USS White River (LSMR-536) (later LFR-536) was a Landing Ship Medium (Rocket) (LSMR) in service with the US Navy between 1945 and 1946, 1950 and 1956, and 1965 and 1970. As a member of the LSM(R)-501-class Landing Ship Medium (Rocket), White River was designed to provide rocket fire support to US and allied amphibious operations, although in South Vietnam she was generally used to bombard enemy formations and installations. She saw combat in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, making a large contribution to the latter, in which she fired tens to hundreds of thousands of rockets in support of American, South Vietnamese, and South Korean operations against the Viet Cong during ten tours of duty in Vietnam, 1966 through 1969. In Navy publications such as All Hands and the Navy Times, as well as in the recollections of crew, forward observers and spotters, and ground forces receiving her support, White River was reported to have the firepower of six destroyers or a cruiser. Available at the National Archives at College Park, catalog entry here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/86386 She could fire 250 rockets in a minute, plus 5-inch shells and autocannon fire, and carry a magazine of 1,500-2,000 rockets.
White River was named LSMR-536 when she was launched by the Brown Shipbuilding Company in 1945 and during her Korean War service, only acquiring the name White River in 1955 after returning to the United States. She was reclassified as an Inshore Fire Support Ship (LFR) on 14 August 1968, better reflecting her fire support role in Vietnam. She was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register in 1970 and sold for scrap that same year.
White River was among the ships exposed to the toxic Agent Orange herbicide while docked at port or conducting operations in Vietnam's inland waterways, and any crew who served on White River in Vietnam can be presumed to have been exposed to toxic herbicides without further development according to the Veterans Administration.
History
The unnamed medium landing ship (rocket) LSMR-536 was laid down on 9 June 1945 at Houston, Texas, by the Brown Shipbuilding Company; launched on 14 July 1945; and commissioned on 28 November 1945.
Departing Houston on 3 December 1945, LSMR-536 made a three-day stop at Galveston before continuing on to Charleston, SC, where she completed outfitting. She stood out of Charleston on 8 January 1946. Following shakedown training out of Little Creek, VA, the ship headed south to Florida on 7 February, arriving at Green Cove Springs on 10 February, where she was placed in reserve. On 31 July, she was decommissioned and berthed at Green Cove Springs in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Korean War After being recommissioned on 16 September 1950 LSMR-536 completed outfitting at Savannah, GA, and, on 20 November, got underway for shakedown training out of Little Creek. She ultimately departed the waters of Chesapeake Bay on 1 March 1951 for duty with the Pacific Fleet. She transited the Panama Canal on 14 March and arrived in San Diego, ten days later. There, she became a unit of LSMR Division 3 and spent the next 14 months practicing her amphibious support role off San Clemente Island.
On 12 May 1952, LSMR-536 departed San Diego in company with and three large landing support ships, and the formation steamed by way of Pearl Harbor and Midway, reaching Yokosuka, Japan, on 19 June. Later, she shifted to Sasebo to prepare for her first deployment in the combat zone off the Korean coast. She embarked upon that cruise in mid-July and arrived off Chodo, an island off the western coast of Korea in the southern portion of the Korea Bay, on the 16th. She patrolled on station at that location until 15 August when she headed back to Japan.
After visits to Sasebo and Yokosuka, LSMR-536 conducted landing exercises at Chigasaki late in September 1952. The rocket practice on Japanese territory prompted an official protest from the Japanese Foreign Ministry. She returned to Yokosuka and Sasebo, making runs between the ports during October and most of November. On 27 November, the ship cleared Sasebo to return to the vicinity of Chodo. That assignment, consisting mostly of night illumination fire, lasted until mid-December when she headed back to Japan. LSMR-536 remained at Sasebo from 19 December 1952 until 18 January 1953. She returned briefly to Chodo on 20 January and then began patrolling Taenchong Do, Paengnyong Do, and Kirin Do.
She returned to Yokosuka on 13 February 1953 and remained there until the 24th when she got underway to return home. Steaming by way of Midway and Pearl Harbor, the warship arrived in San Diego on 24 March. Following training operations off San Clemente Island, she was overhauled at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. All told, she remained on the West Coast 11 months, departing from San Diego to return to the western Pacific on 10 February 1954.
After pausing en route at Pearl Harbor and Midway, LSMR-536 reached Yokosuka on 11 March 1954. Though the ship returned to the Korean coast periodically during her second tour of duty with the 7th Fleet, combat operations played no part in her activities, because hostilities had been effectively ended by the armistice of 19 July 1953. She concluded her first peacetime deployment to East Asia when she reentered San Diego on 7 November 1954. She spent the year 1955 engaged in operations out of San Diego, primarily amphibious training off San Clemente Island. On 1 October 1955, she was renamed White River.
