Riverine success in Iraq shows need for naval quick-reaction force

Riverine success in Iraq shows need for naval quick-reaction force
U.S. NAVY
By MATTHEW M. BURKE
Stars and Stripes
Published: October 29, 2012

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jobey French, a boatswain's mate assigned to Riverine Command Boat 803 from Riverine Squadron 2, mans an MK-44 mini machine gun while conducting security escort operations for ships transiting out to sea through the Intracoastal Waterway in North Carolina, during Exercise Bold Alligator 2012 on Feb. 1.

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — When the U.S. Navy’s Riverine forces were resurrected six years ago to secure Iraq’s rivers and coastal waterways, they functioned much as the highly decorated river rats of the Mekong Delta did in Vietnam. Their success has given new life to the unit and the strategy.

In Iraq, Riverine forces became a quick reaction force — capable of search-and-seizure, insertion or extraction — on swift, agile boats with heavy-caliber weaponry. Between March 2007 and October 2011, the Riverines carried out more than 2,000 missions, trained Iraqi River Police, screened detainees and discovered weapons caches while flying 667 unmanned aerial vehicle hours.

Army and Navy river units were dismantled after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 and the Riverines’s future was in limbo when the Iraq war wound down last year. The Navy, however, has decided it has an enduring need for these quick and lethal small boat fighters.

``Just because you don’t need a tool right this second, why would you throw it away?’’ asked Chief Petty Officer William Squires, who is training to command one of the boats. ``It gives us capability to dominate inland waterways… It’s mind-boggling what we can do with four boat patrols and the weaponry we have.’’
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