Brown Water Navy Vietnam Veteran reconnects with shipmate after 56 years!

Editor’s note: The sharing of any non-VA information does not constitute an endorsement of products and services on the part of VA. Veterans should verify the information with the organization offering.

The following is an account from Brown Water Navy Vietnam Veteran Rich LaChance, who reconnected with his Assault Support Patrol Boat Coxwain after 56 years with the help of Togetherweserved.com. To find and reconnect with your own service buddies, visit the TWS Buddy Finder.

In 1968-69, I was the engineer on Assault Support Patrol Boat (A112-4) assigned to USN Mobile Riverine Force Task Force-117 (TF-117), part of the Brown Water Navy stationed in the Mekong Delta, S. Vietnam. Chris Emerson was our Coxswain and Radioman, Mike Salaba was our 50 Cal. gunner and Charles Ferdinandsen was our boat captain. My nickname was “Lucky,” probably because of my last name—LaChance, which is French word for luck.

The daily routine was pretty much the same, which was to escort the Armored Troop Carriers transporting Army 9^th Division troops to the battle zones and wait to get shot at.

One night we were patrolling with an RVN boat and started to receive incoming fire from the beach. Our boat was hit with an RPG round and Mike Salaba took a shoulder wound. When I looked around, the RVN boat we were patrolling with had completely stopped after we got hit. So we turned around and went back to tow the boat out of the line of fire. When I stood up to throw them a rope, there were green tracers all around me, and that’s when I was wounded.

Living on a 51’ long x 14’ wide boat you can imagine how close you become with your shipmates as well as with other boat crews. Emerson and I used to play a lot of cards when we had downtime, and we went together to Thailand on our R&R days. We drank a lot of beer and Canadian Club and enjoyed the local attractions.

After my discharge in 1969, I lost touch with Emerson, along with my other crew members. I was always hoping that we might find each other again.

I joined the Together We Served Navy website in 2022 and, out of curiosity, entered Chris Emerson’s name into the Search feature just on the off chance he might also be there. Imagine my excitement to see Chris Emerson’s name listed along with his contact information! After about a day of figuring what I would say after 56 years, I dialed his number and got an answering machine. I left the following message: “Plain Genius Alpha Four, this is your engineer, Lucky,” along with my phone number.

He called back about 20 minutes later. He said he’d been trying to find me and gave up when Mike Salaba, our 50 Cal. gunner told him he thought I had already passed. Salaba had since died—I never knew. Emerson and I made plans to meet in Washington, D.C., a few weeks later.

I was the first to arrive at Ronald Reagan airport. He called to say he and his wife were still on the tarmac waiting for a gate. My wife and I were waiting in the baggage claim area when I heard someone say, “Lucky.” I turned around to see Emerson and his wife standing there. After 56 years it was a rather emotional moment, especially for him, thinking I was dead for about 15 years. He did say that if I hadn’t said the radio call sign for our boat he may not have called back, thinking it might have been a prank call. Our reunion was incredible. We went to Murphy’s pub and spent several hours recalling old memories, some which made us laugh and some that were a little hard to take and brought on a few tears.