Swift Boats (PCFs) and the Vietnam War

Swift Boats (PCFs) and the Vietnam War. Ninety-Two Swifts Deployed to Vietnam, From 1965 until their 1973 Transfer to the South Vietnam Navy. , Swift Boat Operations , The U.S. Navy employed Patrol Craft Fast (PCF) or Swift Boats in its coastal river operations of the Vietnam War. From 1965 to 1972, Swift Boats based all along the coast of the Republic of Vietnam searched for North Vietnamese steel-hulled ships, junks and other craft attempting to deliver arms and munitions to enemy forces ashore. In Operation Market Time, U.S. Navy Swift Boat and other units, U.S. Coast Guard, and South Vietnamese naval forces sank or captured numerous enemy vessels and frustrated Hanoi's seaborne infiltration efforts. The commander of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., sent Swift Boats into South Vietnam's rivers in his Sealords campaign that helped wrest control of the vital Mekong Delta region from the enemy. Under the command and coordination of Coastal Squadron One, Swift Boats assigned Coastal Divisions 11 through 16 operated from bases at An Thoi, Danang, Cat Lo, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nhon, and Chu Lai in South Vietnam., Swift Boat Characteristics , The U.S. Navy adapted the Swift Boat (PCF), built by the Sewart Seacraft Company of Louisiana to service offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, for its combat missions in Vietnam. The first eighty-four boats sent to Vietnam, Mark 1 PCFs, were aluminum-hulled, fifty feet in length, had a beam of thirteen feet six inches, a draft of three feet ten inches, and a displacement of twenty-two tons. Their 475 horsepower diesel engines turned two propellers giving the Swift Boat a maximum speed of twenty-five knots. A junior officer and five enlisted Sailors formed the crew. The PCF's weaponry included twin .50-caliber machine guns mounted above the pilot house and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted atop an 81-mm mortar (called an over-and-under mount) aft. As patrol craft, these vessels were not commissioned or named as larger Navy warships were, nevertheless, the title "Swift Boat Sailor" was distinction enough for any Navy man during the Vietnam War.