Page 846 - Total War on PTSD

during the Vietnam era. What it was is they would only have four to five Marines and three to four Navy personnel on a RIHB (Rigid Inflatable Hull Boat) and they would patrol the small rivers and streams in Iraq and Afghanistan. These RIHBs are the same as what you will see on the side of any Navy Destroyer, Cruiser, or even on an AMPHIB (they use these as a Captain's GIG). It's the two little boats that are not the lifeboats one the larger Navy vessels. Basically, they started implementing the Coastal Riverine Force there in Iraq and Afghanistan. When 9/11 happened they realized that, in these two places, they were using the rivers and streams. So I, among others, was asked if I wanted to go through the pipeline and get trained for Riverine, which was basically Special Warfare Combatant Crewmember or SWCC for short and I would be considered Expeditionary Forces (basically port patrol in foreign ports). We would also be able to do Visiting, Boarding, Search and Seizure (VBSS), Military Police, and Medical Extraction. So, I ended up going through the training pipeline and then 9/11 happened. After 9/11 happened I was still on the USS CUSHING (DD-985) stationed out of Yokosuka, Japan and they relieved me from that command when I was in Bahrain, and sent me to a couple of other commands, and we had a full unit of COMM Group One (RIVRON) that started in 2003 (2006 officially). What we were doing assignment wise was hot medic extractions whether it was medical or intelligence. If it was a high-level Taliban insurgent and the Seals captured them, and during the capture they were injured in some way, then the Seals would turn the person over to us, and we would medically stabilize and transport that person to an appropriate site. We took care of the logistics assistance. We worked with Seal Team Four and the 10th Mountain Division Army, and a Para-Rescue Unit that was trained out of New Mexico.
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