DESOTO patrol
Patrol Number Patrol Dates Primary Patrol Ship SIGAD
1 14-20 April 1962 USS De Haven USN-467 ?
9 December 1964 USS Agerholm USN-467 ?
? 25 February - 12 March 1964 USS John R. Craig USN-467Y
18 28 July - 23 August 1964 USS Maddox USN-467N
19 14-21 September 1964 USS Morton USN-467P
20 1-15 October 1964 USS Richard S. Edwards USN-467R-1
21 15 October - 14 November 1964 USS Morton USN-467R-2
22 8-14 November 1964 USS Richard S. Edwards USN-467S
23 14 November - 27 December 1964 USS Richard S. Edwards USN-467R-3
24 8 - 14 February 1965 USS Towers USN-467D
25 15 February - 19 March 1965 USS Buchanan USN-467D
26 19 March - 21 April 1965 USN-27/USS Buchanan USN-467D
Patrols and SIGADs -- Declassified SIGADs
The following table lists the patrols that have been declassified . [ 3 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] DESOTO patrol mission map off Vietnam .
DESOTO patrols (DeHaven Special Operations off TsingtaO)
were patrols conducted by U.S. Navy destroyers equipped with a mobile van of signals-intelligence equipment used for intelligence collection in hostile waters. The became the namesake for these patrols. De Haven performed the first patrol off the coast of China in April 1962. The carried out the first patrol to target North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin in December 1962. These patrols were initially a response to the Chinese Communists' unexpected re-definition of their territorial waters to include all waters shoreward from lines drawn tangentially to, and between, twelve-mile circles drawn around their offshore islands. Such a declaration represented a huge expansion of their claims. This inhibited the lawful navigation of international waters as defined by US interests and increased the likelihood and frequency of formal diplomatic serious warnings issued by Beijing when any Seventh Fleet units navigated through these areas. This became a situation to which Commander Seventh Fleet felt compelled to respond. These types of patrols had previously been conducted off the coasts of the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, but are widely recognized for their role in the Vietnam War. There were three components to the purpose of these patrols. First, they would establish and maintain the presence of the
U.S. Seventh Fleet in the international waters off the China coast and later the Vietnamese coast.