnamese Naval Transport Group 125, and further paperwork indicated that she had logged 22 previous trips south!
Suspicions were confirmed. Naval planners began immediate efforts to stem further filibustering. By March 11th the 7th Fleet destroyers BLACK (DD-666) and HIGBEE (DD-806) began the patrols that would soon grow to become Operation “Market Time.”
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 21 FEB 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cutler, Thomas J. Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 76-79.
Schreadley, Richard L. From the Rivers to the Sea: The U.S. Navy in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1992, pp. 78-82.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Subsequent US Navy and Coast Guard efforts against this waterborne supply line were successful to the point that the North Vietnamese employed alternative routes. A system of jungle trails along Vietnam’s western border with Cambodia became the premier route–the Ho Chi Minh Trail.