With the encouragement of American naval advisors, the general staff established the billet of Chief of Naval Operations, which handled the administration, if not the operational control, of the naval service. Initially, the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Armed Forces, an army officer, controlled the Navy Staff and its chief. ![]() The organizational changes to the Vietnam Navy during those two decades reflected the evolution in the service's mission and responsibilities. But, during that time the VNN, with the assistance of American advisors, became one of the world's largest navies with 42,000 men and women and 672 amphibious ships and craft, 20 mine warfare vessels, 450 patrol craft, 56 service craft, and 242 junks. “I would much rather, frankly, see us be leaner and meaner,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told the Aspen Security Forum last week, “than keep force structure that I can’t fully man.The Vietnam Navy (VNN) came into existence, fought its battles, and faded into history in a short span of twenty years (1955-1975). The war in Ukraine has the service eyeing ways to reorganize some of its combat teams into smaller, more lethal units that make smarter use of advances in drones and other uncrewed systems while investing more in missile defenses. But today, the Army has, if anything, too many special warfare units. A force that tilted heavily toward armor, artillery, infantry and aviation at the end of the Vietnam War has in the half-century since become lighter, quicker and oriented more toward Special Operations forces. But its sheer size - nearly a half-million active-duty troops and an even larger number of National Guard and reserve soldiers - makes the service ripe for restructuring. ![]() Though the recruiting shortfalls will also leave the Navy and Air Force short of their goals this year, they have hit hardest at the Army, the nation’s largest force.
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