An avid member of the Naval Sea Corps Cadets in Connecticut as a boy, Gary Grahn enlisted in the Navy in 1967. He served primarily as a radioman with a five-man crew on the 50-foot Alpha 111-7 in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Because it was such a small crew, they were all cross-trained to do each other’s jobs, so he was also a coxswain and an ammo reloader. He describes operations up at Parrot’s Beak in Cambodia, including the first time they were ambushed and hit with a dud B40 rocket. He tells the harrowing story of the rescue of the crew members from a monitor, MIKE 111-1, which was sunk in March of 1969. He admits suffering from PTSD after the war, and coming to terms with it. “And now I carry a pistol where I can legally, because I can't carry a cop.”

Key Words: Operation GIANT SLINGSHOT, Parrot’s Beak, Mobile Riverine Force, brown-water Navy, river rat, PBR, Game Warden,

Key Names: Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock