Vietnam
NEPTUNE BOAT PATROL, 1970
Brown water SP
Jim Randall , VSPA LM #69
483rd Security Police Squadron
Cam Ranh Bay AB, Vietnam
© 2010


I just read your request for members who served on boat patrols in Vietnam. I pulled that duty quite a few times on our Neptune Boats at Cam Ranh Bay AB. We were moored at Myca Village and had a Navy coxswain and one or two Vietnamese QC's on board. I was the M60 man along with Grenade Launcher. Our call signs were Neptune-19 (one-nine) and Neptune-20 (two-zero). My hooch mate Wayne Kasper was permanently assigned to that duty. I often wondered why no one ever recalled the presence of the SP duty on the water.

USAF Security Police, Neptune-19 patrol boat, Cam Ranh Bay AB, 1970. © 2010, by Don Poss

Neptune-19 Boat Patrol (left graphic art) is pretty representative of the boat at night. From what I remember (and that is fading fast!) most of our work was done in deeper water, mid bay.

The Coxswain didn't like going in close to shore unless it was absolutely necessary, making too easy of a target for an RPG, and our boat wasn't as fast as a Swift Boat or PBR, nor did we have any armor other than flak vests.

[Note submerged sapper to right of boat]

USAF Security Police, Neptune-19 patrol boat, Cam Ranh Bay AB, 1970. © 2010, by Don Poss

The Stars and Stripes article below, points out
we would be sent on calls of suspected swimmers / sappers. We would make a grenade run up and down the bay and wait and see what floated up, the QC's loved that because they would collect dinner from the fish that floated to the top.

We checked sampans and some times just cut the engine and drifted with the tide. Once in a while we would take small arms fire from the shore and we would Dee Dee from the area while I returned fire with the M60.

QC Hut, Myca Ville, 1969-1970. Note Neptune-21 Logo on right-front of Hut.
QC Hut, Myca Ville, 1969-1970. Note Neptune-21 Logo on right-front of Hut.

12th SPS Neptune Boat Dock. Myca boys setting on rock, 1969-1970
12th SPS Neptune Boat Dock. Myca boys setting on rock, 1969-1970
12th SPS Neptune Boat Dock (Wayne Kasper) 1969-1970
12th SPS Neptune Boat Dock (Wayne Kasper) 1969-1970
 
Neptune-19
Stars and Stripes article.
Neptune Patrol Boat, USAF Security Police, Cam Ranh Bay Air Base: On a night patrol are (QC) policeman Nghia Duong-Tuan, Boatswains Mate 2.C. Robert W. Paden, the boat handler, and Sgt Dale W. Peterson, a Security Policeman.

Neptune Patrol Boat, USAF Security Police, Cam Ranh Bay Air Base: On a night patrol are (QC) policeman Nghia Duong-Tuan, Boatswains Mate 2.C. Robert W. Paden, the boat handler, and Sgt Dale W. Peterson,
a Security Policeman.

 
Also read: SAPPERS! by James R. Randall (BSM w/V)
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