River Patrol Unit 1968 Time Line
~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association ~ Vietnam History Project ~
This Page Last Updated    19 August 2008
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18th Bde.
720th
        All three Battalion organic companies continued staffing the unit until just before the Communist Tet New Years Offensive in January of 1968.

        The PBR’s (Patrol Boat Riverine) from the 458th US Army Transport Company (PBR) who were attached to the 18th MP Brigade, were assigned to the mission on the Dong Nai River increasing the size, speed, maneuverability and firepower of the unit. The Navy PBR's (first) on station, were replaced by Army PBRs, and the B Company MP gunners first assigned to them continued  to supplement the Army PBR crews.

22 January Members of a C Company River Patrol unit were notified by an Air Force reconnaissance plane of a suspected enemy complex on the Buong River. The patrol discovered a recently deserted Viet Cong (VC) base camp and hospital consisting of two buildings and a bunker with a trench line in front. The patrols searched the empty facility and were called out for an impending artillery strike in the area. The river patrol linked up with a joint B & C Company and Popular Forces (PF) recon squad. They returned to the base camp 90 minutes later, and came under enemy fire immediately after leaving their boats. During the fire fight two VC were killed. Inside the bunkers the MPs found medical supplies, a Viet Cong flag a rifle and various documents which later proved to be of considerable intelligence value. No MPs or PFs were wounded in the engagement.
B Company Assigned River Patrol Unit Duties

        The members of A & C Company were eventually detached and reassigned other duties within their units organic mission.

      The Battalion transferred sole responsibility for staffing the River Patrol assignment to B Company.

February B Company River Patrol Unit members assisted an engineer unit in laying communications cable across the Dong Nai River near the bridge.
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27 February The first boats obtained to start the River Patrol Unit were replaced with six sleeker Boston Whalers, called "Skimmers," and the older 25 and 55 hp outboards were upgraded to newer 85 hp. Johnson’s. Several of the older and larger boats were kept for troop transport duties.
        Most of the back river tributaries in the Battalion Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR) were narrow, winding, and the banks were covered with trees and brush making them perfect ambush sites.
        When the tide went out the shallow tributaries were even harder for the boats to negotiate due to the low water level. As a result the larger PBR's were restricted to the main waterways and were only authorized to enter the smaller tributaries in extreme emergent circumstances.
        The smaller Boston Whaler "Skimmers" would be the workhorse of the unit and even they were restricted from using the small tributaries unless specifically assigned a special mission or to transport the ambush and recon teams.

April The B Company MPs decided to have an official group picture taken of the unit. The first photo was the formal pose. They followed the formal group photo with one that they felt was more befitting their personalities as "The River Rats."

        The photos were put in a frame back-to-back and hung in the unit building at the docks. Whenever any brass visited the boat docks they would turn the photo around from the "informal" side to the formal side until the visitors left
FORMAL SIDE
May B Company members began construction of a River Patrol Unit building by the boat docks.  If you can provide any further information on this assignment, please notify the History Project Manager via this Email Link.
21 June, 1600 hours A massive barge fire which began when a fuel barge loaded with diesel caught fire on the Dong Nai River required land and water patrols from the 720th Military Police Battalion to perform multiple duties. The fire which started accidentally quickly became a raging inferno when it spread to the barge’s cargo of fuel. Members of the B Company River Patrol unit checked for victims and assisted in the evacuation of other personnel and barges. Members of A Company set up and manned traffic control points on roadways leading to the area. The fire burned for 14 hours before being put out.
12 September At 2031 hours [8:31PM], a B Company River Patrol PBR apprehended four Vietnamese personnel on the sand ridge at Grid Coordinates [map location], YT012072, approximately 1,000 meters north of the Cogido Docks. One had no national identification card, the suspect was taken to 720th MP Battalion S-2 (Intelligence) for interrogation.

13 September At 2033 hours [8:33PM], D Company, 87th Infantry (Rifle Security) personnel at the Petroleum Oil Lubricant (POL) site reported they received 10 rounds of small arms fire from what they believe to be a sampan traveling north on the Dong Nai River from Checkpoint #9. B Company River Patrol PBR #69 was notified and checked the sampan finding it empty. They destroyed it at Grid Coordinates YT014045 with 6 rounds from their M-79, 40mm Grenade Launcher.

        SGT Zane K. Pucket, B Company, received minor fragmentation wounds to his abdomen while firing the M-79 Grenade Launcher at the sampan, was transported to 24th Evacuation Hospital, treated and released by Dr. Baldwin.
14 September At 0225 hours, B Company, PBR #67, spotted approximately 6 Vietnamese personnel carrying weapons on the west side of the Dong Nai River at Grid Coordinates YT018017 in the ARVN Area of Operation. They notified Thu Duc Advisors and requested that their ARVN unit conduct a sweep of the area. At 0420 hours on 15 September, Thu Duc Advisors advised they believed the personnel sighted by the PBR were members of an ARVN patrol that was in that area.
15 September At 1130 hours [11:30AM], a boat from the River Patrol, B Company, discovered the body of a Vietnamese male floating in the Dong Nai River at Grid Coordinates YT 015054. The body had no clothes or identification and was taken to Bien Hoa Provincial Hospital for disposition. The cause of death appeared to be drowning, there were no signs of violence on it.

Exact Date Unknown The River Patrol Unit removed a suspected enemy explosive devise found in the river by the boat docks under the Dong Nai River Bridge.

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