The American naval presence at Vung Tau dated from 1954 when Naval Branch Group #1 helped French authorities to construct and emergency tent camp for thousands of refugees evacuated from North Vietnam during the "Passage to Freedom" sealift operation.

Eleven years later after the Geneva Accords separate Vietnam into North and South, the navy established a base there for surface and air units of the Coastal Surveillance Force, which patrolled the South Vietnamese littoral in search of infiltrating communist ships and craft. A coastal surveillance command center at Vung Tau coordinated the operations of fast patrol craft (PCF) and SP-2 Neptune aircraft patrol units of the Inshore Undersea Warfare Group-1-Detachment 1 (USWG1).

     The site was also an interim staging area for the Navy’s forces deploying deeper into the Mekong Delta region south and west of Saigon. Beginning in January 1967, ships carrying the men and specialized landing craft soon to form the naval component of the joint Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force, anchored off Vung Tau.

     Vung Tau also provided an operating base for the Navy’s helicopter and fixed wing assault units that used the air facilities at Vung Tau U.S. Army Airfield.

     Under the direction of Naval Support Activity, Saigon, Detachment Vung Tau, logistic support was provided the locally based air and coastal patrol units as well as the river units deployed forward. On a weekly basis, a LST usually stationed off Cape Vung Tau, delivered food, fuel, ammunition and other supplies to the floating base of the Mobile Riverine Force operating near Dong Tam.

     Also normally anchored in the roadstead was the USS Tutuila and later USS Markab (AR-23), which provided depot-level repair and maintenance support to myriad river and coastal combat vessels, including LST's. In addition to these units, harbor defense and harbor clearance units were based at Vung Tau. Two heavy lift craft and other vessels of the latter command, belonging to Service Force U.S. Pacific Fleet, were positioned offshore prepared to salvage vessels in distress from the many waterways of South Vietnam.

     As the Navy’s installations at nearby Cat Lo, and in the Mekong Delta completed their development and took on a greater logistic responsibilities, the facility diminished in importance. However, Vung Tau continued to serve as the maritime gateway to the southern regions of the Republic of South Vietnam.