USS Benewah (APB-35) - Vietnam

Vietnam

In July 1966, Benewah entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for conversion and modernization preparatory to her return to active service. She was recommissioned on 28 January 1967.

Following a week of training at the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia, the ship put to sea for the Far East. After stops at Rodman in the Canal Zone and at Pearl Harbor, Benewah reached Vietnam on 22 April. Upon arrival, she became flagship for the Commander, Task Force (TF) 117, the Mobile Riverine Force operating in the Mekong Delta. Except for an occasional trip to Japan for repairs, Benewah spent the next 44 months at various locations in the Mekong Delta. In 1968-69, "Benewah" spent most of its time in the Mekong River near the Ninth Infantry division base at Dong Tam or an alternate anchorage near Ben Tre. 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 1968. The barracks ship frequently suffered enemy fire, and her guns went into action on numerous occasions. In May and early June 1970, Benewah participated in the incursion into Cambodian territory to support forces interdicting the Viet Cong supply lines running through that country.