A Swift Boat is sunk by two rockets from an unidentified aircraft near the border between North and South Vietnam. It is June 15/16th, 1968, around midnight, and now five sailors are dead or missing. Two survivors and several witnesses report seeing lighted aircraft that move and hover like helicopters flying in the area. U.S. Jets are scrambled to the scene and report hits on enemy aircraft. The following night the jets return hunting the elusive helicopters and in the confusion, one American Cruiser and one Australian Frigate, are hit by air-to-air missiles. The result is two dead and eleven wounded aboard the Australian ship and minor damage to the American Cruiser. An investigation, based on pieces of U.S. Missiles found on the two ships, determine that it was “friendly fire”. This sailor was aboard another Swift Boat, PCF-12, patrolling south of the sunken boats position. Ordered to the scene to assist in the rescue, PCF-12 came under attack by helo type aircraft, identified as hostile, receiving one rocket and machine gun fire. This Swift Boat returned a deadly barrage of 50 caliber machine gun and other small arms fire causing the two helos to break contact and run away. The crew believes that one of the helos was damaged or shot down by this hail of gunfire. The investigation findings were “friendly fire” mostly because of the lack of wreckage of the helos and the pieces of Sparrow missiles found on board USS Boston and HMAS Hobart. News accounts attempted to connect the two incidents by blaming the same pilots for attacking the ships and sinking the Swift Boat. This book uses official records, logs, and message traffic to back up eye witness testimonies that refute the “friendly fire” decision. There are many people affected by this story. Those of us that were there have carried pieces of this incident in our memories for 37 years. Families and friends of the dead and missing have wondered about the truth behind the decision of “friendly fire” vs “hostile fire”. This book will answer many of those questions and put many lives at rest again. James W. Steffes ENC, USN Retired
I was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, joining the U.S. Navy at the age of seventeen. It became my career of 26 years. This book continues the story of "Operation Market Time" rewritten and published as "Coastal Warfare Against the Viet Cong, Volume One, 1964-1966." Volume Two ended up as one-year 1967 due to the rapid expansion of the war and Operation Market Time. The next book in the series is "Coastal Warfare Against the Viet Cong, Volume Three, 1968. This completes the story of Operation Market Time because by the end of 1968, the Coastline was well secured, and it forced Ho Chi Minh to create and use the Ho Chi Minh trail and resulted in Game Warden forces moving upriver closer to the trails exit into South Vietnam. Market Time forces took over the combat zones vacated by Game Warden. This was a whole new type of warfare for PCF's, Riverine Warfare, not seen since the Civil War. This Author was assigned initially to Da Nang in June 1968 so some of this story was experienced by this author firsthand. The rest of the information comes from the COMNAVFORV monthly summaries which are declassified and now in Public Domain. This was a significant part of the war not covered very much in the United States media but very important to the success of the Vietnam War effort.
This book documents and tells the history of the establishment and growth of the Coastal Surveillance Force, Task Force 71. This grew to Task Forces 115, 116 and 117. My research for this history came from veterans serving in this period and the documentation of the Commander Naval Forces Vietnam Monthly Summaries. These documents did not exist before January 1966, so the early period was dependent on veterans and the author's personal knowledge. This book is dedicated to those pioneers of the Small Boat Navy's very successful war against a stubborn enemy. It is important to point out that this is a book of fiction and all of the names of the characters are fictional. This was used to make the significant incidents more alive while retaining the accurate details of the action. Much of the COMNAVFORV summaries were also paraphrased for effect while retaining the factual accounts stated in the records. The photographs and map images are placed at the end of the chapters in the book to help former military and non-military folks identify with the many units and terms used in the texts. The images and photographs are either my personal items or from the COMNAVFORCESVIETNAM Monthly Summaries.
