03/08/2007

Associated Press

A riverboat squadron departed Thursday for Iraq, the first deployment of Navy swift boats to a war zone since Vietnam.

About 100 members of the Riverine Squadron 1 will integrate with Marines patrolling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, eventually replacing the Marine force. They will patrol those waters to combat terrorist operations.

"The missions, the formations, tactics, techniques and procedures are pretty much the same as they were 35 years ago," Cmdr. Bill Guarini said.

After Vietnam, internal waterways operations largely became a function of the Marines and of Naval special warfare units. One year ago, however, the Navy announced it was adding "brown water" warfare to its traditional "bluewater" role.

During Vietnam, the Navy patrolled the Mekong River delta with 500 swift boats.

To prepare for their Iraq deployment, officers and sailors of the Riverine Squadron attended the Marines Corps' combat infantry school at Camp Lejeune. They learned combat techniques, land navigation and how to the handle the M-4 machine gun, which each sailor will carry while patrolling the Euphrates.

Once they were done at the Marine's infantry school, the sailors headed to nearby Cape Fear River, also in North Carolina.

The 35-foot Riverine Assault Craft, built in the 1980s and similar to the military's Vietnam-era swift boats, have been in mothballs before they were needed in Iraq. Laden with machine guns, including powerful .50-caliber guns at the front and rear, the aluminum-hull boats can run a river at 45 mph, powered by a pair of diesel engines and two waterjets.

The unit, based at the Navy's Little Creek amphibious base in Norfolk, is part of the Navy's Expeditionary Combat Command.

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On the Net:

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command: http://www.necc.navy.mil/index.htm

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Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com