“CHARLIE’s AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE”

The Rung Sat is a 400-square mile mangrove swamp between Saigon and the Vietnamese coastline.  Four major rivers course through the otherwise impassable area, including the Long Tau shipping channel leading to Saigon.  The swamp was home to no one before the Vietnam war.  However, refugees took up residence during the 1960s on house boats or stilted huts.  The Viet Cong also frequented the area earning it the reputation as the “forest of assassins.”  Here they set shore-detonated mines and ambushed shipping traffic with recoilless rifles and rocket launchers.  So much activity plagued the area that the US Army launched Operation “Lexington” between 21 May and 9 June 1966.  In conjunction, our Navy launched Operation “Jackstay” to stop enemy riverine activity.

On the sinuous Song Dinh Ba River, LT Alex Balian watched the shore closely this day from PCF-41 as dusk approached.  The “old man” of the crew, BM2 Raleigh Godley, with his forty-ish years of experience, steadied the helm.  Above the pilothouse EN3 Charles Barham scanned the shore with binoculars beside twin .50 caliber machine guns.  It was a hot and muggy evening.

Using a common nickname for the VC, the LT warned, “Charlie’s around here somewhere,” just as a 57mm recoilless rifle round struck the fast patrol craft and the world exploded for RM2 Robert L. Keim.  The Radioman staggered to the pilothouse from the edge of the gunboat to which he had been blown.  The instrument panel and BM2 Godley at the wheel were gone.  Out of control, PCF gathered speed as Godley may have shoved the throttle forward in a dying effort to save PCF-41.  Balian reached the aft steering station as SN Ralph Powers and GMG3 Glenn Greene readied the 81mm mortar.  Then the patrol boat suddenly lurched and ran fast aground beneath the overhanging jungle canopy.  As everyone regained their feet Balian called, “We can hold them off until one of the other boats comes up here.”  But there was no help coming.  The thick jungle and sharp turns of the river shielded the sound of the attack from others.

When the Viet Cong reached PCF-41 the crew was ready.  Bullets and shells whizzed, and after emptying the ammo locker, Balian ordered everyone into the water.  The remaining crew piled into a life raft; the tide and current were in their favor.  Crocodiles, snakes, and voices of enemy guerrillas now kept their attention as they drifted.  To avoid detection the men slid into the water, holding onto the raft and enduring the stinging of jellyfish.  When they heard an engine in the distance Balian lifted his rifle into the air.  The radar shadow was sighted by a nearby PCF and the crew was rescued.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Calaunan, Jun.  “A Navy Jury Friday Convicted Capt. Alexander Balian.”  UPI Archives, 24 February 1989.  AT: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/02/24/A-Navy-jury-Friday-convicted-Capt-Alexander-Balian-of/9782604299600/, retrieved 3 May 2025.

Schreadley, Richard L.  From the Rivers to the Sea: The U.S. Navy in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1992, pp. 279.

“22 May 1966 Sinking of PCF-41.” Swiftboats website.  AT: http://swiftboats.net/stories/pcf41.htm.  Retrieved 15 April 2014.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  LT Balian was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in combating the VC and in saving his crew.  He remained in the Navy, eventually rising to the rank of CAPT.  However, his career was dealt a fatal blow when he was convicted of dereliction of duty at a court martial in February 1989.  In command of USS DUBUQUE (LPD-8) in June of the previous year, en route to the Persian Gulf, Balian had failed to rescue Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea in an unseaworthy boat.  Twenty-eight refugees had already died prior to DUBUQUE’s encounter, and though Balian passed a week’s worth of food and water to the refugees, 30 more succumbed before the boat drifted 300 additional miles to the Philippines.  The 52 refugees who survived did so by resorting to cannibalism.

Godley’s body was ultimately recovered.  He is remembered today on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC.

