Revisiting the Past
Channel: U.S. Navy
Date: 2013-11-08

When Storekeeper 2nd Class Ray Brudder reported aboard river repair ship USS Krishna (ARL-38) during the Vietnam War, he wasn't sure what he would encounter. 

"It was the only time I was attached to a ship," said Brudder. "I flew in from Saigon on helicopter and landed on a barge that was tied up alongside the ship."

Brudder's primary job was maintaining the ship's inventory.  But in June 1970, with less than a month aboard, Krishna was ordered to Nam Can to support operation "Seafloat" on the Cua Lon River.  

One night, while on the Cua Lon River, Brudder's primary job changed. A suicide bomber blew a hole into Krishna. Survival became everyone's only job.

"The night that it happened, after that, it was like, they can't do anything else to me. I mean they've already sent me here. They've already tried to blow up our ship," he said. "What else could they do to us?"