Riverine: A Brown-Water Sailor in the Delta, 1967

During the Vietnam War the U.S. Navy established a river force code-named Operation Game Warden whose mission was to deny Mekong Delta waterways to the Viet Cong. For the four-man crews in their 31-foot fiberglass boats powered with twin diesels and armed with 50-caliber machine guns, the action was almost continuous. Sheppard, who commanded one of the gunboats in 1967, here paints a picture of riverine warfare heavy in blood, prisoner torture and grotesque corpses. He refers to ``our slum-clearance efforts,'' for instance, and describes a burning village as ``a frighteningly beautiful display of orgasmic flaming destruction.'' He has the grace, however, to note that he found killing ``a depressing business.'' Photos. (May)