In Vietnam these days fighting ground forces from both camps are keeping a closer watch over the sea.
If they happen to be Viet Cong, they're also keeping closer tabs on the rivers. Particularly the Saigon River.
Hard-hitting U.S. Navy destroyers, the sleek greyhounds of naval action off Vietnam, are the cause of it all. Almost daily they are demonstrating - sometimes in wondrous ways - that they will go anywhere and do anything to save a life. Or take it.
Three ships of Destroyer Division 92, which returned to their homeport of Long Beach February 7 following a six-month deployment with the Seventh Fleet, will vouch for this.
While steaming in Southeast Asian waters, the ships carried out a multitude of jobs ranging from humanitarian speed runs to the obliteration of hard-rock Viet Cong positions.
The ships are the destroyers Ozbourn (DD-846), Chandler (DD-717) and Mansfield (DD-728), whose skippers respectively are Commanders Marvin D. Nelson Jr., John R. Crumpton Jr. and Donald P. Nellis, all of Long Beach.
Commander of the division is Captain G.A. Mitchell, also of Long Beach, who led the ships into Long Beach harbor aboard his flagship, the Ozbourn.
During operations against Viet Cong forces in Vietnam, DesDiv 92 ships fired 7,000 rounds, or 280 tons, of five-inch projectiles at enemy positions. This gunfire damaged or destroyed more than 500 enemy structures, 4 loaded supply trucks, 18 junks and sampans, 7 bridges, 3 automatic weapons emplacements, 3 bunkers and a cave.
The destroyers also are credited with killing more than 125 and wounding over 100 enemy troops.
The Mansfield alone hurled more than 5,000 rounds of five-inchers at the Viet Cong in operations that ranged from the coastline to more than 13 miles up the Saigon River. The ship is credited with destroying 7 bridges and more thatn 350 enemy structures.
In addition to combat operations, DesDiv 92 ships participated in humanitarian projects designed to promote better understanding between the United States and friendly Asian nations.
Mansfield sailors donated more than 100 pints of blood for use in Vietnam. They also donated toys to the Onesiphorus Children's Home in Hong Kong.
SAIGON (AP) - One round from North Vietnamese shore batteries hit the 2,200-ton U.S. Navy destroyer Mansfield in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing one crewman and wounding two others, the Navy announced today.
The Navy said the round Monday punched a hole four feet in diameter at the base of the destroyer's fire stack and cut a few lighting cables. Forty-seven more rounds fell into the water around the ship.
The Mansfield, which has six five-inch guns, was firing on waterborne supply craft near Dong Hoi, about 35 miles north of the demilitarized zone.
Shrapnel penetrated the forward fire room and a passageway but inflicted only light damage, the Navy said.
"THE DESTROYER responded by returning numerous rounds of fire from her five-inch guns until the coastal defense site became silent," a Navy communique said. "The casualties were then evacuated to the anti-submarine aircraft carrier USS Hornet."
It wasn't planned that way, but Bank of America is providing custom-made checks for one of the Navy's most distinguished ships.
While both the bank and the ship's officers and crew are delighted with the arrangement, it never would have happened if it hadn't been for the skipper, Commander Paul Anderson of the destroyer USS Mansfield.
Last month while the Mansfield was in San Diego on a six-week refresher training program, Commander Anderson, a BankAmericard holder, received a brochure advertising Bank of America's new California scenic checks.
One of the 10 scenes is the San Diego skyline and harbor with a ship in the foreground.
Although the photograph was only one-fourth the actual check size, Commander Anderson thought he recognized the barely visible number in the ship's hull as the Mansfield's "728."
WHEN THE VESSEL RETURNED to is Long Beach home port, Commander Anderson went to the bank's Terminal Island branch and inspected a poster-size photograph of the San Diego scene. It clearly showed the pictured ship was indeed the Mansfield.
Although the Mansfield appeared in the San Diego shot purely by chance, the bank could hardly have chosen a more deserving subject.
The Mansfield has been in continuous commission for the past 25 years, undergoing heavy combat duty in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and has participated in two NASA space shot recovery operations.
Recently back from two years duty in Vietnam - and scheduled to return in September - it currently holds the record for the most rounds fired by a destroyer in Vietnam and was one of the prime reasons its squadron, Destroyer Division 92, was recently cited by the Secretary of the Navy as one of the most outstanding destroyer units in the Pacific Fleet.
WHEN the bank learned of all this, it made an enlargement of the San Diego check with a personal greeting from Board Chairman Louis B. Lundborg and formally presented it to Commander Anderson and his crew of the ship's wardroom. Plans also are being made to use the photograph on the ships official stationery.
As things worked out, the Navy, the Mansfield and Bank of America all profited by the coincidence - and Commander Anderson's sharp eye.
The Navy can boast that thousands of Californians will be writing their personal checks over a picture of one of its proudest ships.
The 295-man Mansfield crew can enjoy the most personalize bank checks ever offered anyone.
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