Wellesley Historical Society Speaker Series: Swift Boat Skipper with Robert H. Bradley

"The Wellesley Historical Society, in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library, presents a free Speaker Series exploring topics in Wellesley, New England, national, and world history. Join us to hear a firsthand account of courage, combat, and coming of age aboard Swift Boats in Vietnam.

In Swift Boat Skipper – Stories from the Vietnam War, Robert H. Bradley draws from hundreds of letters written to his parents and the diary he kept in-country to tell the Vietnam War story he lived—not the one portrayed in Apocalypse Now. Serving first aboard the USS Savage (DER-386) and later as skipper of a Swift Boat with Coastal Division 12, Bradley’s memoir follows his transformation from an inexperienced college graduate to a combat-tested officer. His patrols ranged from the South China Sea coastline to the dangerous Cua Dai River Basin, where firefights left many wounded and one fellow officer dead. With vivid detail, he captures both the professionalism and courage of Swift Boat crews and the growing disillusionment as their mission shifted from combat operations to training Vietnamese sailors to take their place. At once a personal coming-of-age story and an unvarnished account of a pivotal chapter in naval warfare, Bradley’s narrative preserves the honor, sacrifice, and complexity of those who served."