Expeditionary· Vietnam War
Op END SWEEP
Operation End Sweep was the United States Navy and Marine effort to clear the mines that American forces had sown in the harbor at Haiphong and other North Vietnamese coastal waters, carried out as part of the obligations the United States accepted under the agreement that ended its direct involvement in the war. Marine helicopter squadrons played a central role, their aircraft towing minesweeping sleds across the mined waters to detonate or neutralize the mines and reopen the approaches to the North's principal port. It was a technical and demanding operation conducted in a tense post-ceasefire environment, but it was not a combat action, the work being the methodical and hazardous business of mine clearance rather than fighting. End Sweep represented an unusual chapter for the Marines, a commitment fulfilling the terms of the peace settlement, and it marked one of the last operational roles played by Marine forces in the waters off Vietnam as American involvement wound down.
Record no. 714