White River departed San Diego on 4 January 1956 and arrived at Yokosuka on 6 February. She participated in a large-scale amphibious maneuvers at Iwo Jima later that month and then returned briefly to Yokosuka before heading home on 3 March, arriving back in San Diego on 31 March to resume local operations. On 7 September 1956, she was decommissioned and berthed with the San Diego Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Vietnam War Hostilities in Asia again dictated the ship's return to service, this time in South Vietnam. White River was moved from San Diego to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in June 1965 where she underwent extensive modifications before her recommissioning there alongside sister ship on 2 October 1965. White River departed Long Beach on 30 October and headed for San Diego whence she conducted shakedown and shore bombardment drills. On 8 February 1966, she departed San Diego to rejoin the 7th Fleet in the Far East. She and her division stopped in the Hawaiian Islands for about two weeks during which they conducted additional shore bombardment drills at Kahoʻolawe Island before resuming their voyage west on 1 March. She stopped at Midway Island on 5 March and reached Yokosuka ten days later. Training and port visits in Japan occupied her next eight weeks. On 9 May, she departed her homeport of Yokosuka for the coast of South Vietnam by way of Subic Bay, Philippines.
White River arrived off the I Corps zone of operations on 25 May 1966 and immediately began gunfire support missions for Operation Mobile. Two days later, she concluded her support of Mobile and shifted to support for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 2nd Division operating near Quang Ngai. She continued to support that unit intermittently for the next two months, interrupting this duty only to provide gunfire and rockets for three other operations: Oakland; Deckhouse III, an amphibious landing; and Franklin. At the conclusion of the latter operation, she headed—via Subic Bay and Hong Kong for Yokosuka where she remained until 16 September.
After another stop at Subic Bay for emergency repairs after being caught in three storms while en route to the Philippines, White River returned to the Vietnamese coast at the end of September 1966 to continue gunfire support for the troops ashore. During the next two months, she provided call fire in the northern portion of the II Corps Tactical Zone and in the southern portion of the III Corps, totaling 17,700 rockets and 1,700 5-inch shells since 1 May. This fire destroyed over 5,000 structures, killed 207 Viet Cong (VC) and destroyed 175 sampans plus food, ammunition and petrol stores. On 30 November, she terminated her second tour of duty in Vietnamese waters and headed, via Okinawa, to Yokosuka where she spent the remainder of the year in upkeep due to persistent maintenance issues.
White River departed Japan once more on 23 January 1967. Again, she stopped at Subic Bay, first to load ammunition and then to complete some maintenance work in preparation for a year in which she would conduct operations across the entire length of South Vietnam. She returned to the coast of the I Corps tactical zone on 9 February and began delivering gunfire for Marines ashore engaged in Operation Desoto. Also during that period, White River escorted convoys of trucks near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Vietnam. She concluded that assignment on 11 February, refueled at Danang, and got underway to support Operation Deckhouse VI, an amphibious operation which was conducted by the Special Landing Force near the Sa Huynh Base in the southern reaches of the I Corps tactical zone as an extension of the Desoto operation which had been temporarily halted during the Tết holidays. She finished her part in Desoto-Deckhouse VI operations on 23 February and headed for Subic Bay where she rearmed and conducted upkeep from 24 February to 2 March. White River returned to the Vietnamese coast on 13 March and resumed shore bombardment duties in support of Operation Beacon Hill, a combined helicopter, and waterborne, amphibious assault conducted near Dong Ha. On 23 March, released from the Beacon Hill operation, she rearmed at Cam Ranh Bay, then proceeded to the III Corps tactical zone to provide gunfire support for operations near the Rung Sat Special Zone.
Relieved by on 2 April 1967, White River returned to Yokosuka on 17 April after a four-day stop at Keelung, Taiwan, en route. She made necessary repairs at Yokosuka and then headed back to Vietnam on 29 May. Following ammunition replenishment at Subic Bay, the warship arrived off the I Corps tactical zone on 11 June and conducted shore bombardments there and in the II Corps zone until 21 July when she departed Vietnamese waters to return to Subic Bay for upkeep. White River returned to the Vietnamese coast at the beginning of August and stayed there until 23 August. The ship then returned to Yokosuka at the end of the month, arriving there on 8 September and remaining until 16 October for repairs. She began her last 1967 tour of duty off the Vietnamese coast on 31 October. It lasted until 27 December and consisted almost entirely of gunfire support for forces operating in the II Corps tactical zone, during which White River fired its 50,000th rocket. At its conclusion, she was relieved by and returned to Subic Bay for upkeep.