About the Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument

The Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument began circa 1998 when PCF-104, the last boat of the Mark I era was spotted in a salvage yard on a Navy base in Bangor, Washington. Efforts were then undertaken to procure the boat and move it to San Diego where it could serve as a monument to those who served on these boats.

Still, without an approved location for such a monument, the veterans moved forward to save PCF-104 from salvage while negotiating for a place to put it in San Diego. About this same time, members of the Mobile Riverine Force Association (MRFA) were trying to save a Command Communications Boat (CCB) which was in disrepair in a failing patrol boat museum in the San Francisco Bay area. At different points in time the Swift Boat memorial came together with the existing PBR Memorial and the Unit Memorial Monument concept.

The overall memorial was joined by the support of the Swift Boat Sailors Association; the Mobile Riverine Force Association and the Gamewardens of Vietnam. A unified concept was submitted to the Navy and ultimately approved in a Memorandum of Understanding in June 1999.