armored boat Thursday

this week for Thursday we have boats instead of ships. these are riverine assault craft as used in the Viet Nam War. created from the LCM-6 medium landing craft of the USN there were 4 types of boat. the ATC or armored troop carrier known as Tango Boats, the ATC{H} with a forward helicopter landing/take off deck, the CCB or command and communications boat and the monitor with a different bow and a forward 40mm cannon revolving mount. these boats were 56.5ft. long powered with two 225hp Detroit Diesel engines and had .25in of armor plating in strategic places. they also had standoff armor of steel rods to explode RPG and recoilless rifle rounds before they could hit the solid armor or superstructure of the boats. in the pictures you can see on some of the boats slat like constructions along the sides of the decks and superstructures, this is the standoff armor. these boats were operated by USN crews. the armament of these craft was typically a couple of 20mm cannon, a couple of M2 12.7mm heavy machine guns, four 7.62mm M60 general purpose machine guns and a 40mm grenade launcher. plus the personal weapons of the crew. the monitors also had a 40mm cannon forward. this armament could vary somewhat though. the first picture is a monitor in leading position. the forward 40mm mount and rounded bow are very visible. next picture is an ATC{H} with helicopter deck forward. third is a Tango Boat unloading troops along the bank of a river. the bows of these boats still had the dropping ramp for loading and unloading of supplies and troops. fourth we have a Tango Boat just cruising. here we can see the 20mm revolving mount on the superstructure and also the standoff armor is very visible. last picture is another ATC{H} with the helicopter deck. service in one of these vessels would have been my next duty station in the USN if i had not had a bad motorcycle wreck and gotten sent to the hospital for a year. as it was i got a medical discharge when i was released from the hosp. was i lucky? who knows?