These silent dailies from the Vietnam War show some of the U.S. Navy’s “brown water Navy” or riverine force. At the start of the film, troops board Armored Troop Carriers (ATC) and travel to the self propelled barracks ship APB-35 Benewah is seen, flagship for the Commander Task Force (CTF) 117, the Mobile Riverine Force operating in the Mekong Delta. In addition to serving as headquarters, she provided barracks space, medical facilities, stores issue and a myriad of other services to the sailors and soldiers operating with the Mobile Riverine Force and with the similar formations that succeeded that organization when it was disestablished late in August 1969. At 3:35, Armored Troop Carriers (ATC) are seen on the move. ATCs were often called Tangos from the phonetic alphabet for T, were LCM-6 landing craft modified for riverine patrol missions. They were used by the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) of the United States Army and Navy in the Vietnam War. They were also used by Republic of Vietnam Navy (RVNN) and Khmer National Navy.

Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies — including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com