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| ** IN MEMORIAM ** |
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Captain Burt Witham – the first Commander of Task Force 116 and
Operation Game Warden – will be missed.
Click
here to view an oral history
interview from 2007.
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PBR Rescue on Combat Zone |
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| Check Listings |
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"Patrol Boat Rescue, Vietnam" is the 13th episode in the "Combat
Zone" series which can be seen on the Military Channel. Please,check the schedule for the next showing.
Episode
Description:
"Vietnam, 1969 - Viet Cong use the North Saigon River to cross
into Cambodia and stock up on arms and supplies. With strategy, planning and
stealth, thirty US Navymen on six small boats, outmanned and outgunned, fight
and win a hard, fast battle."
NOTE:
The Military
Channel is going to show the "Patrol Boat Rescue" on the Combat Zone Series
again on February 8 at 10:00 AM and February 9 at 01:00 AM. |
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Become A Member — Join
Gamewardens of Vietnam and enjoy the benefits of being a member of the oldest
continuously operating Vietnam Veterans Group in the United States!
»
CONTACT INFO
John W.
Woody–President
Gamewardens of Vietnam Association, Inc.
PO Box
701786
San Antonio, TX 78270
1 (866) 220-7477
Email:
President@tf116.org
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2008 Reunion |
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Photo
Gallery: The 2008 Reunion Photo Gallery is live!
It's still a bit lean,
though - so don't forget to send your photos to
Larry Bissonnette to
have them included here!
Visit the
Gamewardens 2008 Reunion Gallery » |
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 Vietnam War's 'river rats' gather to honor fallen friends, make
new ones
By Hattie Brown Garrow
The Virginian-Pilot
©July
20, 2008
VIRGINIA BEACH
By the time Bob Tipton attended his
first reunion with fellow Vietnam War veterans, he'd forgotten dates, names and
faces - but not the brotherhood they shared.
As members of Task Force 116, the Navy's
river patrol force, Tipton and the other men counted on one another to stay
alive. More »
Didn't get your t-shirt?? Shop for
your Reunion 2008
t-shirt - choose from CCB,
IUWG,
LST,
MKI,
MKII,
MSB,
Seawolves,
STABS, or
YRBM! |
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 — From
Footnote™ - Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial allows you to search by
name, unit, hometown, or simply browse a 5 gigapixel image of the panels of the
memorial, then leave a tribute, a story or photograph about any of the 58,256
veterans listed there. More
»
— Read the
latest GWVN Newsletter »
—
Comprehensive VIETNAM Reference Guide »
— HERE'S HOW THEY DO
IT! This is a video of a suicide VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosion
Device). The explosions are definitely not like the movies. We were actually
out on patrol that day and heard the blast from about 7 miles away. Watch the
slow moving dump truck moving toward you in the left lane. You'll see some
Iraqi Army humvees pull up behind it before it blows. No Americans hurt that
day. View the video »
—
Just
Released! From Bill Ferguson – Laughter on the Rivers of Death: One
Sailor's Humorous Experience – Now available at our Ship's Store
»
Read the
narrative copy from All Hands
magazine [June 1970] about the USS Harnett County during Operation Giant
Slingshot and view a copy of the Presidential Unit Citation »
Space-A Military Travel
Information from the U.S. Air Force HQ Air Mobility Command »
Featured on our Poems & Stories page:
Once I Was A Navyman
Gamewardens of Vietnam
Association would like to express our appreciation to FTCM E. A. Hughes, (SS),
USN (Ret) for permitting its use on our website:
I originally wrote
"Once I Was A Navyman" in 1958 while attending Denver University, as an English
102 assignment. This was after my first hitch in the Navy. In less than a year
I was back in the Navy and served another 20 years. I felt the need to say
something more about my experiences in the Navy for those 20 years, so I
updated my original "Once I Was A Navyman" to reflect some of those
experiences... more »
Featured on our Poems & Stories page:
A Short & Savage Ambush
By Ivan Travnicek,
Submitted by Richard Cragg.
In the dim light of dawn on 24 May 1967,
a two boat Navy patrol was silently drifting down a South Vietnamese river when
Vietcong machine-gun fire erupted.... more »
DFAS
Retired Pay Newsletter »
It's Official!! DD-214's are now online through
the National Personnel Records Center
(NPRC).
Vietnam vets' experience on boats utilized in Iraq
— 7/9/2006 By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY.
Read the full article
»
Brown Water Sailors Rededicate Monument (Navy
Newsstand article - 7/27/2006) »
Read CAPT. Kenneth Meek's speech here »
Read presentation by Jack Lynch
here »
 Riverine Warfare website
»
East Coast Memorial Monument and MK I PBR Rededication
Ceremony — July 21, 2006
Details Here »
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Vietnam Vets to
Rededicate Monument and Vietnam-Era River Patrol Boat at Little Creek
Amphibious Base.
