Swift Boats at War in Vietnam
The firsthand stories of the sailors who served aboard one of the Vietnam War’s most demanding naval assignments
Edited by Guy Gugliotta, John Yeoman, and Neva Sullaway
Swift Boats at War in Vietnam is an oral history told through the voices of the officers and enlisted sailors who patrolled Vietnam’s coastlines, rivers, and canals aboard small, fast, heavily armed naval vessels.
Drawing upon personal recollections, photographs, operational history, and extensive research, the book follows the Swift Boats from their earliest coastal search-and-inspection missions to their increasingly dangerous operations deep within Vietnam’s interior waterways.
These are stories of courage, friendship, fear, sacrifice, survival and tragic loss—shared by the people who experienced the war from the decks of the incredibly vulnerable 51-foot boat, with little protection (¼ inch aluminum alloy).