The US Navy did not possess any inland river patrol forces prior to the Vietnam War and had only a handful of coastal patrol boats, despite the lessons of our country's past and of other contemporaries. France, in her ill fated campaign to maintain the Indochina colonies, used the rivers of Southeast Asia extensively to transport and support their military forces. The South Vietnamese Army and Navy continued the practice. American advisors noted their operations and by 1968, three naval task forces comprised of over 600 vessels were operating on the waterways and coasts of Vietnam. The author, LCDR Jason Scheffer, USN tells the compelling story of of the rise and fall of the "Brown Water Navy".

A true war story of combat on the murky waterways of the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. Based on his letters and pictures sent home, Charles Hunt allows the reader a glance through a window into the mind, heart, and emotions of a combat sailor as well as glimpse his reflections of the Vietnam era as a retired veteran decades later.

The Union inland navy that became the Mississippi Squadron is one of the greatest, yet least studied aspects of the Civil War. Without it, however, the war in the West may not have been won, and the war in the East might have lasted much longer and perhaps ended differently. The men who formed and commanded this large fighting force have, with few exceptions, not been as thoroughly studied as their army counterparts. The vessels they created were highly specialized craft which operated in the narrow confines of the Western rivers in places that could not otherwise receive fire support. Ironclads and gunboats protected army forces and convoyed much needed supplies to far-flung Federal forces. They patrolled thousands of miles of rivers and fought battles that were every bit as harrowing as land engagements yet inside iron monsters that created stifling heat with little ventilation. This book is about the intrepid men who fought under these conditions and the highly improvised boats in which they fought. The tactics their commanders developed were the basis for many later naval operations. Of equal importance were lessons learned about what not to do. The flag officers and admirals of the Mississippi Squadron wrote the rules for modern riverine warfare.

This edited volume explores stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations (SSTR), highlighting the challenges and opportunities they create for the US Navy. The book argues that SSTR operations are challenging because they create new missions and basing modes, and signal a return to traditional naval methods of operation. Mission accomplishment requires collaboration with a wide range of actors representing governmental, non-governmental and commercial organizations, which often creates politically and bureaucratically charged issues for those involved. However, although from a traditional warfighting perspective, stability operations might be viewed as having little to do with preparing for high-intensity conventional combat, these kinds of operations in fact correspond to traditional missions related to diplomacy, engagement, maritime domain awareness, piracy and smuggling, and intervention to quell civil disturbances. SSTR operations can be therefore depicted as a return to traditional naval operations, albeit operations that might not be universally welcomed in all quarters.