River Patrol Vietnam | 10.04.25 | by Zex | Supported by Milsim Units

On March 21, 1966, just six months after the U.S. Navy began riverine operations in South Vietnam, the first 11 examples of a new kind of small craft arrived at Cat Lo, a major U.S. naval combat and logistics base on the northern shore of Cape Vung Tau.

The craft was designated patrol boat, river, or PBR, a high-speed, shallow-draft,diesel-powered freshwater patrol craft with a fiberglass hull and water jet propulsion. The PBR was the first jet-propelled watercraft used in combat, and it became an integral element of the Brown Water Navy.

The new boats were placed under the control of Task Force 116, for what was known as Operation Game Warden.

Game Warden forces were charged with disrupting Viet Cong infiltration and resupply operations, destroying VC insurgents in their areas of operation and enforcing South Vietnamese government curfews.

Game Warden units performed harassment and interdiction operations, river patrols and minesweeping operations, especially along the main Saigon shipping channels. They were authorized to board and search all river craft—except foreign-flagged steel-hull merchant ships, warships and military, police or customs craft, unless specifically authorized by the task force commander.

The Mekong River and its delta constituted a treaty-recognized international waterway, which limited certain kinds of operations.

The 11 PBRs delivered in March 1966 and the approximately 300 delivered over the next few years to the U.S. and South Vietnamese military were based on a pleasure boat design constructed by Uniflite, a boatyard in Bellingham, Washington, on the northern end of Puget Sound near the Canadian border.

Powered by twin 318-cubic-inch Detroit Allison 6v-53 diesel engines, the vessel moved at 25 to 32 knots, an extremely high speed for a naval boat at the time. At idle, the engines made a warm, low thrum-thrum sound.

The 9.5-ton vessels had a range of 150 nautical miles at 25 knots.

Instead of propellers, the boat Given its purpose as a fast and light patrol boat, the PBR had a completely unarmored hull, though lack of protection was rarely a problem s engines drove pumps built by the Jacuzzi Corporation, which later gained fame in the spa and health club market. Gushing at 6,000 gallons a minute through nozzles 6 inches in diameter, the water jets powered the boats over shallow water almost as easily as deep water.

Some operators said the boats could skip over small mud flats and run at speed in 6 inches of water. Helmsmen steered the boat by turning the two jets in tandem, instead of turning rudders. This meant incredible maneuverability.

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