| Special Boat Unit ELEVEN, located at Mare Island, California
was established
on 1 October 1978, and was charged with maintaining the Navy's and U.S.
Special Operations Command's expertise in riverine warfare.
Originally
established as Coastal River Division ELEVEN in June 1972, Special Boat
Unit ELEVEN is the proud successor to the Naval Inshore Operations
Training
Center (NIOTC). From its base at Mare Island and throughout the
sloughs
and waterways of the Napa and Sacramento River Deltas, NIOTC trained
over
15,000 American and foreign students in riverine warfare between 1966
and
1972. Of the five Special Boat Units now in the Navy, only
Special
Boat Unit ELEVEN and Special Boat Unit TWENTY-TWO, located in New
Orleans,
Louisiana, continue to exclusively train for riverine warfare.
This
type of warfare requires the use of heavily armed, shallow draft, high
speed boats capable of interdicting, pursuing and striking the enemy in
his camps located along the coastal bays, inland rivers and waterways.
Since March 1988, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN has reported
operationally
to the U.S. Special Operations Command and its naval component:
Commander,
Naval Special Warfare Command. Special Boat Unit ELEVEN is a
subordinate
unit of Commander, Special Boat Squadron ONE. In addition,
Special
Boat Unit ELEVEN liaisons with Naval Reserve Readiness Command Region
TWENTY-TWO
and Commander Naval Surface Reserve Force for reserve matters.
Until
recently, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN operated and maintained over 24
craft
manned and supported by 150 active and selected reserve personnel,
making
Special Boat Unit Eleven the largest Naval Special Warfare Naval
Reserve
Force command. Using the "ONE NAVY CONCEPT," these active and
reserve
sailors trained, operated and deployed together. Responsible for
the Pacific and Southwest Asian operational theaters, Special Boat Unit
ELEVEN routinely conducted advanced training deployments to Thailand
and
recently conducted the first Navy to Navy training in the Kingdom of
Cambodia
in over twenty-two years.
Additionally, SPECIAL BOAT UNIT ELEVEN provided disaster
relief in 1986
by rescuing and evacuating citizens of the flooded Russian River
Valley.
Beginning in August 1987, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN supported Operation
EARNEST WILL by providing a total of eight PBR Detachments until its
conclusion
in August 1989. Following the devastating Loma Prieta Earthquake
in 1989, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN provided two weeks of around
the-clock
water taxi service to over 2,900 military and civilian personnel
between
Naval Station Treasure Island and Naval Supply Center Oakland.
During
Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM, from 1990 to 1991, Special
Boat
Unit ELEVEN mobilized reserves to provide 24-hour waterborne security
to
vital munitions loading operations at Concord Naval Weapons
Station.
Each spring from 1985-1995, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN provided training
and orientation in Riverine Warfare to over 50 total foreign naval
officers
as part of the International Riverine and Coastal Operations
course.
Each October, Special Boat Unit ELEVEN participated in San Francisco's
Fleet Week festivities and performed numerous demonstrations at many
other
local, civic and military celebrations throughout the year.
With the disestablishment of Special Boat Unit ELEVEN the
title of The
"Brown Water Navy" lived on with its sister unit, Special Boat Unit
TWENTY-TWO.
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