Navy's new riverine boat group based Virginia Beach

This is from the Department of HUH?- Don'taskmeIdon'tknowIjustgothere. Gist of the Times Dispatch story is that the NAVY is also getting into the riverboat business. The NAVY is "to relieve a Marine boat force guarding (Haditha Dam) .... generates hydroelectric power for Baghdad..... The first Navy riverine squadron will simply take the wheels of the boats the Marines have been using." Doesn't make sense. Where is the memo?

"The Navy's new riverine boat group is still unpacking at its new headquarters at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach. It does not yet have any boats. But its first squadron is due to leave for Iraq early next year.

And within a few years, the Navy plans to assemble three squadrons of 12 riverine boats apiece and deploy them on rotation to the world's trouble spots.

The Navy is still considering the design of the boats, said Capt. Michael L. Jordan, commanding officer of the riverine group.

But in general they will be 30 to 40 feet long, able to jet through the water at 45 mph, lightly armored against small-arms fire and equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers.

Jordan said the boats are ideal for tactical patrols, stopping suspicious vessels in search of insurgents, weapons or other contraband.

Each 12-boat squadron could carry 200 Marines for quick assaults.

The boats will be faster versions of the swift boats the Navy used to battle Viet Cong guerillas 40 years ago in the Mekong Delta.

Military analysts say the Navy riverine boats would be useful in many parts of the world, including the Philippines, Indonesia and the coast of Africa.

The riverine squadrons will assemble a total of 224 personnel, 150 of whom will operate the boats. That type of duty attracts sailors who crave action.

"I wanted to be the tip of the spear," said Lt. John D. John, 32, the operations officer of the first riverine squadron.

His squadron is scheduled to deploy to Iraq next spring, to relieve a Marine boat force guarding a huge dam that impounds a lake and generates hydroelectric power for Baghdad. Haditha Dam, on the Euphrates River in al Anbar province 130 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been under the Marines' protection for two years.

The boats, which were flown into Iraq and trucked to the dam, patrol the lake on one side of the dam and the river on the other. No insurgents have attacked the dam so far, Jordan said.

The first Navy riverine squadron will simply take the wheels of the boats the Marines have been using. The Navy will gradually substitute its own boats as they are built." BILL GEROUX

TimesDispatch.com | River gunboat force gears up