Historical Experience
A wide range of riverine craft were used by the allies, both before, and during the formalization of the US Navy Brown Water Navy, in 1964–1965. Foremost were the surplus World War II US naval crafts; LCMs, LCVPs, LSMs, PGMs, MTBs, LSSLs, etc. One of the most popular riverine craft was the all-steel LCM which converted nicely into a naval monitor, and was used by the French during the first Indochina war; and later by the US and South Vietnamese Navies. However, The French, during their war in Vietnam (1945–1954), had been heavily inspired by the US Navy LCVP, which they had received from the US, as part of the United States massive assistance program to fight communism (US Forces were fighting in Korea, at that time, and could only give material aid). The French took the LCVP design and created an all new, and as it turned out, the only "original" or entirely new boat built for riverine warfare during the French Indochina war; the STCAN (a corruption of the acronym STCN, which stood for the French equivalent of the US Navy's BuShips, which read Service Technique de Construction Navale). The French STCAN was built of steel, approximately 40 feet (12 m) long, "V" hulled, with a shiplike bow, was armed with one .50 cal machine gun, three .30 cal machine guns, and eight crewmen.
Read more about this topic: Mobile Riverine Force
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or experience:
“It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A parent who from his own childhood experience is convinced of the value of fairy tales will have no difficulty in answering his child’s questions; but an adult who thinks these tales are only a bunch of lies had better not try telling them; he won’t be able to related them in a way which would enrich the child’s life.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)