During my 22 months aboard Albatross, we performed three "Operation Market Time" patrols as active members of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club. These patrols off the coast of South Vietnam lasted 6 or 7 weeks. This was tedious work -- zig-zagging back and forth, night and day, in an effort to track merchant vessels of all shapes and sizes entering or leaving the mouth of the Saigon River. Up river, other sailors on smaller, fast and nimble PCFs and PBRs were doing the really dirty, sweaty work -- darting in and out of harm's way. We couldn't help but wonder about their safety and the risks they were taking all the time.