Week of June 4
On June 1, 1967, Task Force 117, the Mobile Riverine Force, became operational. It was a joint U.S. Army-Navy task force whose goal was to search out and eliminate Việt Cộng elements in the waterways of the Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long (Mekong Delta). During operations, Navy gunboats and landing crafts offloaded Army infantry units for amphibious assaults against enemy positions in the delta. The task force was disestablished in 1969 after the award of a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism for actions between January and July of that year.1
1 Graham A. Cosmas, United States Army in Vietnam: MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967 (Wash DC: Center of Military History, 2006), pp. 312–13; George L. MacGarrigle, United States Army in Vietnam: Combat Operations: Taking the Offensive, 1966–1967 (Wash DC: Center of Military History, 1998), pp. 401, 411–14; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, Ca.: ABC-CLIO, 2011), pp. 764–65, Presidential Unit Citation, Naval History and Heritage Command Website, 5/27/2015, http://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/manuscripts/n/president-richard-milhous-nixon-presidential-unit-citation-navy-mobile-riverine-force-task-force-117.html