November 4, 1969. Minesweeper MSR-7

November 4, 1969. A nighttime ambush on the upper Mekong River on the Vĩnh Tế Canal near Tan Chau City devastated Minesweeper MSR-7, killing Chief Boatswain’s Mate Charles P. Geisert and wounding four other Sailors. [254] A trio of B-40 RPGs hit the craft, knocked out its steering, and set it ablaze. [256] With little hesitation, Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Richard L. Schreifels, the captain of MSR-3, conned his boat into the hot kill zone, picked up several MSR-7 crewmen, and headed for safety. Learning that other MSR-7 crewmen had been thrown overboard during the attack, however, the petty officer reentered the kill zone and retrieved the missing men. In the words of his Silver Star citation, Schreifels’ “bold courage under fire was directly responsible for saving seven lives.” [254] HAL-3 Seawolves came to the rescue, driving off the enemy and enabling units to retrieve surviving crewmen and recover the river minesweeper. [254]
Image: A portion of Vĩnh Tế Canal in Châu Đốc, An Giang Province