A Swift Boat is sunk by two rockets from an unidentified aircraft near the border between North and South Vietnam. It is June 15/16th, 1968, around midnight, and now five sailors are dead or missing. Two survivors and several witnesses report seeing lighted aircraft that move and hover like helicopters flying in the area. U.S. Jets are scrambled to the scene and report hits on enemy aircraft. The following night the jets return hunting the elusive helicopters and in the confusion, one American Cruiser and one Australian Frigate, are hit by air-to-air missiles. The result is two dead and eleven wounded aboard the Australian ship and minor damage to the American Cruiser. An investigation, based on pieces of U.S. Missiles found on the two ships, determine that it was “friendly fire”. This sailor was aboard another Swift Boat, PCF-12, patrolling south of the sunken boats position. Ordered to the scene to assist in the rescue, PCF-12 came under attack by helo type aircraft, identified as hostile, receiving one rocket and machine gun fire. This Swift Boat returned a deadly barrage of 50 caliber machine gun and other small arms fire causing the two helos to break contact and run away. The crew believes that one of the helos was damaged or shot down by this hail of gunfire. The investigation findings were “friendly fire” mostly because of the lack of wreckage of the helos and the pieces of Sparrow missiles found on board USS Boston and HMAS Hobart. News accounts attempted to connect the two incidents by blaming the same pilots for attacking the ships and sinking the Swift Boat. This book uses official records, logs, and message traffic to back up eye witness testimonies that refute the “friendly fire” decision. There are many people affected by this story. Those of us that were there have carried pieces of this incident in our memories for 37 years. Families and friends of the dead and missing have wondered about the truth behind the decision of “friendly fire” vs “hostile fire”. This book will answer many of those questions and put many lives at rest again. James W. Steffes ENC, USN Retired
This is a story of Operation Market Time, a joint mission designed to seal off the coastline of South Vietnam and prevent the infiltration of troops and supplies from North Vietnam by sea. It included elements of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and the U.S. Air Force. I wanted to tell the story of these brave men in a format that would be informative and interesting to the Veteran and non-veteran alike. I chose to write fiction based on fact for several reasons. I have been reading the books of Jack Higgins, the author of “The Eagle Has Landed” and many other books about WWII and the struggle of the Irish People. In many of his books he takes a real life event and weaves a fictional story about it, keeping the story intact but using fictional characters to make the story come alive. I have read all of his books but one and it is unavailable in print. Every one of his books were page turners and I have become a real fan of this author. Although I will be using the basic format i.e. telling a fictional story based on a true incident, I am not copying his work rather using his style of writing. The names of the crews and sometimes the boats are fictional but the actual events really happened. In my research for this book, I extensively used the Commander Naval Forces Vietnam monthly summaries to tell the true part of my story. My purpose is to tell the story of Operation Market Time because this was the original mission of Swift Boats and the Coast Guard in Vietnam. Because of its effectiveness, the enemy was forced to move his troops and supplies inland thus creating the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This resulted in the battle for the Mekong Delta region taking place in the winding waterways of this area. It also moved the war further inland because the enemy was now reaching for Saigon using trails through sanctuaries in Laos and Cambodia. Swift Boats joined in that battle as well as part of Operation Giant Slingshot with the specific mission known as Sea Lords. Swift Boats were assigned to the major rivers of the Mekong Delta and while patrolling these rivers would make lightening raids up the narrow canals and waterways deep into Viet Cong territory disrupting his flow of supplies and material. This story has been told many ways by many authors because it involved firefights and ambushes on a daily basis. Market Time Operations however, consisted of coastal patrols that were for the most part very dull and boring with occasional firefights and ambushes. But it was only when the Market Time units moved in close to shore and came within range of the enemy, that the firefights erupted. With the open sea behind them, the Swift Boats could easily use their speed to move out of range of the enemy and to assess the situation before attacking the target. At a gathering of Swifties in Washington D.C. in 1995, Senator John Kerry a Swiftie himself would describe a Market Time Patrol as “Twenty three plus hours of boredom interrupted by a few minutes of sheer terror.” Sit back and enjoy the story of Market Time Sailors as they form a bond that only a small crew in combat can do.
I was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, joining the U.S. Navy at the age of seventeen. It became my career of 26 years. This book continues the story of "Operation Market Time" rewritten and published as "Coastal Warfare Against the Viet Cong, Volume One, 1964-1966." Volume Two ended up as one-year 1967 due to the rapid expansion of the war and Operation Market Time. The next book in the series is "Coastal Warfare Against the Viet Cong, Volume Three, 1968. This completes the story of Operation Market Time because by the end of 1968, the Coastline was well secured, and it forced Ho Chi Minh to create and use the Ho Chi Minh trail and resulted in Game Warden forces moving upriver closer to the trails exit into South Vietnam. Market Time forces took over the combat zones vacated by Game Warden. This was a whole new type of warfare for PCF's, Riverine Warfare, not seen since the Civil War. This Author was assigned initially to Da Nang in June 1968 so some of this story was experienced by this author firsthand. The rest of the information comes from the COMNAVFORV monthly summaries which are declassified and now in Public Domain. This was a significant part of the war not covered very much in the United States media but very important to the success of the Vietnam War effort.
