A Vietnam Journey: My tours with the Brown Water and Blue water Navy Task Force 116 Riverine Patrol Force and Tonkin Gulf Yankee Station

By Tom Johnson RMCS (SW) USN (Ret)

U.S. Navy Radioman Tom Johnson had the experience of serving back-to-back tours to Vietnam, one with the brown water Navy and one with the blue water Navy, which if not unique was likely not common either. This is a narrative of his journey from boot camp to the Mekong Delta Vietnam and his tour aboard a WWII LST, the USS Jennings County, as part of the TF 116 Riverine Force. He recounts life aboard this river patrolling LST as she plied the river systems of the Mekong Delta with her detachments of PBR patrol boats and Seawolf helicopters. The period covered was from 1967 to 1968, which included the January 1968 Tet offensive. Tom would return for a second tour shortly after completing his tour aboard the USS Jennings County and returning home where he reported aboard his new command the USS Stribling. In January 1969 the USS Stribling departed Mayport, Florida on a long sea voyage to the Tonkin Gulf off the Vietnamese coast and deployment with the blue water navy where Gun line and Yankee Station duties kept the ship busy. The Stribling remained on station in the Tonkin Gulf until August 1969 when she returned to Mayport. Tom starts his narrative when he joins the Navy and goes through his boot camp period, his first year in Key West then a six-month Radioman school after then his deployments to Vietnam. In all he spent the last two-and-a-half years of his first four-year enlistment either deployed to Vietnam, preparing to deploy or traveling to, or from, that country. This is his recounting of his tours in Vietnam and is written as a personal recounting only and not as a historical narrative.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1520635087
• ISBN13: 9781520635088
• Release Date: April 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"