Sailors in the Special Warfare Boat Operator (SB) rating have completed a roughly eight-and-a-half-month training regimen (not including Navy boot camp) are assigned to one of three Special Boat Teams (SBTs)—and both the training program and the SBTs are direct descendants of the “Brown Water Navy” Naval operations forged in the rivers and deltas of Vietnam.
In addition to the Boat Support Unit One that was created to support Navy SEAL operations, Naval Special Warfare expanded its riverine and coastal operations significantly over the seven years in which it conducted operations in Vietnam. Eventually, over 700 craft and 38,000 personnel operating and supporting them were involved in littoral and river operations. They were divided into three Task Forces: 115, 116, and 117. TF 115 was tasked with Coastal Surveillance, and its crews were trained in Coronado, California at the Naval Amphibious Base. TFs 1165 and 117, on the other hand, conducted river patrols and assaults, and the methods and strategies they learned in the River Assault Craft training program—counter-insurgency, SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) tactics, riverine navigation and warfare—form the basis of the SB rating’s Basic Crewman and Crewman Qualification Training.
After the Vietnam War, the three task forces were reorganized into stateside Riverine/Coastal Divisions and Squadrons in order to retain the expertise of these highly-experienced “Brown Water” boat operators in support of SEAL missions. They were subsequently assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Groups and re-designated Special Boat Squadrons and Special Boat Units—the direct forerunners of the three Special Boat Teams currently operating under Naval Special Warfare Command.
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