Migration
From the S&S archivesSeawolves on track of enemy
Stars and Stripes
September 21, 1969
YRBM-16, anchored in the Hau Giang River in 1969. (Jim Falk/Stars and Stripes)
YRBM-16, anchored in the Hau Giang River in 1969. (Jim Falk/Stars and Stripes)
Choppers fly over a canal near the Cambodian border, looking for signs of the enemy. (Jim Falk/Stars and Stripes)
The Seawolves' logo on a helicopter. (Jim Falk/Stars and Stripes)
pilots from Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) 3 wear red goggles to keep their eyes conditioned for night flying. (Jim Falk/Stars and Stripes)
CHAU DOC, Vietnam — Seawolves are nipping at Charley's heels.
This unit, officially dubbed Light Helicopter Attack Sq. 3, has been lending aerial fire support to U.S. and Vietnamese naval forces in the Mekong Delta area and the Rung Sat Special Zone since April, 1967.
That was when the Seawolves were commissioned to become the U.S. Navy's only attack helicopter squadron.
Now with a force of 30 UH1B Huey gunships operating in eight detachments, the squadron backs up the river assault craft, river patrol boats and Swift boats of Operation Sea Lords assigned to stop Charley's infiltration and catch him where they can in the network of rivers and canals which slice the southern section of Vietnam.
These gunships are the type the U.S. Army replaced with the UH1C in 1965. In fact, they are on loan to the Navy and the pilots and crewmen go through, four weeks of additional training at the Army helicopter school at Ft. Rucker, Ala., before being assigned to the squadron in Vietnam.
Typical of the detachments which form the squadron are the two choppers, eight pilots and nine crewmen which make up Det. 5.
Their home field is the YRBM 16 (yard repair, berthing and messing craft), anchored: on the Hau Giang River 110 miles west of Saigon and only 10 miles from the Cambodian border.
Their work shop is the system of rivers and canals and the paddies which run along the border from Chau Doc to the Gulf of Thailand.