From the Galley by Harold Payne (Payne.H@Sbcglobal Will Return in the Next Issue
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A PUBLICATION OF VOLUME 23, NUMBER 1 THE MOBILE RIVERINE FORCE ASSOCIATION SPRING 2014 War Widow Waited 35 Years for Phone Call From the Galley by Harold Payne (payne.h@sbcglobal will return in the next issue. Last spring, Harold Payne was in the chair at Fred Fromm’s barbershop at 15th Street He and his wife, Cherie, married in 1972. They raised two children, Chad and Rachel. Before the war, Harold had worked at Unconventional Warfare spent most of his life andof those Cornell who Avenue saw inaction Springfield. over Harold is Fiat Allis in Springfield. That job was gone a Vietnam veteran. Like many when he returned. He on Unconventional Boats to move on with life and never by M. B. Connolly Captain USN (Ret.) also owned a Phillips there, he came back determined working at the John Hobbs66 gas stationfactory. at 11thHe - But that day in Fred’s barber- again think about what he had But somewhere in There is nothing pretty about a Tango boat. In fact, most justshop, experienced. Harold revisited some- thing that happened to him in and Ash streets. of the River Assault Craft (RAC) lacked the lines and ap were the words he pearancethe boats ofand a classictheir crews boat. toEarly dispel on, thethe preformedunaware tagged opin- Vietnam, something that rever- theheard back that of day his on mind the our group as McHale’s Navy. It took a good while for- ine operations were done with professionalism, courage ions of the rest of the Navy in Vietnam. The early river beratedIt was throughoutAugust 17, 1969,his life. Wood This- is the story he told. beach in Tay Ninh: Harold Payne was on a beach in Harold Payne served on the APL- “TellWhat my ifwife the I loveguy and with virtually no fanfare. Hence, only we knew what 30 as part of the MRF in 1969 her.” weIn did earlyand we1969, took great pride and satisfaction in our stockSouth weekendVietnam, ina longthe States, way from but accomplishments.when troop lifts Harold was in the Navy, as- didn’t make it? Harold and major opera- What if somewhere there was a woman who 3signed days ofto peace a Mobile and Riverinemusic. Force along the didn’t know his fate, tions were waning much less his name. in anticipation of the - withdrawal of the Vam Co Dong River in Tay Ninh Province, bor never saw her husband again and never knew 9th Infantry, river what his final wish in this life was? What if? assault craft began dering Cambodia. An American patrol boat Tango 92-10 MRF TF-117 was docked at the river. On one of the boats The questions gained a louder voice as he to be deployed to got older. The wounds of those Vietnam years other Navy op-areas, was a South Vietnamese soldier. - ese soldier, either deliberately or by accident, had healed. He enjoyed attending reunions namely Giant Sling- The boat was armed with a 20-mm cannon - with an electric fire key. The South Vietnam of his outfit, where they could talk about the shot and other inter- war. Maybe it was time to take another step He told the story of the wounded soldier to engaged the trigger. The gun fired randomly toward “whole.” And so, Harold did some thing he had never done before. - dictionmanned operations.primar- onto the shore. Harold watched as the bullets riage, Harold had never said anything about churned up the beach. Theseily with op-areas PBRs wereand his wife, Cherie. In more than 30 years of mar commanded by PBR “You could see the rounds tracking right- toward a truck in which a couple of soldiers were sitting,” Harold recalls. “It was utter con it until 2003. Cherie knows what it would be like if the woman had lost her husband in war. officers.the public The relations “big ATC-Tango Medvac Boat MRF fusion and astonishment.” He knew what was Cherie told Harold that when he attended going to happen, but was helpless to stop it. Her reaction to Harold’s story was emphatic: ugly RACs” didn’t fit TF-117 “You have to find that woman.” and speedy PBR and The truck was hit and caught fire. One of imagein some of cases, the sleekwe were not really welcomed with open the soldiers inside was badly hurt. Harold wasHarold, one but of Haroldthe first held to reachhim as the they wounded waited the 2004 reunion of his Riverine outfit, he man as he crawled out. He was a stranger to should tell his story and ask for suggestions “I grabbed him and pulled him over,” he on how to find the man’s name and eventual arms. Likewise, with standing military procedure that the for a helicopter to take the man for treatment. fate. senior officer in the op-area was in command, care was The