More
»
 "On
Memorial Day" — The poem read by Tom Glickman's daughter, Cyndi
Szurgot, at the dedication of the Brown Water Navy memorial at the Virginia
Beach Veteran's Memorial »
Vietnam Unit Memorial
Monument request for donations »
View the Vietnam
Unit Memorial Monument program online »
Mystery Solved! Sam
Eaton's account on the fate of YRBM21 »
Enjoy hundreds of clips of
Vietnam-era music
»
Naval Special Warfare Comes
Through at Crunchtime »
NSW boat crews search for Stennis
survivors By JOC Scott Boyle Naval Special Warfare Task Group Katrina Public
Affairs.
 Dedication Ceremony & SEAL Capability Exercise pictures from
NAB Little Creek, VA, July 18th & 19th, 2003. Many photos from members!
[opens in new window]»
Commander Naval Forces
Vietnam (COMNAVFORV) Monthly Summaries »
Brown
Water Navy And Delta Army Vietnam Veterans Message Board »
 Herb
Stephan's dedication speech from the ceremony at the Naval Amphibious Base
Special Warfare Compound at Little Creek, VA, July 18, 2003
»
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Brown Water Sailors Rededicate
Monument |
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Story Number:
NNS060727-02
Release Date: 7/27/2006 8:41:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd
Class Matthew D. Leistikow, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Members of Naval
Special Warfare Group (NSWG) 4 attended The Game Wardens of Vietnam
Association, Inc.'s (GWVN) rededication of a monument and refurbished patrol
boat in memory of their fallen shipmates at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek,
July 21.
"It's always good to take time to
reflect on our past Sailors who served and certainly paid the ultimate
sacrifice," said Commander, Riverine Group 1, Capt. Michael L. Jordon.
The obelisk, along with a West Coast
copy, bears 290 names of fallen Sailors who gave their lives patrolling rivers,
canals and the waters of the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam war.
The monument had been stored during
construction of the NSWG 4 boathouse and was rededicated in front of the new
boathouse.
“It was the most significant
experience I had in the 40 years I was in the Navy,” said Tom W. Glickman,
Task Force 116 staff operations officer in 1967.
“It’s one of the small things
that we could give to those that made the supreme sacrifice,” added Jerry
Gandy, vice president of the mid-Atlantic chapter of GMVN.
GMVN discovered the Patrol River Boat
(PBR) in 2001. The Naval Historical Center purchased the boat and made it
available as a static display at NSWG 4 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek,
Va.
“It’s an immediately
recognizable symbol,” said Larry Weatherall, president of GWVN’s
mid-Atlantic chapter. “For anyone who looks at this boat, it’s
immediately recognizable for what era it was.”
The monument stands in its fifth and
final location since its original dedication in August
1980. |
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060721-N-5330L-117 Virginia Beach, Va. (July 21,
2006) – A child learns from his grandfather the history of the Brown Water
Navy and some information about the names on the monument at Naval Amphibious
Base Little Creek, Va. The Gamewardens of Vietnam Association (GWVN)
rededicated their East Coast Monument and a refurbished MK1 River Patrol Boat
in a ceremony for the fallen Brown Water Sailors whose names are engraved upon
its surface. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew
Leistikow (RELEASED)
Click
for close-up »
060721-N-5330L-002 Virginia Beach, Va. (July 21,
2006) - Tom Glickman of the Gamewardens of Vietnam Association (GWVN) takes a
moment to look at the 290 names on the East Coast Monument at Naval Amphibious
Base Little Creek, Va. GWVN rededicated their East Coast Monument and a
refurbished MK1 River Patrol Boat in a ceremony for the fallen Brown Water
Sailors whose names are engraved upon its surface. U.S. Navy photo by Mass
Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew Leistikow (RELEASED)
Click
for close-up » |
|
 View the entire contents of
the book:
A Day In The Life Of The Brown
Water Navy.
A rare book by LTJG John. F. McGuire that outlines an
"average" day on The Mekong Delta in a stunning pictorial fashion.
[PDF document 103K] »
 Video — we've got previews of videos
available on our ship's store. Take a sneak peek at Vietnam February 22nd, 1969 or Gamewardens Reunion in New
Orleans »
 Memories of Tom
Glickman, staff officer, CTF 116 1968-1969
here »
 The official Gamewardens of Vietnam
Newsletter — Brown Water Log. We're working on digitizing back issues
— all the way back to 1968! View our archives
here »
All Hands — View the complete
November 1966 or
April 1978 edition of All Hands magazine
»
 Photo Gallery — Close to 300 photos in our
photo gallery with more being added often! See the
images that our members have shared with us here
»
Feedback — This is your site, so please
let us know your
thoughts by contacting the
webmaster, Larry
Bissonnette via email »
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Scholarship Fund
Newsletter Fund
Website Fund
PBR Maintenance Fund
General
Fund
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