Henrico (APA 45) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 67 text:

Chief, first mark the right tangent, then the left tangent, then the water tank, then the lighthouse, then 'the 42' rock, then . . . A glance over the shoulder of a genius. .leez, how am I supposed to know where we are? First of all, that big yellow ball up there is the sun ' Oh boy. Peyton Place is still coming in strong.

Page 66 text:

N, , V . X'Ym,,M,,.,-f l ff ! Hi, Captain. DIVISICDN K X X dm Left to right: Sakurai QM3, Brennan QMSN, CarsonQM2, S1operQM2, Kemp QMCS, Missing from the picture: White SN

Page 68 text:

SPECIAL OPERATICDNS: VIETNAM A Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia, on the eastern seaboard of the lndochinese Peninsula, is divided into two states lying north and south of the 17 parallel - the Democratic Republic of Vietnam QNorth Vietnamp and the Republic Of Vietnam QSouth Vietnamij. lt comprises the three Vietnamese regions o Tonkin in the north, Annam in the center Qdivided between North and South Vietnamj, and Cochin China in the south, which were colonized by France during the second half of the nineteenth century. After a brief period of unity which ended in 1954, a part-antico1onial,, part -civil war that had raclted the country since World War 11 led to its division into two independent republics, one Communist and the other pro-Western. The political borders of Vietnam are China in the north and Laos and Cambodia in the west. Of the two republics, North Vietnam is the more populous, with nearly sixteen million inhabitants, compared to fourteen million in South Vietnam. Hanoi is the capital of North Vietnam, while Haiphong is its chief port. The capital and chief port of South Vietnam is Saigon, with an estimated population of 1,400,000. Recently, the political and military tension between the two countries increased to the point where the United States, in keeping with its military- aid agreement with the Republic of Vietnam, found it necessary to stage amphibious landings just south of the 17th parallel, in DaNang Bay and ten miles upstream from the mouth of the Hue River, supplementing the already present American and Vietnamese troops and providing reinforcements in the war against the Viet Cong. ln March, 1965 a task group, composed of the USS HENRICO and six other amphibious ships of the United States Seventh Fleet, entered DaNang Bay, South Vietnam and commenced an historic landing of United States Marineiper- sonnel, the fir st such operation since the Lebanon landing in 1958. This first landing was supple- mented by later amphibious assaults at Hue fifty miles up the coast from the scene of the original operation, and Chu Lai, fifty miles in the opposite direction. The HENRICO partici- pated in both of these later assau1ts,earning for herself and her crew the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. A Vital Element in the War in Viet Nam Ready for Battle