reunion that year was in Fort Mitchell, taken at first to ensure that the River Assault Division Before the helicopter arrived, the man said KY. Cherie and Harold talked about his story says. “It wasn’t the bullets; it was the shrapnel His buddies were amazed at what Harold officer was not senior to the commander of the op-area. from the truck that injured him.” on the way. Harold arrived in Fort Mitchell Heaven forbid that a RAC officer would have command committed to taking the next step. over a group of PBRs! That was one of the reasons that something“I told the to guy, Harold. “Hey, He buddy, clearly you said, can “Tell tell hermy our boats were moved around so frequently on our early wife I love her.” told them. They agreed that he owed it to that deploymentsinterdiction and out surveillance of Dong Tam. effort in III and IV Corps was wounded soldier to at least try to find him and made it home to tell his wife himself, then successfulThe integration because of of all the of amazing our boats capabilities into the general of the boatsNavy yourself when you get home,” says Harold. or, if he died, to find his widow, whoever and and the ingenuity and extraordinary efforts of the boat You know, like you do. But the other guy who wherever she was. If the guy had survived was with me, he looked at me and shook his helo and medcap platforms, river patrols, VN troop lifts, head like, “He’s not going to make it.” no harm done, but if he hadn’t? crewsand ambush and support operations personnel. became Gunfirecommon support, for river psyops,assault They suggested Harold contact Ralph A helicopter tookWhat the if? wounded soldier sent an email to Christopher telling the story away and the war went on just as before. Christopher. Someone had his e-mail address, Harold came home determined to put so when Harold returned to Springfield, he CONTINUED NEXT PAGE… craft after mid-1969. Try hiding a Tango in a rice paddy CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 some distance between himself and Vietnam. 2 • River Currents, Volume 23, Number 1 • Spring 2014 UNCONVENTIONAL Continued from previous page - looked like and did not fire on that for night ambush! Add the use of boat.lot of We noise had and some having success the in Zippofloat ing a Tango downstream making a (water cannon), the Monitors, Al- - the Zippo (flamethrower), Douche hang back and wait for the enemy just about any imaginable opera- to fire at the Tango. When Char tion and it can be argued that they phas and the ubiquitous Tango for Douche Boat ley ducked into his spider hole to- avoid the Tango’s response, the Zippo Boat MRF TF-117 Zippo moved in and filled the spi becameWaterborne the backboneGuard Post of (WBGP) the Navy or der hole with napalm. The enemy inshore effortsAmbush in 1969 and 1970. inand the we Delta all became was NOT bored a slow with learner. just They figured that out pretty quickly interdiction operations was ham- - The use of RAC in some of the floating down the river every night defensive capabilities of the boats knowing that they were cross peredmade themby a perfectlack of forspeed, ambush but opthe- ing despite our efforts. Finally, we devised(appropriately a technique named that Irma) nobody out available made it feasible to station Monitors MRF TF-117 Alpha (ASPB) TF-117 believed. We sent the Douche Boat erations. The large number of boats- infrared spotter, it was an effective ways that were crossed by enemy grenades hanging on the reinforc- device in stopping many crossings at night floating and hosing down craftpersonnel every entering click on the many Republic water of ing rods around the superstructure the bank closest to the Cambodian of the boats where they were read- Unconventional Underway Border. When the enemy got a blast out of Cambodia.Operations of water that could knock a hooch Vietnam from Cambodia. While it is down,right behind he often Irma! responded by firing ilyutilized accessible Beehive to allrounds hands withtopside. no hardand its to hidedefensive a Tango capabilities boat, the flightwere in static operations, their utility hisWe weapon got information. and the Zippofrom wasthe The 105 Monitor perimeter defense - deck provided a high vantage point wasJust exercised as the RAC with proved success versatile in un- Consider that the plain old - tion of supplies out of the Parrot’s delaytion Devices setting. at each Water Borne - such that it could stand and fight. - - Army intel folks that the interrup GuardIn ambush, Post (WBGP) two Night were Observa essen- using a heavy duty rope across the tial to cover upstream and down- derwaytion services operations were amongstas well.