A couple of weeks into our arrival at SEA FLOAT, three of us got a ride on a "heavy" -- Zippo boat, I think -- out to the ARL that was anchored off Square Bay at the West entrance to the Song Cau Lon.  The USS KRISHNA (ARL-38) was about 5 miles off shore.  As we plowed through the muddy waters of Square Bay, one of the guys on the boat told us that during high tide, the water in the bay was about 10-15 feet deep.  When the tide went out, you had to know where the channel was or you'd wind-up stuck on a mud many squre mile mud flat until the tide came in.  Ugh.
 
Well, we got to the KRISHNA and got our business done, but the heavy wasn't going back any time soon.  So, we had to scrounge a ride back.  We watched the movie and slept out on deck than night, finding as comfortable place as we could.

 

 

 

 

The next day, in the afternoon, we found out that a Huey was going back to SEA FLOAT.  The problem was that they could only take two guys.  I got the short straw and stayed behind.  I think I was aboard KRISHNA for three nights.  I radioed in to the TOC at SEA FLOAT to update my OIC on my progress once a day.  On the fourth day, we had a VNN Landing Ship Support Large (LSSL) come alongside.  One of the guys said that they were going to SEA FLOAT and asked if I wanted a ride?  You bet!  And off I went.
 
The LSSL was about 158 feet long and was built for the USN in World War 2.  The LSSL was a converted Landing Craft Infantry that had been modified to a gunboat configuration to support landings.  The Americans had given seven LSSLs and five of a similar type, the LCI(L), to the VNN in 1965.  The LSSL carried a 3/50 slow fire forward, two twin 40mm guns, four or five twin 20mm guns, and some .30 or .50 Browning machine guns.  The only American aboard was an advisor.  The LT was happy to see an American face in the sea of Vietnamese faces.  He took me to the wardroom for a cup of coffiee and told me about what it was like to be an advisor aboard this ship.  The VNN crew acted like they were somehow immune to the war.  If these guys were any more laid back, they'd be in a coma.  He typically woke up in the night and walked around the ship where he found security watches asleep!  He was hoping to get off soon and turn everything over to another advisor. 
 
The LSSL Nyguen Van Tru (HQ-225) left the KRISHNA anchored off Square Bay, sailed due South and then East and then North around the Ca Mau Penninsula until it came to the Song Bo De that was the entrance to SEA FLOAT.  The crew of the LSSL was at GQ when we started up the river.  I had scrounged a flak jacket and steel helmet and accompanied the American LT on the bridge of the LSSL.  We were in Indian country as soon as we started up river.  Shortly the river forked; the right fork was the Song Dam Doi (that ran roughly Northeast) and the left fork was the Song Cau Lon that ran East to West.  We took the left fork.
 
After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived a a bunch of barges anchored in the middle of the river -- SEA FLOAT.  We brought the LSSL alongside and tied up.  I bid the advisor and is opposite number goodbye and thanked profusely for my ride home.  Boy, was I glad to get off that target!

 

 

 

 

On or about 2 July 1970, KRISHNA came up the Bo De to the Cau Lon Rivers and to SEA FLOAT.  Her arrival was short lived.  Neither her bow or stern anchors could get enough hold to keep her in position when the tide started to go out and the river current was between 6 and 8 knots.  KRISHNA started to drag anchor, so she raised anchor and sailed back down the rivers to get larger ones.  By 5 July 1970 she had returned and had performed a lift-out of PCF-52 for repairs on the pontoon along side.  On the night of 5 July about 2200, a VC sapper team floated a mine down river that wedged between the hull and the pontoon.  The explosion blew a 20' by 20' hole in herside that extended 10' below the waterline.  Fortunately, ship's company was watching the evening movie.  The only casualty was Swift boat sailor that was killed when the accomodation ladder hit him in the head.  The ship's laundry was destroyed and the pontoon sank alongside.  KRISHNA raised anchor later the next day and sailed to Saigon for emergency repairs in dry dock.  KRISHNA never returned to SEA FLOAT.

 

  

 

Four months after my trip from KRISHNA to SEA FLOAT aboard HQ-225, the same LSSL was sunk by a night sapper attack while anchored in the river as a waterborne guardpost.  At SEA FLOAT, a joint U.S.-Vietnamese operation, waterborne guardpost was assumed by a VNN LSSL and an American gas turbine gunboat or PG.  The VC sappers floated two mines made of a cut-in-two 55 gallon oil drum filled with C4 explosive.  The mines were connected by about a hundred feet of cable.  When the current carried the drums down on the LSSL, the cable snagged the anchor chain and the current slammed the mines into the ship amidships.  Both mines went off and broke the back of the LSSL.  She went down in about 4-1/2 to 5 minutes, taking with her 28 Vietnamese.  The survivor count would have been higher except that many of the crew had gone below to get personal items and the ship capsized as it sank.  The wreck of HQ-225 is still there.