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USS Hornett County's operations at Mekong Delta in Vietnam
A documentary titled River Patrol. USS Hornett County in Co-Chein river in Mekong Delta during Vietnam war. Marines on deck. Patrol boats near the ship. US Navy helicopters seen. Aerial view of fields with rice paddies, mangroves and palm trees. Officers involved in various activities on ship. Camera and other equipment seen. Helicopters over operation area. Location: Co-Chein river Vietnam Mekong Delta. Date: June 1967.
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Video Summary
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In June 1967, the USS Harnett County arrived at the Cochin River in the Mekong Delta to combat the Viet Cong. The crew faces a year of dangerous riverine and aerial patrols across a complex landscape of mangroves and rice paddies, relying on individual courage and skill to navigate a hostile environment and challenge the enemy's control over the region.
It is June 1967. The place is the South China Sea near the coast of Vietnam.
The USS Harnett County has sailed 10,000 miles from the western shore of the United States
and has arrived at the Cochin River in the Mekong Delta. The war that lies ahead for these men
will be on the rivers and rice paddies of this ancient land. For the next 12 months,
they will launch patrol boats and armed helicopters against the enemy. They will
search from the skies and patrol a thousand miles of waterways to fight the Viet Cong.
This is their story. It begins here on the land amid the lace-like structure of canal and waterways.
This is the heartland of South Vietnam, the Mekong Delta. Here, where the mangrove forests
stretch as far as the eye can see, where lush farms and rice paddies dot the land,
the Viet Cong exercise a shadow tyranny over the people using the age-old tactics of force
and terror. These men and others like them have come here to aid this small nation caught in the
midst of war. And in an age that boasts of science and technology, what they accomplish here will
still depend on the courage and skill of each of them. The ship is two miles from the mouth
of the Cochin River, two miles from the place where real work begins. Navigation here is
dangerous. There is a possibility of running aground on the track created by the mud and
silt of the river. Added to this danger is the fact that the Viet Cong are entrenched in this area
and up until now have roamed the waters almost at will. For the 278 men that comprise this ship,
this is the last leg of San Francisco and Seattle are far behind. The sights and sounds
of a once familiar world have given way to the ominous quiet of the nearby jungle shore.
The first patrols leave the ship at dawn, and the men fall into the routine that will govern
their lives in the months to come. Words like patrol and reconnaissance, words that were once
part of their training, here on the river become part of their lives. Far below the unfamiliar
stretches from horizon to horizon, beneath them lies another world, one of uncertainty
and danger. The job has begun.
