Brown Water Sailors Rededicate Monument

[cec]

Brown Water Sailors Rededicate Monument
Story Number: NNS060727-02
Release Date: 7/27/2006 8:41:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew D. Leistikow, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Members of Naval Special Warfare Group (NSWG) 4 attended The Game Wardens of Vietnam Association, Inc.'s (GWVN) rededication of a monument and refurbished patrol boat in memory of their fallen shipmates at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, July 21.

"It's always good to take time to reflect on our past Sailors who served and certainly paid the ultimate sacrifice," said Commander, Riverine Group 1, Capt. Michael L. Jordon.

The obelisk, along with a West Coast copy, bears 290 names of fallen Sailors who gave their lives patrolling rivers, canals and the waters of the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam war.

The monument had been stored during construction of the NSWG 4 boathouse and was rededicated in front of the new boathouse.

“It was the most significant experience I had in the 40 years I was in the Navy,” said Tom W. Glickman, Task Force 116 staff operations officer in 1967.

“It’s one of the small things that we could give to those that made the supreme sacrifice,” added Jerry Gandy, vice president of the mid-Atlantic chapter of GMVN.

GMVN discovered the Patrol River Boat (PBR) in 2001. The Naval Historical Center purchased the boat and made it available as a static display at NSWG 4 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va.

“It’s an immediately recognizable symbol,” said Larry Weatherall, president of GWVN’s mid-Atlantic chapter. “For anyone who looks at this boat, it’s immediately recognizable for what era it was.”

The monument stands in its fifth and final location since its original dedication in August 1980.

http://www.news.navy.mil/search/disp...story_id=24838