The Rise and Fall of the Brown Water Navy: Changes in US Navy Riverine Warfare Capabilities

The US Navy did not possess any inland river patrol forces prior to the Vietnam War and had only a handful of coastal patrol boats, despite the lessons of our country's past and of other contemporaries. France, in her ill fated campaign to maintain the Indochina colonies, used the rivers of Southeast Asia extensively to transport and support their military forces. The South Vietnamese Army and Navy continued the practice. American advisors noted their operations and by 1968, three naval task forces comprised of over 600 vessels were operating on the waterways and coasts of Vietnam. The author, LCDR Jason Scheffer, USN tells the compelling story of of the rise and fall of the "Brown Water Navy".