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                                  CONTROVERSIAL SILVER STAR

This dawn saw eleven Army Air Corps Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the Army Air Corps 22^nd Bomb Group waiting on the runway at Port Moresby, New Guinea.  They were one of three squadrons on mission “Tow Nine” to bomb the Japanese airbase at Lae.  This was a “milk run” compared to missions over Rabaul and New Britain.  Yet the minutes were slipping by, and the VIPs they were waiting to carry were late.  Finally, BGEN William F. Marquat’s party arrived and dispersed among the bombers.  LCDR Lyndon B. Johnson, Navy liaison to the General’s staff, boarded a B-26 nicknamed “Wabash Cannonball” but immediately excused himself to retrieve a forgotten camera.  When he returned, his seat had been taken by LCOL Francis R. Stevens, and Johnson had to scramble for another plane.

The squadron took off at 0851, but 30 minutes into the flight “The Heckling Hare”–in which Johnson had found a seat–lost a generator and had to turn back.  Ten bombers flew the remaining 80 miles to the target but arrived late and nearly collided with a flight of outbound Mitchell’s that had finished their runs.  As the Marauder’s lined up, they were jumped by two dozen enemy A6M2 Zeros.  “Wabash Cannonball” was hit repeatedly and began spinning out of control.  She plummeted into the sea in flames, none of the eight aboard were recovered.  The surviving Marauder’s made it back to Port Moresby where one crash landed on the field and four more were reported to be well riddled.

LCDR Johnson returned the next day to Townsville, Australia, where, on June 18^th, he was awarded the Silver Star (our nation’s 3^rd highest combat award) by GEN Douglas MacArthur.  His citation lauded him for gathering valuable intelligence and demonstrating “marked coolness” under fire on a “suicide” mission.  At the time, LCDR Lyndon Johnson was the US Representative from the 10^th Congressional District of Texas, on leave from Congress to fight (as were many young Congressmen in early 1942).  But a few weeks later President Roosevelt recalled all Congressmen to their legislative duties, and LCDR Johnson left the South Pacific.

Mr. Johnson continued in public service and in 1963 became President Lyndon Johnson.  Over the course of his career, he often wore his Silver Star on his lapel and claimed the moniker “Raider Johnson.”  In a 1964 book entitled The Mission, written before the action reports from “Tow Nine” were declassified, the details of this day’s mission are retold by two of “The Heckling Hare’s” enlisted crewmen.  They describe a harrowing return under heavy enemy fire, an account not corroborated in the now-declassified action reports or by the other five crewmen.  Controversy surrounds Johnson’s medal today, as it did throughout his career.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 JUN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Caidin, Martin and Edward Hymoff.  The Mission.  New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1964.

Tillman, Barrett and Henry Sakaida.  “Silver Star Airplane Ride.”  Naval History, April 2001, pp. 25-29.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  “The Heckling Hare’s” crewmen on this mission did not learn Johnson had received the Silver Star until after the war.  Personnel records show that no one else aboard the bomber received an award for this day’s mission.  The now declassified after action reports identify no battle damage to “The Heckling Hare” on the mission of 9 June 1942.  Historians researching Johnson’s medal point out that the timing and details of “The Heckling Hare’s” flight would have had her turning back well before the squadron was attacked.  A crippled B-26, returning on one engine would have been able to manage only about 150 knots, and would have found it difficult to shake what the two “Heckling Hare” enlisted crewmen described in 1964–eight pursuing 320-knot Zeroes.  As a result, the story recounted by historians Martin Caidin and Edward Hymoff in The Mission has been called into question.

Some now theorize that savvy GEN MacArthur’s knowledge that the South Pacific theater had taken a backseat in American headlines, and that influential politicians then serving in his theater were about to be recalled, may have influenced his decision to award LCDR Johnson.

Regardless of the controversy it is interesting to speculate how the Vietnam War, civil rights law, and American military policy might have changed had LCDR Johnson not forgotten his camera this day in 1942!  Our current Arleigh Burke­ destroyer DDG-1002 remembers LCDR and Commander-in-Chief Lyndon Johnson.

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