A Swift Boat is sunk by two rockets from an unidentified aircraft near the border between North and South Vietnam. It is June 15/16th, 1968, around midnight, and now five sailors are dead or missing. Two survivors and several witnesses report seeing lighted aircraft that move and hover like helicopters flying in the area. U.S. Jets are scrambled to the scene and report hits on enemy aircraft. The following night the jets return hunting the elusive helicopters and in the confusion, one American Cruiser and one Australian Frigate, are hit by air-to-air missiles. The result is two dead and eleven wounded aboard the Australian ship and minor damage to the American Cruiser. An investigation, based on pieces of U.S. Missiles found on the two ships, determine that it was “friendly fire”. This sailor was aboard another Swift Boat, PCF-12, patrolling south of the sunken boats position. Ordered to the scene to assist in the rescue, PCF-12 came under attack by helo type aircraft, identified as hostile, receiving one rocket and machine gun fire. This Swift Boat returned a deadly barrage of 50 caliber machine gun and other small arms fire causing the two helos to break contact and run away. The crew believes that one of the helos was damaged or shot down by this hail of gunfire. The investigation findings were “friendly fire” mostly because of the lack of wreckage of the helos and the pieces of Sparrow missiles found on board USS Boston and HMAS Hobart. News accounts attempted to connect the two incidents by blaming the same pilots for attacking the ships and sinking the Swift Boat. This book uses official records, logs, and message traffic to back up eye witness testimonies that refute the “friendly fire” decision. There are many people affected by this story. Those of us that were there have carried pieces of this incident in our memories for 37 years. Families and friends of the dead and missing have wondered about the truth behind the decision of “friendly fire” vs “hostile fire”. This book will answer many of those questions and put many lives at rest again. James W. Steffes ENC, USN Retired
This book documents and tells the history of the establishment and growth of the Coastal Surveillance Force, Task Force 71. This grew to Task Forces 115, 116 and 117. My research for this history came from veterans serving in this period and the documentation of the Commander Naval Forces Vietnam Monthly Summaries. These documents did not exist before January 1966, so the early period was dependent on veterans and the author's personal knowledge. This book is dedicated to those pioneers of the Small Boat Navy's very successful war against a stubborn enemy. It is important to point out that this is a book of fiction and all of the names of the characters are fictional. This was used to make the significant incidents more alive while retaining the accurate details of the action. Much of the COMNAVFORV summaries were also paraphrased for effect while retaining the factual accounts stated in the records. The photographs and map images are placed at the end of the chapters in the book to help former military and non-military folks identify with the many units and terms used in the texts. The images and photographs are either my personal items or from the COMNAVFORCESVIETNAM Monthly Summaries.
Music, Magazines & Mayhem Between 1994 and 1997, James Brown's loaded magazine became the the must-buy and must-be-in publication of the decade. It won every award going, year after year, and came to define not only its audience but also a generation. Bright, loud, funny, provocative, ambitious and careless, loaded was read from the barracks of Afghanistan to the England dressing room at Euro '96. It captured a hedonistic lifestyle of alcohol, cocaine and more. The last great hurrah before the end of the century. It was the biggest noise in the golden generation of magazine publishing, rocketing from zero to half a million sales in a matter of months. What MTV had been to the 80s, loaded was to the 90s. ANIMAL HOUSE follows James Brown's remarkable career from a high school drop-out fanzine writer with few qualifications to NME features editor aged 22, and loaded founder at 27. In between, his mother died in tragic circumstances and gradually his own drug and alcohol use began to take over. Loaded's unexpected success legitimised (and paid for) James's lifestyle, and it wasn't until he crashed and burned at GQ, and went through rehab, that any sense of perspective kicked in. Recuperating on the island of Mustique whilst plotting his return with Oz founder Felix Denis, James was asked by neighbour Lord Patrick Lichfield: "How on earth did you manage to sell so many magazines whilst taking so many drugs?" This book is his answer.
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