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They had just gone
through a drastic reduction in manning and were left
with a roster of two officers and 24 enlisted. Obviously
the division could only operate and maintain its boats
by close coordination and cooperation between the active
cadre and the reserve component of 23 officers and 149
men.
We reorganized the
unit to accommodate this revised manning. The top
priority was assigning permanent boat crews to specific
boats and getting them trained. Remember, this was the
period between intensive crew training prior to
deployment to Vietnam, and the SWCCM program in effect
today. Both of these programs ensured that boats and
their crews were trained and ready for any assigned
mission. Between the close-out of Vietnam and the run-up
of SWCCM, men were assigned to Coastal River Squadrons
and Special Boat Units with no requirement for prior
training or experience. We got them, then trained them.
It became clear to me on my first weekend in command
that the navy didn’t plan to “hold everything” while we
adjusted. We were called out in the middle of the night
for a plane crash into Lake Pontchartrain. We spent the
night picking up pieces of people and locating the plane
on the bottom.
Almost all of the
actual combat craft experience was on the reserve side.
Crews were assigned with an effort to give each boat at
least one active duty crewmember and one with combat
experience. The emphasis then became “Get the boats
underway!”. There is no better way for crews to become
intimately familiar with their boat and each other.
Every Friday and every reserve weekend, all bnoats were
underway unless being worked on for reasons that made it
impossible to get underway. By the time the my first
summer rolled around, we were ready for "“raduation" .
The PCFs were put under command of LT Rick Jacobs and
ordered to proceed to Houston, Texas. The PBs, under the
command of LT Eric Houin, were ordered to proceed to the
Atlantic Ocean. Both groups developed plans,
spare/repair parts, provisions, communications, etc. and
shoved off. Both groups had problems, which they solved,
and both groups accomplished their missions. The PBs
elected to lock through Lake Okechobee rather than
circumnavigate Florida. These men came back as cohesive,
competent and knowledgeable boat crews. Just for the
hell of it, I sent the PBs up the Mississippi to see how
far we could get. It was decided to fork off into the
Missouri, and Coastal River Division 22 became the first
U.S. navy vessel to visit Omaha. I still have a card
signed by the governor making me an admiral in the navy
of Nebraska. Diudn’t affect my pay, though.
The riverine craft,
PBRs and Mini-ATCs) deployed to Bay St. Louis, where a
base camp was established for operations on the Pearl
River. We extended invitations to SEAL Teams one and two
to provide opposition, but only SEAL Team One was able
to respond with a squad. We laid out a scenario that
involved inserting the SEALs west of the river with the
mission of transiting the swamp and crossing the river
with enough simulated explosives to destro the locks at
Bay St. Louis. Our task was to patrol the river, prevent
their crossing undetected. HAL 4 provided helicopter
assets on our side. Good training on both sides. The
SEALs got through, but admitted we made it difficult.
Our other two-week
reserve training session was at the National Guard site
in Mississippi. This gave us a chance to familiarize all
hands with our weaponry, from M-16s, M-60s, and .50 cal
through Mk 19s and mortars. We even mounted a PBR
forward gun mount on a truck and trained gunners in
shooting from a moving, bumping gun mount. This was also
our only chance for night-time live firing practice; a
valuable experience.
Between these major
evolutions that necessarily came when the reserves were
on their two weeks annual training, the boat unit was
called on about quarterly to provide support for special
warfare exercises, usually in the Pensacola area. These
operations and the necessary transits brought boat crews
to a high level of proficiency. We could usually count
on a few reservists’ being available, but for the most
part these operations were handled by the short-handed
active duty men running with two or three men per boat.,
Not ideal, but “can do”. I remember one night we were
tasked with a “downed pilot” scenario on short notice
when only me and a chief hull tech were left in camp. He
and I drove a PB to the rendezvous and got the job done.
The Maintenance
crew, almost entirely reservist, did an outstanding job
the whole time I was there, LT Billie Richardson was my
active duty engineer officer, and he was a wizard both
at assembling and organizing talent, and at creative
funding. We had gradually accumulated enough engines and
propulsion pumps that we had a spare for every one
installed in the riverine craft. Additionally, he
somehow established as an identified repair part the PBR
hull. This meant we could requisition a bare hull and
have the crew, with assistance from maintenance, move
everything from their PBR to the new hull, creating a
“new” PBR. The final step was cutting the hull number
off the stern and putting it on the new hull. This gave
us improved boats and exceptionally knowledgeable crews.
Similarly, we worked out a program with Detroit Diesel
over in Fort Walton Beach where, when we sent them an
engine for rebuilding, we would send an engineman to
help do the work and learn the engine.
In the midst of all
this, it was decided that Coastal River
Squadron/Division as a title did not accurately reflect
our mission or identify us as a part of Naval Special
Warfare. We were renamed Special Boat Squadrons and
Special Boat Units. The emphasis on our role had already
shifted almost exclusively to Special Warfare Support.
That was all we were called on to do in the major
exercises, and our coastal assets had been targeted for
transfer. This did have a major advantage. When a unit
is created in the navy, its allowances must be written.
Allowances for weapons, ammunition, charts,
organizational clothing and equipment, and required
training had to be created for Special Boat Unit
Twenty-Two, and funding for all of this came from
somewhere up in the navy! I had a great time creating
all of this on somebody else’s dime. The only item that
didn’t get rubber-stamped by the chain of command was an
allowance of Stinger missiles. Justification—Airlant
said if some aircraft inadvertantly fired on us, we
might shoot back. (No shit!) Probably a wise decision on
their part, but I perceived helicopters as one of our
main threats then.
The Squadron
commander, CDR Marv Ball, decided to shuffle boat
assets. This meant he was to send us six PBRs and we
were to turn our PCF and PBR craft over to him. This
involved a trip from New Orleans to Norfolk, which we
made right after an exercise at Hurlburt which cut out
transit distance a little. Our only major difficulties
were a PCF breakdown which resulted in my towing one
Swift behind the sixty-five footer; and a hellacious
storm between Hatteras and Cape Henry. We had just
finished mooning Hatteras and giving it the finger as we
went by on glassy swells when the storm hit.
I got a chance to
move up and relieve the squadron commander, and I did,
even though I had another year on my tour. I spent many
a night at Little Creek envying Rob Hampe, who relieved
me in New Orleans. I did twenty-four years on a wide
variety of ships and stations, and served with a lot of
outstanding sailors. I never had a group that was as
capable, enthusiastic, and “can do” as my active and
reserve river rats at New Orleans. We got the job done,
and boy, did we have fun. |
